Scott Road, Looking West

"Scott Road, Looking West" -- plein air field study -- oil on canvas 12x24" -- Margie Guyot

This is the road I live on.  That's Lake Michigan and the Leelanau Peninsula in the distance.  The fall colors were in prime condition, with the maple trees all shades of gold and red.  Last year I stood on the distant ridge, facing east to paint Scott Road.  This time I decided to paint the opposite view.  

Normally I wouldn't use such a large canvas for a plein air.  There's such a large area to cover -- in so little time!  But I really wanted to paint a long, horizontal view and this 12x24" canvas was the only thing I had.  I was painting with a buddy, Al Maciag, and I didn't want to hold him up, so I painted fast as I could.  

Every time I drive over Scott Road, I'm thrilled at how beautiful it is here.  

That's a new field of corn on the right.  That field hadn't been used in years.  The landowner rented the land this year and I think all us neighbors were surprised the corn did so well.  It had been planted late and the ground is quite sandy.  If you got up close to it, you'd see the outer edge of the cornfield had been quite "gone over" by the resident deer and raccoon population.

I'd like to do a winter painting of Scott Road, but I doubt it will be painted from this location.  The wind is quite fierce up at this ridge!  Half the time I had to hold onto my Soltek easel while painting this, or it would have blown over.

"Maples -- Early Spring" -- plein air field study -- oil on panel -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

The weather had turned foul. Most of the day it rained and snowed -- and it was May 8th! I stopped by to visit my friend Cal, who lives south of Charlevoix. He's got lots of big maple trees that fascinate me. Gnarly old things!

The rain and snow had stopped around 2:30 PM. The sun came out for about 5 minutes, long enough for me to see a bit of the highlights. Then it was obliterated by the clouds again. I set up my easel and had on my warmest winter coat: heavyweight down, plus my wolf fur trooper hat. That's some of what I wear when painting the ice pileups and it felt good! The wind howled. Where were my gloves, darn it?

Feeling rather miserable always has an effect on the speed with which I work. Sometimes that's a plus!