Jill Millward Artwork

Today I did sort of a Plein Air painting belly flop. I went out into the foothills and set up shop. You don’t win them all on the first go. This is a small part of the painting I did. I’m going to spend some more time on the whole composition and see where I can take it. Today I got caught up in trying to paint like someone else and wound up frustrated. I need to remember to just paint the way I paint. I can’t seem to get away from myself.

Tablerock Plein Air

Today I drove up the hill to my friends house to paint Tablerock which was burned in a huge fire just before the 4th of July. An illegal firework started it. For a long time the hill was completely black. Yesterday I went running up there and noticed how much grass is growing back. You could still smell the charred earth but there is a definite renewal taking place. It’s beautiful.

Nov 1st trees & foothills

Oct 31st Catalpa and Maple

Here’s another painting of trees at Manitau (dog) park. 5×7 oil on canvas.

I wanted to paint this because I like the bright colors of the changing fall leaves contrasted with the dark tangle of trees and bushes behind them.

Oct 29th Trees- Plein Air

Today I packed all my stuff into the back of my car and went out and painted on location. I painted as fast as I could because I was limited by time. I don’t normally paint on location. There are a lot of variables from weather to time that make it tricky, as all Plein Air painters know. If I could I would always paint on location. I felt a little funny doing it. It’s one thing to do it with a group, but all alone…I attracted more attention than I wanted. This painting is a little bigger than the other little landscapes I’ve been doing. 9×12″. I’m going to look at it again in a few days and see what else I can do with it.

Oct 28th Trees

Today’s trees. And a bird. My friend asked me to paint a birdhouse to be auctioned off at a charity event in December. So today I practiced painting a little bird. It turned out very plump.

The trees are in Camelsback park in Boise Idaho.

Oct 27 trees

Sunrise over Tablerock

This morning while I was out walking bandit I noticed how beautiful the sunrise was over Tablerock. So I went inside, grabbed my headlamp and a little canvas and sketched out this dark little scene. Then went inside and painted it. It took about an hour, and it looks like it. I’ll put some more time into it to see where it can go. The color in the sky looks better in the painting than the photo of the painting. The dark paint was hard to photograph.

This painting bothers my daughter because I originally painted in my neighbors house, then I painted it out. She liked it with the house. This is what it would look like if there were no houses in my neighborhood. We’d have a lovely unobscured view of Tablerock.