CAT

oil on panel

12" x 16"

This is a plein air I did last summer but just now got around to finishing it off in the studio.  Most of my plein air paintings are completed in the studio since the field paintings look more like sketches and are very rough.  Besides, I'm a studio painter by nature and find I have more control over my work that way.

This painting came about by accident.  I was taking a plein air class and we were out on the shore in East Palo Alto, all the students fanning out to find the ideal landscape to paint.  I saw this bulldozer in the middle of a field and was immediately taken by the way the blade reflected the sky colors.  It was beautiful and I spent the next two hours "roughing it out".  My fellow students thought it was amusing that I chose to paint this as a subject, but a lot of the time I'm more interested in what is inhabiting the landscape rather that the landscape itself.