Gray day on the Potomac

Had my first plein air (that's outdoors, for those who don't know) landscape class today. It was almost a disaster. We were supposed to go to the boathouse in Georgetown, but it looked like rain, so we stuck around the art league building. I could see that a lot of the other students were very experienced, which was a bit intimidating. After I got there, I discovered I forgot my white paint, which is the one color you can't paint without; and I use a different type of paint as everyone else, so I couldn't borrow it. Finally, the teacher, Sarah Poly, was nice enough to lend me her entire paintbox, which was wonderful. I ended up having only 1.25 hours to paint, with unfamiliar materials, and I just attacked the canvas without having time to think. There's a lot I didn't know, and for the first 75% of the class, I thought it was going to be a disaster of a painting, but I'm happy with the final result. After all that, I'm proud to say that during the critique, Sarah used my painting as the best example of how to make it work. :)

I can really see my watercolor past coming to haunt me in this one. I'm including a photo of the scene where I was working. The location is a small park in Alexandria at the end of Duke St. Note to self: Even when the sky looks like this, I can still get a heckuva sunburn. Bringing #50 sunblock next time. Oil paint, 9" x 12".