JULIE ANN STEVENS

 My first time out painting plein air {French for “in the open air”} is a challenge I’m getting hooked on. 

To begin with, inspiration is unlimited and ever changing.  A white sky turns blue turns gray gets dark and then pours on me. 

One minute Plein-Air-AM-Radio gives me some nice easy breezy blues to move my brush to —

The next minute I’m back in the cicada asylum. 

And the hues. 

Well, they’re —

Fifty shades of green.

Yesterday I squeezed the green so much I woke to a green hangover.  I swore it off completely today.  Hid the green tubes from myself, and moved my painting camp out closer to the old dairy barn.

There I painted windows with blue and violets; greys and black browns and was quite content all morning.

A few minutes after noon, I was seeing green everywhere I looked and —

I gave into the countryside and jumped off the wagon.

A little bit of mucky water and some dry crusty greenish dust from yesterday’s palette and —

Voilà! —

Green booze from on high!

Farm light 2012.4 “corn, no cows,” as a result, is slighty tipsy — and looking at it, I feel —

Just right.