"Winter Sunrise -- Kensington" -- 2 plein air oil studies -- Margie Guyot

I'm still working on moving to my new house up north and have been unable to do any painting the past month or so. But I wanted to keep my blogsite up and running. Here are 2 little plein air studies I did last winter out at my favorite Detroit-area metropark. Both were painted on 9x12" birch panels. Every winter they lower the water level of Kent Lake to prevent damage to the boat docks. What you're seeing is mostly snow-covered ice with a small channel of open water. Sometimes these open water areas are filled solid with swans, canada geese or ducks.

I did one and immediately painted another one from the same spot. That scene was so interesting with the shapes and shifting colors, I could have stayed there all day, painting the same scene over & over. I'm sure all the paintings would have been different.

I believe the first one I did is the one on the right, in the pinkish tones. Notice the fog in the distance?

The second one was after the pink sunrise was giving way to a clear day, with tones of pale viridian. It was so hard to tear myself away from this spot!

I'm really looking forward to painting a lot of plein air studies up in my new home. It's in the Traverse City-Charlevoix area of Michigan, which is very hilly, along the coastline of Lake Michigan. It's also in the snow belt, but snow is fun to paint, too.