"Moonrise over Riverbend Park" plein air oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Moonrise over Riverbend"  20x10, oil     Sold

During each plein air event I try to do one painting that is my "Magnum Opus" .  I went back to Riverbend Park where I did my best painting last year. (see it HERE) I went early in the morning following my strategy of getting to a location early and then spending the day completing as many paintings as possible thus avoiding too much wasted time driving around looking for subject matter..

As I was walking around with my coffee trying to match the idea of a composition I envisioned in my head with what I was seeing, I noticed the moon rising above this group of palms. I loved the way the early light was creating shadow patterns on the trunks ..and the moon was a bonus.  Realizing this effect would not last long I immediately ran for my gear and set up to render the scene. It was very quiet, very beautiful and no one was around to distract me. I was really enjoying the moment!!

Wrapped Floater frame

Painting a moon into a scene like this is trickier than it would seem. I did a lot of "pushing and pulling of the paint to get it to fade into the sky like I was seeing it and not just pasted onto the surface. It must be as perfectly round as you can make it.....and that in itself can be a challenge.

I also made sure to pack some tall skinny panels because I knew that there would be tall palms I would want to paint. This panel was pre-mounted in a black "floater" frame. The frame part was then covered in brown paper allowing me to make the painting and then remove the paper....Shazaam! ...A completed, ready to hang, hopefully, winner painting....It didn't win any awards but it did sell..

Hopefully this will encourage you to get out and paint your "Winner" too!  

Have fun out there!  =]