The Baton Rouge Plein Air group painted at Cinclare Plantation in Port Allen, Louisiana at the tail end of the sugar cane harvest. It was a cloudy, humid morning, and we spent quite a bit of time looking for a paintable scene. There were several white houses along a gravel road that led to another cane field. The structures appealed to me, but it was the color of the leaves and the road leading to a neutral colored field that made an impression on me. Fall color appears late in the season in SoLA, and as long as there is not a lot of wind, it hangs around for a few weeks. Knowing the trees would be stunning just as soon as the sun broke through the clouds, I blocked in the shapes, pushing the color where I believed it should be (and because it’s what I do) and waited.
Finally, the sun appeared, throwing light on the yellow, orange and red foliage. The clouds disappeared, and I was able to put some blue in the sky. Happy Day!
