Every weekend we take a walk through campus and up through Cortland Rural Cemetery. On Saturday, June 6th my husband and son dropped me off under the shade of a white oak to do some painting.
Cortland Rural Cemetery is a little gem in the middle of the city! Covering 50 acres off of Tompkins Street, CRC is so peaceful and has beautiful views. It’s a great place for walking and painting! It took a little scouting to find a place to set up. I decide to sit under a shady oak tree looking south east.
I sketch the scene. I want to focus on a couple of the monuments, but not give too much detail to every gravestone. I start painting with washes of the lightest colors.
I add more washes and start to add the foliage behind some of the monuments.
I decide where the shadows are going to be. Here’s a close up of a monument. I think about edges and value.
After about an hour of painting I needed to get back to my kiddo, so I packed up and trekked home. It was nice taking a walk by myself – I can’t remember the last time I did that! So far both of my plein air outings have been in walking distance to my house. I will start venturing out farther from now on!
I work on this painting a little more when I get back. It’s still not as defined as I’d like it to be, but I will probably just leave it be!
Plein Air Cortland 