Experiment with "Orchards"

I went to Yakima again for July 4th weekend. I enjoyed local fireworks last night. Then I drove around orchards near Sunnyside, Granger, Zillah this morning. I couldn't determine where to paint. Then finally picked this spot along Konnowac Pass Rd.

I had had this idea quite a while, painting orchards. As I expected, I had a problem getting perspective right. Then how to paint rows of apple trees. Also subtle color changes from an orchard to another. Some might be grapes, or apricots. Or just a different kind of apples. This time I made them enough dark though.

Background hill is coming along

Background hill started coming along. Using reddish purple I gradually adjusted the shapes of the shadows, and filled lighter part with tilted colors. At this moment I still need to keep pushing values. But in the end, I'll fade the hill away to put focus on the poplars, which is the next part I'll work on. I want to put more lights on the part.

Another Yakima Visit

Saturday, about 9PM, technically 1h 45min before summer officially starts, I was approaching Yakima from south on I-82. Oldies like Supremes, Marvin Gay, and so on, were on the radio. I lost consciousness about who and where I am for a moment....just amazed by the scenery.
Next morning, I drove up Canyon Road, SR-821, toward Ellensburg. And set up my easel along Yakima river. The trees' green on the left side was showing a good contrast with the dried grass's yellow, which I couldn't recreate well on the canvas. Ironically that was why I picked this spot instead of rocky canyon views. Also, I should have made it darker as you can easily see. I spent about two hours and a half there until noon. It was not hot but breezy. I felt even chilly.

Start with "Yakima River"

22"x30". Started with very thin layers to draw the shapes. Since the photo was taken in my dark basement (as usual) it's difficult to see the values. I know. But I need to push values to make dark darker.

I'll go to Yakima this weekend to paint another scene.

Started working on this again

Due to demand of my day job, I couldn't work on any pieces a while. I finally did it tonight. I flipped the canvas back to the normal orientation. I tried more reddish purple on the hill. I still can't decide what colors I want to use for the hill. Only idea I have now is I want to make the colors a little more reddish to keep harmony with the colors of the trees. It would cause them to go away from the real colors I saw. But so be it.

Flip side of view

To paint the reflection of the populars against the river, I flipped the canvas upside down. But what I realized was the values of the darker part were not dark enough at the bottom of the trees. I worked on those areas and started changing colors on the hill side. Maybe I should start putting lights to decide the colors.

Started going field again

I haven't gone any field trips for a while. I felt I needed to go out again. So I did it this memorial day holiday weekend. To avoid traffic jams, I drove to Yakima last night and stayed at Motel6. Then drove east to find a spot to paint this morning.

It's between Granger and Sunnyside along Emerald-Granger Rd. Yakima River makes a sharp turn and forks there. It's inevitable that any landscape painters trespass someone's property. I set up my easel just outside of the entrance gate of a property and next to a mail box. When I just finished painting, a pickup truck pulled over at the gate and a man asked me what I was doing. Fortunately he didn't have a shot-gun but his wife in the passenger seat. She liked my painting. I apologized and left there right away.

When I was working on the trees, top part, I felt I got a way wet-in-wet would work. The key was, again, the shadows. Shadows need to be dark, which provide contrast with lighted part and make it impressive. I didn't spend enough time to finish the bottom, sagebrush, part. I ran out of patience.

I'm thinking I'll keep going Yakima Valley this summer. Last one year or so I kept going Wenatchee Valley. It's time for a change.