Happy Birthday to Edward Mitchell Bannister! He was born on November 2, 1828 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. St. Andrews is a place I have been to many times to take painting workshops in the early 2000s at Sunbury Shores Art & Nature Center, taught by Sharon Yates. I didn't know that Bannister was born there before I started this copy, nor was I aware that he was a Black artist who was denied a formal art education because of his race. He moved to New England and was active in the abolitionist movement in Boston, and later moved to Providence, Rhode Island. He was one of the founders of the Rhode Island School of Design.
Today I lightened the clouds by scumbling over them with white. To my eye, I got pretty close to the color of the original clouds, but this photo makes them look very different. I think because the painting on the wall is lit by spotlights, and my painting on the easel is lit by the skylight, with the iPhone camera exaggerating the yellow in the clouds in the original painting. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway!
So I lightened up the clouds, and then I worked on the hillside, adding more yellow flowers, and also adding more dark values in the foreground and in the trees. I fiddled with the water some, but ultimately I felt like I was just noodling and not really getting much done. So I decided to stop.
I thoroughly enjoyed working on this copy, because it's exactly the kind of scene I like to paint when I paint outdoors. I hope the experience, especially the clouds, help me with my plein-air work. I'm going out painting tomorrow, at the State Arboretum of Virginia. I hear the gingko grove is a magical place to paint, even though most of the leaves blew off this week.
Click the images for a larger view
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