(Note to all: this is the second blog entry in which I will be copying, over time, the 30 posts  I wrote to my 80 sponsors this past March as part of the "March Art Marathon",  a fundraising effort to support refugees and asylum-seekers in Central Vermont. The organization that sponsored this marathon is The Central Vermont Refugee Action Network (CVRAN) 

Each of these brief posts illustrate something of the processes I go through to create my large oil landscapes as well as delicate botanical watercolors. In these posts I also reflect on my life as a full-time painter: how I feel about having grown up in Vermont, how this environment shapes what I paint...  and who who inspires me.)

March 2, 2024

Welcome to Day Two of the 2024 Art Marathon! 

Today’s post describes the process I went through to create a large oil painting, and an epilogue of what can happen preparatory material. 

Last summer, I drove up the Mt Mansfield Toll Road with my paints, then hiked up the Long Trail towards the “Nose” of Mansfield (the southern end of the ridge line) with the intention of making a plein air oil sketch of the moss-covered, fern-filled forest interior. 

This is a photo of what I chose to paint: a sliver of afternoon light illuminating an emerald world:  

 And, below,  my 10” x 10” oil sketch that simplified the elements in front of me as the light shifted and my back began to hurt from sitting on the ground: 

I drove down the mountain with my sketch, and once back home I transferred the basic design to a 30 x 36 canvas and started to lay in basic shapes:

Which eventually, weeks later, developed into this, which now hangs in the State House for the current legislative session:

I’m not done with this landscape yet, though. What to do with that 10 x 10 sketch I did on site? Instead of adding it to my growing pile of abandoned oil sketches, I decided to finish it, which meant that the fresh, bold plein-air brushwork would probably disappear. And alas, it did. I’m trying to salvage the painting, and shall report later this month if it survived.  

Best, to everyone

Susan