IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

www.cecelialyden.com

oil on panels

6x8

9 x12

Claire Carnell, however, made it easier to produce greens by demonstrating, in her Green Workshop, how to mix many shades and tints of greens used in landscape painting. Creating the dreaded color charts, Claire showed us how to mix marvelous greens using ultramarine and thalo blue, cad yellow medium, cad lemon yellow, cad red light, alizarin crimsen and white.
After mixing the greens, we painted from 2 photos that Claire knew contained the greens we had been mixing. We painted those scenes and compared and critiqued each other's works. It was 2 days of learning, painting, accomplishing, and fun.

ITALIAN GARDENS STATUARY www.cecelialyden.com

oil/linen

11x14

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Our plein air paintout at the Felicita Resort in Harrisburg proved to be very challenging. Our first date was rained out. Our rainout date was forcasted to be rained out also. We sneaked in the paintout on a Monday with rain predicted for the rest of week.

The Italian Gardens is one of several different landscapes at Felicita. It is quite large consisting of 3 large tiers of fomal landscaping, reflecting pools with statues and fountains, pottery, arbors, walks, nooks and crannies. I chose these two figures, with the flowers and greenery and the large planter-like bowl. It was difficult and I did not finish it that morning. I was going to return with others in a couple of days, but an unfortunate event prevented me from doing so. I finished it in studio from the photos I took that day. I did a lot of work on it in studio, so I can not classify it as a plein air painting.

DAY'S END ON THE BAY

oil/linen

16x20

www.cecelialyden.com

This August, I spent a few days in Annapolis, helping my daughter after her hip replacement. I did not bring my paints, but luckily I brought my camera. Sitting on her deck, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, where the South River empties, I witnessed the most glorious sunset. I was so delighted to catch its color changes and fleeting cloud formations. There would have been no chance of my painting that supreme moment on the spot. So with the memory and awe of that scene still with me, I painted it in my studio from my photo.

RED HOT SUNRISE BY Cecelia Lyden

OIL ON STRETCHED CANVAS

8X10

www.cecelialyden.com

lyden1819@comcast.net

A recent spell of oppressively hot weather and an upcoming art exhibit with a "Red Hot" theme motivated me to revisit the photos I took of these truly amazing sunrises on the Florida coast a past winter. The sky kept rapidly changing and the sun soon appeared on the horizon, so I felt fortunate that I was able to capture so many different color changes. There seemed be a beautiful sunrise almost every morning we were there. Two months of mornings provided me with scores of photos. Also, I am an early riser, otherwise I would have missed all of this.

Any of the paintings I did of these sunrises were done from my photos.Plein air was out of the question for me--too dark and the sky was changing too quickly. I must confess that I might have thought the colors were phony, if I had not seen the sunrises myself. I'm looking forward to returning to Florida this winter--for more dramatic skies.

HERBS AND SPICES By Cecelia Lyden

oil on stretched canvas
22x28

This brick building, bright red in the brilliant sunshine, is the home to The Rosemary House, a fresh herb and spice business that has been in Mechanicsburg, on the same street for decades. I painted this from a photo I took around the 80's. I loved the warm color of the brick and the arched passageway, which reminded me so much of the brick arched passageways in many Dutch genre paintings.

OTHER PAINTINGS DONE THIS SUMMER

HOT, HAZY VISTA

oil on stretched canvas

8x10

The weather forecast called for warm temperatures in the 90's. Our group was heading out for the Dickinson College Farm in Boiling Springs. I was a little relunctant to go because, I imagined myself sitting in a sun drenched field with no shade, inhaling ripe farm aromas and swatting buzzing insects. Thes are not the pleasures of plein air painting, but I had not been out much this month, so I dressed in white, light-weight clothing, and armed myself with a really high number sun lotion, a can of deep woods"bug spray and bottled water.

When I arrived, I noticed that Claire had on heavy jeans. I learned that she was trying to protect herself from ticks and poison ivy. I was tempted to bolt. I am highly susceptible to poison ivy and the thought of a tick boring itself in my leg grossed me out.

I stayed and we drove our cars up a bumpy, narrow tractor path to get a better view of the beautiful mountains, tilled fields and trees.

We found a perfect spot in the shade overlooking the fields and mountains. The serene setting coupled with a gentle breeze that kept us comfortable for nearly 3 hours made this a very pleasant paintout. I was working on a small canvas, so by the time the sun found me, I was ready to leave. I packed up everything, climbed in my air-condtioned car and drove home.