MECHAANICSBURG WATER WORKS www.cecelialyden.com

oil/linen

16x20

I found this idyllic spot while driving around one morning looking for an "idyllic" spot to paint. It was about 18 minutes from my home-a home I have lived in since 1969-and I had never seen it before-been out much, Cecelia? I came back the next 3 afternoons- three rare, warmish , rainfree afternoons and painted it.

A SPLASH OF FALL COLOR by Cecelia Lyden www.cecelialyden.com

oil/canvas

11x14

http://www.cecelialyden.com/

Squeezed between a cold, rainy day on Thursday and a cold, snowy day on Saturday was a cold, partially sunny day on Friday. Our plein air group decided to seize that day and we headed for Willow Park. I shivered for most of the time we were there, but we managed to find a spot of color by the creek and, once again it was so nice to be out painting with friends.

CLOUDS REVISITED www.cecelialyden.com

Lately my "head has been in the clouds." Clouds make such beautiful, interesting paintings. Sunrises and sunsets are much more dramatic when there are clouds in the sky. And there have been so many cloud-filled days this summer and fall; it has been difficult to avoid them, when painting outdoors.

It is a challenge to paint shifting, moving clouds en plein aire. Not only are their shapes rapidly changing, but also the varying lights and shadows that their movement produces is difficult to capture. For those reasons, most of my paintings of clouds have been done in studio-all from photos I have taken. It helps not to have to deal with lights and darks changing throughout the painting, while attempting to see and record the different values and colors in the clouds themselves. I try to keep my brushwork loose in order to convey those fleeting and changing shapes. I also attempt to convey the sense of cloud movement across the sky.

The skies in the paintings above were in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Florida, and Arizonia.

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

http://www.cecelialyden.com/

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.