Plein Air - Wade Lake, MT

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6x6", oil on canvas panel (sorry for the glare. again)

I was hoping to try to capture this beautiful turquoise lake (and even try a sunset!) in paint during our camping trip this weekend, but we got a pretty good rainfall in the evening ;) So the little bit of lake peeking out from behind this stump will have to do, ha.  I quickly sketched this in about an hour while my baby was sleeping--and my sister and her husband set up their camp chairs behind me and made a rather attentive audience while I was painting this, which was sort of interesting (for me, not them, ha ;). 

But seriously, I had never seen such turquoise blue water in a lake. It looks like the Caribbean (but don't be fooled--the water is COLD). My sister discovered this hidden gem during an underwater modeling shoot and fell in love with it. Anyway, we had a great weekend hiking with the kids, paddle boarding, getting dirtier than I like to recall, toasting marshmallows while chatting over a sparks-flying fire (one spark actually burned a nickel-size hole in my blanket!), and all that other good camping stuff (let's not forget the Montana stars!). All I can say is I got pretty lucky when it comes to family--both the one I grew up with and the one I've grown. I'm glad I have so many wonderful people to tromp through this crazy life with. I might not always be the best at making new friends, but if I can at least cling to the people I've got I will probably make it through alright :)

Check out the gradient of blues behind those trees! 



Bad photo--the light had moved a lot by the time I snapped this. And I narrowed the stump a little so I could fit both the lake peeking through the trees and the stump in the square format (yep, it actually was intentional this time ;). Plein air painting is always really tricky, but I like it anyway. Working from photos just doesn't compare to studying the real thing from life--my brain works much better in real time :)

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