MORNING ON THE FARM

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Was up and out early this morning so that I could get to a farm.  About 10 of us went off to this wheat farm in Yolo, CA and the weather was magnificent for painting.  No bugs and the shade kept slipping away as the sun rose in the sky.  What a day for painting.  I didn't put any of the wheat field into the painting as I could not imagine how to make it interesting.  Instead, I captured this long road onto the property and the arching foliage.  The clouds kept passing through an otherwise, blue sky.

Blue Oak Farm Vista

It was a sunny morning with a frosty biting wind.  I find wind the most difficult condition for plein air painting.  I found a large tree to stand beside and looked out on this fantastic vista.  Planted fields had different colors.  The lush greens of the trees and grasses were unreal.  You could see all the way to the Sierra Mountains in the distance.  (Wind does clear the air.)
Because of the weight created by the tree on the right side of the painting, I needed something for informal balance in the composition.  I painted telephone poles and lines for this.  By the end I was shivering and this only added to my brush strokes.