On the Plein Air Trail with Brenda Behr: Happy Trails to You

Jan 5, 2012

Happy Trails to You

SHOW ME SOME OF THAT COUNTRY MONEY, 6x9" watercolor

Here’s the painting I’d just completed before the accident. Many of you are unaware that in early November I was the victim of a drive-by shooting. The bullet grazed my left shoulder. Before screeching off, the driver of the vehicle at the intersection yelled . . .

The above paragraph is not so much a way to grab your attention, as it is to explain a large gap in my plein air painting between mid-November and late December. Sure there was a cool nip in the air, but Nov./Dec. is prime commission time for me, so I was busy. And busy with the holidays like so many in the Western hemisphere. I’m including below three of the commissioned paintings that kept me busy during this time.

It’s hard to say what made me want to paint the Wild Indian Gun Co. Subject matter, no doubt. I especially liked the sign to the right of the door, SHOW ME SOME OF THAT COUNTRY MONEY, NO SMOKING OR SHOOTING INSIDE. (That’s right, leave the shooting for innocent plein air artists at their easels!) Aw shoot, although the subject matter is interesting, the composition is weak. A big old pick-up truck in the foreground might have helped. I think it’s the lack of an interesting composition that kept this scene out of the collection of Highway 13 paintings I did several years back. Here’s a link that will take you to that collection, all 24x30” oils, most of them painted en plein air. Just click Highway 13 Revisited.

Two of the highway 13 paintings are currently on view at beautiful Brook Valley Country Club in Greenville, North Carolina. The country club each month features the work of a different artist who is a member of the Eastern North Carolina art group known as Greenville Brushstrokes. See side bar for more info on the collection of paintings at Brook Valley.