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I love this painting. Sometimes you just know when you "got it right." I was out in a little town called Flintstone (believe it or not) outside of Cumberland, Maryland, painting the stunning hills and mountain landscape of Western Maryland for the Mountain Maryland Plein Air Competition. I had already painted two pretty unsuccessful paintings that day, it was uncharacteristically hot & muggy for a mountain area, and I had just spent a frustrating hour trying to set up a new umbrella kit rig to shade my pochade box from the blazing early afternoon sun. All of this should have contributed to high level of frustration and perhaps a bad painting, but it didn't. I loved the colors, the scene, and the hole through the old barn. A lot of artists don't like to paint around midday, but I like the high contrast of light and shade you get on shrubbery in that light--it gives you a great chance to mix interesting greens ranging from yellow to almost black. This painting was done on a pinkish red ground that shows through in spots and sets up a nice vibration with all the local greens we see in summer in the Mid-Atlantic region. And there's nothing like painting a "good one" to revive your flagging energy in a plein air competition.
This painting is one of 50 paintings accepted into the Maryland Federation of Art "Tenth American Landscape Exhibition," a national show.