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11x14 

Oil on Linen Panel

Plein Air
SOLD

Barns and especially old fish houses in Eastern North Carolina are dangerously flirting with the endangered species list. That is why going to Shipyard Landing on Cashoke Creek is always a good option to capture these old structures with their majestic reflections in this black water that slowly meanders into the mouth of the Cashie River on the Eastern edge of Bertie County. 

I have painted this before, but only from a photograph that I had taken on a rock fishing trip with a buddy. This is the first plein air attempt, and as I wrote in my earlier post, titled "Tucked In", the biggest reward of plein air painting is becoming one with the subject and the atmosphere during that session. Alla Prima, also known as wet on wet painting, is direct painting in one session where wet oils are applied directly on top of wet oils. On this day, it was a little over cast, making it all the more challenging with colors, but getting into the scene was as easy as ever. People and boats continuously came in from fishing out in the sound - constantly churning the otherwise photographic still reflections of the old herring boat and the rusty old fish houses. As we struggled to balance our easels between the cypress knees and cracks in the docks, a dead carp with a terrible stench floated by, but we were soon relieved with the scent of a freshly started hardwood smoke from the cabin chimney behind our cars. Tom Hughes' bear hounds were howling for their owner to open their pen as he stood behind us cleaning his speckled trout that he had caught earlier that day in the Little Alligator River further east in Tyrrell County. And last but not least, we were treated to another impromptu art critique by Merry Hill Resident and owner of Long Strokin' Kennels,  Mr.Donny Ambrose (aka Dynamite).  as Dynamite's pickup's diesel engine slowly idled, he studied our work, but after a short view of our brush work and color harmony, the sound of Tom's hounds and the sight of his cleaned speckles won Dynamite's attention. It was time to pack it up anyway.