That time of year, the weather is to say the least very unpredictable at the moment - so my plein air painting visits to Arlington Court have to be 'adapted' to say the least. On my journey there, I went through mist/fog (again) - to dry - to sunny and back to fog - then it even showered. Finally, on arriving at
Arlington
it was too cold to be standing about painting.
There is a back-up plan though. I was able to set up my easel in the Exhibition/bookshop room, at least it was dry and reasonably warm (I kept my coat on).
I had previously taken a photo of the scene I wanted to paint - plus I have done some little 'studies' of the scene...
here's the reference
(glad I took this photo - although I don't adhere to it strictly for the painting, it does at least give me the basic elements I need)
My previous little studies...
these help a lot
I recently bought a leather-bound sketchbook with a lots of pages, looking forward to using this - and I also prepared all the pages too - some with pva and some with gesso - some of those pages I left as is, but others I have toned with various colours....the idea is, when I have a scene that needs a particular background tone, I'm ready to use it.
Click the image below - a quick clip of the pages in this sketchbook ↴
and I've already started using it
These all helped with the painting yesterday...
this is a close-up of it on the easel (the clips on the side are where it was attached to the pochade/easel)
I've added a fuller version to my Youtube channel - so if you want to see this just click
this link ←For now the painting is drying, which will take a week or so - then I'll decide what need tweaking.