Cherry blossoms along a road

The National Park Service says DC's cherry blossoms supposedly reached their peak five days ago, on April 5, but our blossoms in Maryland seem to be peaking right around now.  (For the NPS view, check out https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/bloom-watch.htm.)  So of course I had to get out there and paint them again! 

This time I chose a more ambitious composition -- a shadowed foreground and a lit background -- even though I knew it would be easier to paint the blossoms with a dark background, as I did in my previous blog post.  I guess I wanted a change of pace.  I also wanted to depict how the blossoms form a canopy over our streets.  To do that best, I'd have to stand in the middle of the road and paint, but that's not feasible, especially with the caravan of tourists.  The piece turned out reasonably well, but I still prefer the single tree I posted on the blog two days ago.

Geoff Watson, "Cherry blossoms along a road," oil on canvas panel, 11" x 14," 2018.

A cherry tree

'Tis the season to paint cherry blossoms!  They'll be gone in a few days, so now is the time -- chilly weather or not.  To make the pinkish-white blossoms pop, I chose a tree with dark foliage behind it. 

I started this late afternoon, and my hands got cold before I could finish.  I had hoped to add a tourist or two for scale, and maybe some more foreground detail.  But I'm still pretty happy with this little painting.   

Geoff Watson, "Cherry tree in April," oil on canvas panel, 8" x 10," 2018.

Bridge over Massachusetts Avenue

Today I drove around in circles for a couple hours looking for a place to paint. Sometimes the scenery is great but there's no convenient place to set up. Finally I settled on this bridge over busy Massachusetts Avenue, in Maryland near the D.C. border. I wanted a bucolic feel, so I magically removed all the noisy traffic. 

Geoff Watson, "Bridge over Massachusetts Avenue," oil on canvas panel, 8" x 10," 2017.