Quinnesec, Michigan's Fumee Falls...12"x 9" oil Plein Air

Such a gorgeous day, and needed to do our

monthly grocery shopping...so headed toward

Iron Mountain, MI...this afternoon. That's how

it is living in the north woods, about an hour to

shop a decent grocery store...so, figured I'd

take my gear, stop and paint a plein air of

Fumee Falls, check out other possible paint

sites on the way.

This time of year, winter's snow melt adds to

the volume of run off or water supply, and

creeks, rivers are swollen. Best time to visit

the falls one is familiar with to paint.

My painting was photographed outdoors in light

and unfortunately I have glare, so will reshoot

it tomorrow during the day and repost...but I

think turned out pretty good.

Here was my set up...and the falls I was

looking at when I started out-

...and of course, what makes plein air fun

and challenging is that in short time, the

light shifts, moves...and you have a

completely different scene there in front

of you that now works as a reference

only, but the impression has to be locked

in the mind to finish up...

I started with a midgray mother color or

pigment soup...mixing up a gray and then

dragging a bit of that gray into each of my

colors to imbue a common color harmony.