Lundberg Rice Plant Summer

How long does it take you to paint a painting?  That's a frequent question to which I can never give a straight answer.  When I first start exploring a new subject I spend months sketching and painting on location, and sometimes just sitting there and absorbing the sights and smells and sounds.  I've been painting Richvale Rice Fields for seven years and have many impressions in my memory bank.  So, when I travelled into private fields with Bryce Lundberg last summer I was prepared for sudden revelations that would stay with me.

I started this painting of Lundberg storage bins with great energy and rapidly brushed on clouds and water and the bins themselves.  But then I came to the intricate delivery chutes that looked so dramatic against the sky.  Wow, they were hard to get straight and create lines that were not too thick or too thin or too dark or too anemic.  If I spent six hours on most of the painting it took me another eight or so for just that daunting upper section.