Plein Air to Studio

   I decided to use the "Apple Orchard-May" plein air study (from the last blog) as a reference for a pastel painting. It has been awhile since I painted an orchard scene in pastel, especially one that is back lit.
   Since I was not satisfied with the "back lit" effect on the plein air study, I also used reference photos when working on the pastel in the studio. I wanted to achieve a bright sunlit morning, so I accentuated the tree shadows and tried to keep the core of the apple trees darker than the edges. The blossoms in shadow had to be a blue/purple mixed with a blue/green. The blossoms hit by the sunlight were indicated with a warmer tint, even using a warm peach in a few areas.

Apple Orchard - May II, pastel, 12x16, $800 
Framed with a wide warm silver frame.

Thank you for viewing my work!
This painting will be on exhibit at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair, June 7-8.

 See all of my upcoming shows on my new website under Events.

Orchard Blossoms II

  The weather here has finally turned and we had beautiful weather for plein air painting this past week! I was able to paint in the orchards three times this week and hopefully again next week unless the forecasted rain puts and end to them.

   With each orchard painting, I felt like I was improving. Painting trees with white blossoms is more difficult than it seems. The trees are a slightly darker value than the blue morning sky. The core of the tree is a darker value than the sunlit grass on a flat plane of ground. The white blossoms are really not white but should appear so in the painting. I used cool and warm tints.

Apple Orchard Reflections, oil, 8x10, $250 unframed

The subject of an orchard and reflections in a pond. The tree on the right was not so pretty, so I used my artistic license and substituted another.

 Another morning, I tackled this difficult subject of a back lit orchard. 

The corner of an apple orchard, backlit in the morning light.

The start of my blocking in the large masses. I was working on the  apple tree masses when I took this photo, trying to figure out the right tone.

Apple Orchard - May, oil, 11x14, $400 uf

This study will translate well into a pastel painting!

Thank you for viewing my paintings! Please contact me if you are interested.
To see more plein air work see my website: www.KalinowskiFineArt.com