Two Oreos

9x12

Oil on Linen Board

Plein Air
Best in Show
Bertie Arts Council Juried Contest 2013

SOLD

After reading Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting I hopped in my truck armed with all this new painterly knowledge and ready to systematically crank out a composition just like the twentieth century master.  By the time I hit the Sans Souci Ferry at the end of the Woodard Road, I was composition'less and the magical scene that Payne made look so easy in his book was no where to be seen. Almost ready to call it a day and head back home, I decided to pull in the dirt path in front of Boo John and Coke White's poultry houses looking for a fourth quarter come back. While easing by their farm equipment and pastures waiting for that "there it is" moment as I recited the different types of composition, I was pulled over by Coke and one his farm hands. I explained what I was doing, and after a few weird looks and raised eyebrows they drove off. 

Focusing to much on the technical categories set forth in Mr Payne's book and failing to see all the good stuff that was just sitting there, I decided to drive further down the path to Taylor Spruill's farm that sits on the bank of the lower Cashie just a few bends upriver from Sans Souci. Fenced in on both sides of his path are his beautiful Scottish Belted Galloways - aka Oreo Cows. After taking a few close up pics for a possible studio painting, I decided that my quest to mirror Mr. Payne was not going to happen today, and I started to drive away. As I looked in the rear view mirror just before driving up the hill back to the White Poultry Farm, I thought I saw the "S"and "grouped mass" compositions and the extra touch of animals to paint like the European impressionists that Payne wrote of.  I hurried and set up, and as I began to block it in, I realized that there was nothing text book about what I had chosen - it was just a pretty Eastern North Carolina lowland scene.

Taylor Spruill's Scottish Belted Galloways
Oreo Cows
Cooper Hill, NC
2013