I have been organizing my studio (and well, my daughter’s closet, and the top shelf in my closet, and all the other places I have paintings stashed) and came across these two paintings. It took me a while to realize that they are both of the same exact scene.
The one on the left was done first. It’s 8″x10″ oil on canvas, it was painted plein air late in the afternoon as a storm was coming in. I remember feeling a few raindrops and hearing thunder while painting. The painting on the right was done a year later. It’s a larger painting, 12″x16″ oil on canvas. It was a very different kind of day. I painted it on the way back from spending time with my daughter and son-in-law in Austin. I met my friend Myrrh at this location halfway between Houston and Austin that day, she’s a really good sport!
Below is a photo of me painting the older (left) painting so you can see what the scene actually looks like. I like to think that a year later I had gained some confidence in my plein air painting and was using bigger brush strokes, more paint and even painting on larger canvases. A 12″x16″ canvas is a lot more to cover than an 8″x10″!
It was a good experience to paint the same scene twice, even though it wasn’t planned. Might be a good practice once in the while.
