Place and Process: plein air vs. Photo reference

I often sit down with my materials, curious where to start. No photo is jumping out at me. No inspiration to be found. Dry, grey, tired. I choose a photo and pick up some charcoal. The sketch is starting to awake some excitement. I move on to a little white oil paint with equal parts medium and start to paint around the charcoal. Oh, the effect is wonderful! I grab oil pastels, applying colour, I start to form a background. Yes, gentle background, the colours are gentle, building slowly in intensity as I move to the foreground. The water, formed of separate marks, I map out the water in areas of colour. These areas of colour are connected through the reflections that form. And now for the branches and tree that create the point of sight, the context of the viewer. I am back at the pond, where I once held a camera. I am staring through trees, watching the water’s movement, taking in the colours. Here I am. My process of painting is like the walk that I took to get to this pond. Although this journey is a little different, it involves a walk, a path, to get back to the pond. The pond is there, but getting there takes a little work.