Indifferent weather

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.