The Church at Oella

The Church at Oella, oils on canvas panel, 9 " 12."

Last Friday the Howard Plein Air group met at Oella, an old village just north of historic Ellicott City dating from the early 19th Century. The town has an old country store and a quaint little church (Wikipedia says it's the historic Mt. Gilboa AME Church) down the street across from the store.

It was a brisk day and the greens of the new leaves and the grass just sparkled. I chose to paint the church because the curve of the street beyond made such an appealing composition (unfortunately, my placement on the canvas cut off the top part of the steeple). Despite this, I think the painting works: keeping the cool violets of the shadows against the warm colors of stone as pure as possible conveys the vibrant scene. I added part of a blue truck parked next to the church for extra punch.

In the afternoon I went back to Brighton Dam to paint another view of the azaleas, but the results weren't good enough to post. Below is a version of the color revisions of previous week's painting--I repainted the trees across the water to blue-green and brightened parts of the foreground for a sunnier look.

Azaleas at Brighton Dam (revised), oils on canvas panel, 11" x 14."