Wheat Fields at Groveton Farm. 9x12, oil on linen panel. 2014
After a near sell out weekend with the Western Loudoun Artist Studio Tour I ventured out again on Tuesday with Loudoun Sketch Club to do some painting on location at Dresden Farm in Middleburg. I was excited to find that their hay fields were freshly mowed and I spent a good couple of hours at the edge of one of the fields trying to capture the sense of color and space.
On the way home I drove past Groveton Farm and thought the wheat fields there looked much more interesting than the painting I'd just done so I hopped out of the car and took a few photos. I think it was the deer tracks through the field that made the biggest difference in the two scenes: they seemed to lead the eye right across the field back into the tree line.
Back at home I scraped off most of my canvas and repainted with the new scene. All the work that I'd done at Dresden Farm helped immensely to get the right look and feel of the wheat field.