View from Mt. Tamalpais-Revised

oil on canvas panel 11" by 14" plein air. After helpful input from Michael Severin, Olivia O,Carra and Jon Main; I cleaned up my treetops and integrated the foreground with the trees by putting some green in the grass. It only takes an inch or so of rain to get the green grass back and it's raining pretty good today--badly needed in N. CA because we have been in a drought for 2 years.

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 26, 2014 at 15:54: Dor, sometimes you exaggerate values and color to make a better painting just like you do when painting from photos. But many plein air painters are using their plein air paintings as reference material for a larger studio painting, and they want to represent what they are seeing as accurately as possible. Excellent question. Thanks. Stu

Comment by Dorian Aronson on October 26, 2014 at 15:05: Thank you Stu, for explaining it to me that when you paint plein air, you paint what you see at the time you are viewing and painting. I did not realize that before. Smiles to you ;-)

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 26, 2014 at 14:43: Thanks Silvana; I spiced up the lights on the trees when I put the greens in the foreground. Stu

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 26, 2014 at 14:33: Dor, all the ground fog was gone and the air was clear enough to see for about 50 miles, so there was very little atmospheric perspective. The land beyond was really that color. The only place where I put color that wasn't there was the foreground; the grasses were very dry and light in color from almost no rain this season, so far. One day of rain brings back new, green growth within a week. We are headed into our rainy season and soon all the grasses will be free. Down below there are little farm plots with green crops plus stands of trees and reddish volcanic soil. I painted what I was seeing, and I'm not a colorist by any stretch of the imagination. Thanks for your keen observation. Stu

Comment by Silvana M Albano on October 26, 2014 at 14:29: I like this one better. It's more vivid!

Comment by Dorian Aronson on October 26, 2014 at 9:10: Hi Stu

It is difficult for me to imagine (land immediately beyond the trees) being that strong a color. Please explain your thinking for me, because bottom right forground has less. Smiles to you ;-)

I would love to give you all the rain, NW Florida has received.

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on October 26, 2014 at 8:04: Thank you Jessica. We are actually getting the rain to make those grasses green again! Stu