Chappell Hill, Texas plein air painting

My friend Myrrh Haslam and I drove west of Houston an hour to the area of Chappell Hill and Magnolia for a day of painting. I left my house at 6:30 a.m., met Myrrh in between our homes, and off we went! When we started getting into rolling hills we got off the freeway and drove around til we came upon a horse farm! We set up right on the side of the road, which wasn’t very busy and painted in the shade of my car. It was early enough and the sun was low so that worked out. The horses on the other hand, were not as cooperative. Too much moving around! But we both did paint the barn, a windmill and some other little structures. I was feeling fresh so I grabbed an 8″x10″, sometimes a challenge for a plein air painting, but it worked out just fine.

It took the horses a while to come over, or maybe they finally noticed us, just as we finished and were packing up our supplies. What beautiful creatures.
After driving around for 20 minutes, a stop at a Shell station for a snack and bathroom, and taking many photos along the way, we came over a hill and saw this wonderful old barn in the distance. We pulled over immediately and set up our easels.
                                     
Here is a photo of the way I started this painting. I decided on the placement of everything and then painted in my darks to see how the design/composition would look.
Feeling confident after that last 8″x10″, I grabbed a 10″x12″ canvas this time. That doesn’t always pay off though, but this time it was just the perfect size. The light changes quickly and it takes longer to paint this larger size. I image with some practice though I’ll get faster, or better, or both, hopefully.
 
8″x8″ Distant Hills         Raffle Give-Away

By now it was lunchtime but feeling motivated to paint as much as we could, we forged on to find our next spot. We found this third spot not too far from the highway, almost hidden by trees along the farm road except for an opening and gate for the farmer. So we pulled off and set up with this beautiful view in front of us. We brought along chairs and had our lunch overlooking this view.

We found some shades next to some trees and I had my umbrella. But the sun was changing quickly, it was getting close to 2:00 in the afternoon.  We had our eyes on the time because we wanted to get back before the traffic around Houston got too bad. But we decided we had time for one more quick study. Ha! I painted for 20 minutes and then wiped off my efforts on a small 6″x8″. My mind was too tired from all the painting to make good decisions. Myrrh finished her painting though and we packed up and headed home.
What a day! An eleven hour painting adventure. I sure felt it the next day too. I remember reading how Scott Christensen, a very talented and recognized landscape painter, once went to Ireland and painted for 3 weeks. And do you know how many paintings he completed in 3 weeks? Eighty-two paintings! With some time for getting to Ireland and back, that comes to 4 or 5 paintings a day. Even if he paints fast, there still needs to be time for finding a location, eating and potty breaks. I don’t know how he did it but I admire him. Amazing! So that’s what I tell myself sometimes, “well, if Scott Christensen can paint 82 in 3 weeks, surely I can . . . . .” get out of bed at 6:00 a.m. to go paint two paintings, or set up for a third painting, or whatever. It’s kind of a catch all motivation phrase.

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