Autumn Cactus

I went to Brooklyn Botanic Garden today to paint some fall foliage and I painted a cactus instead.

For 2021 year-to-date this is my 50th plein air painting!

(That's not counting all the other stuff I have done, like the church paintings and studio work.)

50 outdoor oil paintings this year so far, wow! I have been busy.

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This painting will not photograph no matter what I do.

So here are 2 versions, the background is better in the first one and the overall color is better in the second one.

I did not realize BBG closes at 3:30, I thought it was 5... and I got kicked out about 15 minutes from the finish so I had to do it at home.  I don't like doing that but it was only the cactus spikes and the stone ground texture. 

I had the ground colors mixed already and just brought paint home, and the spikes were scratched in with my palette knife.

So, minimal.

I really am a purist where plein air is concerned but this painting is telling me to be flexible when needed. I didn't do anything I wouldn't have done outdoors and most especially I didn't allow myself to refine this painting as if it was a studio painting.  So it's ok.

I have to ask my friend Janet about lighting set up for photographing paintings- she just invested in a good setup and even knows how to use it.  I might need an umbrella or something, I dont know...

But she has a house in NJ and I have a 1 bedroom apartment in NYC so there's also a space issue....

Photographing paintings is really difficult.