Santee River Delta 9'13

Highway 17 cuts across the wide Santee River Delta between Georgetown and Berkley Counties via two very long bridges. Between the two bridges is an island with a small parking  pull off for wildlife viewing.

Completed painting

In the morning, the Delta fills with fog.  I loved watching how the scene changes as the mists move around obscuring or highlighting the various elements in this lovely wilderness. The fog does however make it hard to plein air paint a scene that is constantly changing.  After several frustrating attempts,  I decided on this attempt I would take a different approach.

This painting was  started in the studio from a photo I had taken earlier  in the month .

Photo shows WIP onsite over the under painting  and the  main elements blocked in

I toned the canvas with a bright coat of cad red, then blocked in the main  nearby landscape features with ultramarine blue. After  the under-painting and main composition was laid in and dry, I competed the rest of the painting  on site. As usual, the fog continued to hide or reveal the distant elements of the scene, but the  values and colors of the closer landscape remained relatively constant enough for me to finish the piece to my satisfaction.