Plein Air in Canterbury, NH

New Hampshire is gorgeous in the summer!  I live near the ocean in Southern Maine but...a short drive from my house takes me into the foothills of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

We headed up to Canterbury, NH for the afternoon. 

Marcus decided to come along with me to do some sketching.

Here's the view of the top of the meadow where we parked the car. 

I started to set up and Marcus got down to work a right away.  He's working on perspective and sight measuring.

He decided to sketch my pochade box all set up and ready to go. He is experiencing the difficulty of designing the landscape to make it interesting and hold your eye.  All that editing.  Much harder than a still life or person.  So at this stage in his plein air experience he picks a specific object or person to sketch and is doing really well.  

Of course here we have 2 sketch books with totally different focuses and purposes. 

 I'm well into the my first field sketch.  I'm painting with my back to the scene to keep the moving dappled sunlight off my canvas and palette.

Here's the 12x12 , oil on panel. 

The big cross road behind me had a road sign for every destination these roads will take you to - yes, it goes to 

 Boston!  Note the granite post. Up in these hills we see pasture fence posts made out of granite.

A granite watering trough is near the sign. This is a spot to stop and water your horses. The road was once a highway(1700's?). Its now a country road.   

Here I am taking that step back to see if the design is making sense on my second start.

Here is the cross road behind me that goes to Lake Winnipesaki.

I'm laying in some paint fast on the 16x20 panel. The light is changing, the clouds are flying and  I'm moving fast!  

 As we packed up to head back to the coast heavier clouds moved in over the meadow.  What a great day!