Afternoon at Lake Henshaw

From our aerie atop Mount Palomar, we wound our way down the East Grade Road to Lake Henshaw. It was decidedly warmer there in the lee of the mountain, even though we were only 1000 feet lower in altitude. We all crowded around a table at the Lake Henshaw Resort and enjoyed their cheerful country ambiance and good food.

Our afternoon painting location was just across the street at lakeside, but I don’t think any of us actually painted the water itself: we were too taken by the golden poplars lit with golden fall light. I chose a composition, assessed the sun’s trajectory, and started hustling…. The afternoons are short now that we’ve gone back to Daylight Standard Time! The sun dodged in and out of high clouds while I blocked in shapes, and then in the last fifteen minutes before it disappeared behind the mountain it treated us to a blaze of delicious backlighting that rimmed each tree with fiery color.

Rim light: Lake Henshaw 11x14 oil on masonite

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~ by terrimiller on November 11, 2011.