I went out to do some plein air painting. I decided to tackle a lake scene, hoping to incorporate some of Olly's advice and guidance on shoreline paintings. So, ignoring grizzly bears, moose and other creatures, I parked the car and headed out into a meadow overlooking the lake. It was a wonderful gloomy morning.

I painted the following.

Definitely a rough cut. The photo does not show as much color as was visible and I ignored the sky status for this sketch. But I learned a lot from it and decided to apply it to a painting.

When I started the "studio" version (Ha ha ha), I chose Arches rough 12x16 140 pound on a block. I put a minimum of three washes on the sky, then put mountains in, determined they were too light, added additional washes the glue on the block did not like this. Paper started to unhinge. Anyway, put foreground trees in and was going to call it done. The intent was to show vast spaces and some dreary day. I felt that it looked too vacant, so I added the foreground bushes and grass on right. I think that was a bad decision ( actually bad execution is far more correct). I understand there is not a focal point to the scene, and perhaps I did not want one? Here it is.

All commentary and ideas welcomed!

Thomas