"Rex Beach Road - 12/12/09" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas panel -- Margie Guyot

At last - a sunny day! We'd had blizzards since Tuesday night. Something like 15" of snow on the ground. I hadn't driven anywhere since our band concert Tuesday night, so today everybody and his brother had errands to run. I finally got my Soltek into the Flex and drove up US-31 toward Charlevoix. I turned west onto Rex Beach Road and thought this view was pretty interesting. No mountains here; only rolling hills, trees and lake. I love the rare days we have sun here because that's when the blue shadows occur.

It was a rather balmy 28 degrees, but it was also very windy. I was so glad I'd put on my heavy-insulated snow pants and heavyweight down coat. Otherwise it'd have been miserable.

This road leads down to one of my favorite painting spots: Rex Beach, which is one of the Antrim Creek Natural Area parks. The parks aren't plowed here in winter, so I probably won't be able to get down to the lake to paint unless the snow melts. Somebody decided they should pay something like $35,000 to put up some "interpretive" displays. I think more people would have preferred doing without the interpretive displays -- and having at least one of the area parks plowed at least once a month here.

I look forward to doing more still lifes, but at the moment my studio is very cluttered. I moved a ton of things out of a side storage room and took several days to insulate that room. My neighbor Jerry has been helping me build storage shelves for my large canvases and frames. Once this project is over, I can put everything away -- and get back to painting still lifes. Itching with ideas!

"Sunset - 10/16/09" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas 9x12" -- Margie Guyot

Again, this was painted from my favorite spot: Rex Beach. I live only about 2 1/2 miles away. As usual, I had the entire beach to myself. That's Northport over in the distance.

"August Sunset" -- oil on canvas -- 12x24" -- Margie Guyot

I used a small field study to paint a larger version in my studio. The sunsets over Lake Michigan can be quite spectacular. I love trying to paint them. It's challenging, though, to paint them for several reasons. For one, the scene is constantly changing -- have you ever watched how fast clouds can move? And it's nearly impossible to capture the brilliance of the colors. Oil paint, when you start mixing it, often tends to turn muddy. Probably a good way to work out this problem is to paint the bright, strong passages in pure white, leave them dry, and then do thin glazes of pure color, mixed with Liquin.

The brilliant red color in the center is "coral red", straight from the tube.

I live right down the road from 4 Lake Michigan parks. My favorite one, Rex Beach, is the one I tend to go to for painting sunsets. You can drive right down to the water at Rex Beach, instead of having to park and carry all your painting gear for blocks.

There have been times this summer when it was impossible to paint anywhere on the lake because of swarms of hatching bugs. I don't know what kind of bugs they are, but there are clouds of them, landing in your eyes, wet palette, painted surface, etc. I learned not to even try during these bug swarms. Thank goodness these bug swams don't last long!

"Scott Road" -- plein air field study -- oil on stretched canvas -- 12x24" -- Margie Guyot

This is the road I live on. Lake Michigan lies 1 mile west (as the crow flies). I moved up here nearly 2 years ago, after participating in a daylong paintout with the Crooked Tree Art Center (Petoskey). I hadn't been up this way in 30 years, so it was quite a surprise to see how beautiful it was up here. It kind of reminds me of the rolling hills of Vermont. The summers are packed with tourists, but the winters are rather brutal. Only the toughest old birds stay here.

I've always loved the look of this road, especially in late afternoon, with the long shadows running across the road. As a plein air painter, I especially like scenes where I can paint while standing in the blessed shade.

Normally I don't paint such large canvases, but there are a couple shows coming up that called for this type of wide format. I actually painted this on 2 afternoons, returning to the same spot.

"Sunset - 8/23/09" -- plein air field study -- oil on stretched canvas -- 12x24" -- Margie Guyot

Again, I normally don't paint in this wide format en plein air, but I was wanting to put this into a show that was looking for this size. Sunsets are beautiful to paint, but they're also the devil. The light and cloud formations are changing so rapidly, it's best to arrive on the scene early, try to pre-mix an anticipated range of colors, use a big brush and a small canvas.

After several days of gusty winds and rain, it was calm on Sunday night. I drove down to my favorite spot for sunset paintings, Rex Beach, just south of Charlevoix, MI. The advantage to this spot is that you can drive right down to the water. Other parks dot the shoreline here, but you have to schlep your gear for 3 - 4 blocks, up & down a long hill and across sand dunes.

As I painted, a car of people pulled up to enjoy the sunset, too. Two of the men got out their fishing rods and casted for panfish. I didn't see them catch anything, though.

The cloud formations always amaze me. They roll in off the western side of the lake and are wonderful. Trying to paint the glowing reds and golds is tough. If I use this study for a later studio painting, what I'd do is paint the red and gold areas with white, leave it dry, then give thin glazes of color. That's the only way I know to get anywhere near the brilliance.

"Rex Beach" -- 12x16" plein air field study -- oil on canvas -- Margie Guyot

Yesterday morning two friends and I drove over to meet other painters in an orchard. But nobody was there. Luckily, my friend Jerry had his cell phone and called a contact number. Turns out the orchard was going to spray their cherries, so our location was suddenly changed to Rex Beach. Right down the road from where I live. Rex Beach is right on Lake Michigan, south of Charlevoix.

Rex Beach is great for painting sunsets, but during mid-day I think the light is too flat and it's rather uninteresting to paint (to me, at least). It took me quite a while to finally decide what view to paint. I nearly wiped this out. The tough thing about paint this was that the sand and grass in the foreground is very bleached-out by the sun. So to be true to what's in front of us, we have to paint it looking rather bleached-out. What I loved most about this view is the distant bank of trees and the sparkle of the water.

"Sunset -- 8-01-09" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas panel -- 9x12" -- Margie Guyot

After painting in Petoskey all day for the Crooked Tree Paint-Out, some buddies of mine and I decided to meet at Rex Beach for sunset painting. Rex Beach is part of the Antrim Creek Natural Area, 2 parks that are along the east coast of Lake Michigan. The advantage to painting at Rex Beach is that you can drive your car right down to the water, instead of having to park and schlep all your gear for several blocks down a trail and across a sand dune.

It was a beautiful evening to be out on the beach! There were only a few swarms of newly-hatched midges. Not at all as bad as the swarms in June.

There was pizza there and I was offered some, but it's impossible to paint anything so fleeting while eating anything! I always use at least a #8 flat brush and paint as quickly as I possibly can. The light and cloud formations are changing every second.

"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.

"October Storm" -- field study 11x14" -- oil on canvas -- Margie Guyot

After weeks of beautiful, warm, sunny weather, everything turned foul. It's rained copiously for days. Yesterday I just had to get out and paint something or I thought I'd surely go mad. The skies were so interesting, filled with dramatic storm clouds. I went to my favorite spot, Rex Beach, which is part of the Nature Conservancy land along the coastline here. It was kind of risky -- the rain has been hitting off and on. I could have been drenched, halfway through the painting (which has happened before).

Thank goodness I'd thought to bring along my winter coat! The wind was about 30 mph and the temperature was in the low 40's. Bitterly cold. But the clouds were just so cool, "roiling", as they say. What painter could resist those? I'll have to be sure to bring along some of those hunters' hand warmers in the future. Thought my fingers were going to freeze off.

In the distance you see Northport, the little town at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. It juts out into Lake Michigan. The foreground in this painting shows a little reef covered in reeds.

The sun dropped to the horizon and it was quickly getting dark as I packed up the Explorer. Deer darted across the highway. Going out to paint is so much better than vegetating in front of the TV!

"Approaching Storm" -- field study -- oil on canvas -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

Around 6 this evening I threw some painting gear into the Explorer and parked in front of an old barn. Finished the painting, then decided I just couldn't stomach another old barn painting! It's like one of those wine bottle & onion paintings: they've been done a zillion times! Wiped out the canvas. As I turned around to load up the Explorer, I saw these huge storm clouds coming in from the west. Wow! THAT'S what I needed to paint!

What better spot to see approaching weather than good old Rex Beach? It's a tiny park about 3 or so miles from my house. Hardly anybody goes there. Which is why I like it so much. Total peace & quiet. A million dollar view -- all for free!

It was such a dramatic sight. I had goosebumps. My heart was racing. I wanted to do cartwheels. Which would have probably landed me in the Emergency Room. It was like being in the middle of a Charlton Heston movie. Think "The Ten Commandments", during one of the plagues. Lightning flashed out over Lake Michigan. Gigantic, dark clouds took over the sky. Waves rippled, reflecting gold sky and dark clouds. A light zephyr (ah, to be able to use that word!). No mosquitoes. I had the place all to myself. Hell -- I could have gone skinny-dipping! Haha! Just kidding! Anyway, I was having a blast painting this!

Doggone -- I only had this one canvas with me. It would have been spectacular to have a 12x24" or maybe 3 panels for a triptych.