Sunrise, 14x11, plein air

The recent plein air events, competitions, and festivals that I have attended have felt different for me. I suppose that is because of the many days I spent painting outdoors in Italy. (Hard to believe it was a year ago today that we started our 7 1/2 months there.) It used to be that I made sure I painted some familiar subjects early on so as to build my confidence and, hopefully, fill my quota of needed paintings for the exhibit. But as I have come to discover, it is not "subjects" that I paint. As I have said in my most recent workshops, "I don't want to learn to paint nouns, but would rather paint adjectives and adverbs." By that I mean that I do not follow formulas when in the field. Have no use for them. Rules are made to be broken in my world! All this to say that I find myself going out to paint the unfamiliar whenever possible. If I fail, yes, it is terribly scary and disappointing. However, when I do NOT fail, it can really make my day. Here is Sunrise over Sprague Lake in the Rocky Mountains. Up at 4:45 to catch this one