"Frozen Lake -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas -- 12x24" -- Margie Guyot

We finally had a balmy spell -- up above freezing -- and partly sunny, so I decided to take my gear down to the edge of Lake Michigan and do a painting. I love doing frozen lake paintings, even though I get pretty chilled doing so. I had on longjohns, smart wool socks, polartec pants & a heavyweight down coat. And gloves with the fingertips cutout, plus my trusty zebra hat. And special snowboots rated down to zero degrees. That wind coming off the ice can get pretty cold!

It was so cold my Soltek easel had one leg that was frozen shut. I couldn't expand it full length. Luckily, I was able to open it halfway, at least. That umbrella was balky to open, too. It's the best I've found, though. Bestbrella. I probably couldn't have painted this view without it, as the sun was shining through the back of the canvas.

This was painted at Banks Township Park, north of Eastport, on Old Dixie Highway. It's one of the few parks you can drive into in the winter. The county doesn't plow the parks. And I learned the hard way that cars can't drive through knee-deep snow!

This was pretty challenging to paint, but I loved the view. In the foreground is a small open pool. There are lots of small streams that drain into Lake Michigan and there was an open pool that looked interesting. The golden ochre color is from the color of the sand.

Notice the diagonal stripes? That's the way the waves had been running when they finally froze.

Out near the edge of the ice are a few pileups. Way across the bay is a view of part of the Leelanau Peninsula.

"Late Day -- Two Ponds" -- plein air field study -- 6x8" oil on canvas panel -- Margie Guyot

Yesterday had been a flurry of planting poppies and flowering tobacco in my garden, then hours of digging through paintings for Tvedten Fine Art, the gallery up in Harbor Springs. They called me about noon, saying they'd like more work on Monday. All needed to be varnished, signed and framed. Yikes! That took hours and hours.

About 8 PM I thought I'd drive down to Antrim Creek Natural Area and paint a lake scene. But when I got down there, nothing looked interesting. At least, interesting enough to paint. Too serene, too blah. I got everything back into the car and drove along Old Dixie Highway, looking for long shadows and patches of sun.

This spot is right at the NE corner of Old Dixie Highway and Rex Beach Road. I pulled my car up and parked right in front of a No Tresspassing sign. The signs always say you need permission to be on the land, but they never tell you who to ask. So I picked my way through the brush and set up my Soltek in front of this lovely pair of ponds. Fortunately, I'd thought ahead and had sprayed myself liberally with mosquito lotion, as they were ravenous.

I really love finding spots like this, with contrasting light and interesting shapes. Most of the scene was in shadow. The sky was changing to a pale viridian (it was nearing sunset) and the golden streaks of sunlight were raking across distant fields. It's so much more fun to paint either early in the morning or late in the day because of the dramatic lighting.

I decided to use a small panel (6x8") for this because I'd realized that I had a plethora of small frames.

Painted this entire piece using my favorite #8 flat brush.

"Wild Vetch" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas panel -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

I saw this field of wild vetch on the drive home from Antrim Creek Natural Area. They're related to the wild sweet pea. It was late in the afternoon when I decided to stop and set up my easel. Long shadows were falling across the field from the old maple trees lining Old Dixie Highway. The sun was falling lower towards the horizon and the light was more golden and brilliant.

This was painted on the grounds of Fox Mission, a very rich (and expensive) piece of real estate. The house lots are further up on the top of the ridge, overlooking Lake Michigan. Some of the lots have been sold, but no building has taken place. The economy in Michigan's taken a huge dive. But all of us neighbors are glad nothing's happened yet with construction. We love the peace and quiet.

I want to return to this spot again and try to do another view this weekend. Lately I've been swamped with trying to paint my studio and replanting 2000 narcissus bulbs in the lawn. I've been digging up clumps of narcissus, finding as many as 100 bulbs in each clump. Planting them all in the lawn closer to the house, so next spring it would be beautiful.

"Waiting to be Dumped On" -- plein air field study -- 11x14" -- oil on board -- Margie Guyot

Yesterday I drove around the country roads, looking for something amazing to paint. Nothing looked interesting: it was overcast, gray and blah-looking! I made it my rule never to paint anything that didn't amaze me. So I came home. Decided to take a hike down the road for some exercise.

Old Dixie Highway is just a 2-lane blacktop and nearly deserted in winter. It's a very safe place to walk, especially when there is snow and ice. I veered off onto Fox Mission, a luxury home subdivision. Thanks to the economy, lots may have been sold, but nobody's built anything up there yet. So it's all MINE!

The driveway goes through a pine woods, through a cattail swamp and then up a ridge that overlooks Lake Michigan. It's beautiful up there. A flash of something white caught my eye. It was a whitetail deer. He (or she) and his 11 buddies scampered off into the pine woods. I walked over there to take a peek at the landscape and saw this scene. I loved it! The shapes of the melting snow were amazing (to me, anyway).

I took a shortcut home, hiking down the snow-covered field and crossing the frozen creek. Thank goodness it was frozen! I couldn't find the bridge. Cut though my neighbor's yard and went to my studio. Loaded the Explorer with my paints and drove back up to Fox Mission.

It was 5 PM by then and the light was starting to fade. Northen Michigan was under a posted storm warning, expecting "up to 10 inches" of snow over these next few days. So the sky had a dark, brooding feel to it. Surprisingly, it was quite pleasant up there. Compared to other painting experiences I've had lately, it was great. The wind was blocked by the pine trees. It wasn't too cold. I loved it!

This painting seemed to paint itself. Well, it was pretty simple in composition and basically had only 3 values to it. There were no strong blue shadows. No glaring snow. Things were very grayed-out. Notice how the dead-grass background is more of a red tone? I learned that in Scott Christensen's workshop last fall: as the land recedes, it increases in red. Little tips like that make paintings turn out better.

I got home in time to soak my brushes in soapy water, clean my palette, drop off my gear in the studio and drive up to the Charlevoix Library for a lecture on the Mt. Everest disaster. One of our local men was up on the mountain, 400 feet from the top of the mountain when he had to turn back. 8 men died on that trek, which several books have been written about, including "Into Thin Air" by John Krakauer.

"The North Forty" -- plein air field study -- oil on masonite panel 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

After painting Shirley's truck, I moved my easel over to do a painting of the view just to the north of her house. This is a very small wood shack that a couple lives in. It's a historical building along Old Dixie Highway, just north of Eastport. Over 100 years old, it consists of 2 rooms.

The 2 big stacks of logs are Sue & Shirley's firewood supply for the winter. They cut, split and stack their own wood every year. They have 2 large gardens where they grow a lot of their own food. This spring I look forward to having them show me how to rig up a solar panel to power a small pump for my irrigation system.

Old Dixie Highway is lined with huge, old maple trees that were casting shadows across the snow this afternoon.

"The Lake 11/04/08" -- plein air field study -- oil on stretched canvas -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

"Maple" -- plein air field study -- oil on birch panel -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

After voting this morning, I came back home and loaded up my Explorer and went out to paint. As usual in Michigan, the weather is usually pretty nice up until about the first week of November. Then it all goes to hell. All the more reason to go out and paint today!

I was able to get by with just a T-shirt & jeans this afternoon. No bulky down jacket yet. It was wonderful. The maple tree in this painting is just down the road from me, on Old Dixie Highway. Most of the trees are bare by now. This one had some glorious red and gold leaves hanging on yet. I love the way these big old maple trees get so gnarly.

After painting the maple tree I drove down to my favorite beach: Rex Beach. You can actually drive right down onto the sandy beach, but you can't park there. With all the rain we've had lately, the sand has been pretty wet and it is kind of scary to drive on it. I see deep ruts from other vehicles who've barely made it out.

First I took a walk along the beach, looking for Petoskey Stones. Alas, all the stones I saw were covered in some kind of dried scum. The sun was blindingly bright on the water and I found this spot where cross currents were making interesting patterns. In the distance is the Leelanu Peninsula. If you like rocks, this is the place to get some! Because of the blinding reflections on the water, it was kind of tough to paint this. I kept my sunglasses on through most of it, which is something I wouldn't ordinarily do. It was kind of tricky to get the values of the water and rocks right so that the sunlight reflections would give the feeling of how bright it actually was. And painting waves is always tough -- like trying to draw chickens running around in a pen! But I really enjoyed painting this.