Yesterday I was standing at the shore line admiring the view of the mountains while my kids threw various rocks and sticks into the water. I knew I wanted to come back here to paint when I had a couple hours.

When I first arrived I saw these goslings! They were so cute and fluffy. I loved in the second picture how all the goslings followed in a line behind the parents. I had just arrived and wasn’t setup so I did a quick pencil sketch of the goslings as they swam by.

After I got myself setup this was the scene I was painting. I loved the layering of the mountains, the rocky bluff, the different shades of the trees. Today was pretty cloudy and overcast so the whole scene was a lot moodier but yesterday when I was here it was a bright, sunny day and the whole scene felt like something from a Studio Ghibli movie.

I made this setup last night using some backing from a used up paper pad. I cut a slot in the middle so it would slip into my sketchbook and then clipped it using some binder clips. The setup made it so I could have my paint palette sitting on the extension versus holding it constantly.

Right now the setup is all too bulky. My paint palette I find is too large and my jar of water is inconvenient to carry around and adds quite a bit of extra weight. I have it on my mind to condense my kit and invest in some better plein air equipment but until then it works.

This is the final painting after 45 minutes (give or take). I used Holbein Gouache. I like it because I can water it down so it has a more watercolor consistency but then also make it quite opaque. I’m working on my layering but I liked how it turned out.