On Halloween Day, I painted with two friends in a field. I was drawn to several strong horizontal shadows from the trees, but they were taking attention away from the water, so I scrubbed them out. Another major change from reality was that after finally deciding to include the tree line, I pushed it back allowing a little sky to show. I like that a subtle version of the blue water hue is repeated in the sky. I was a little distracted while painting this because the fall colors are really brilliant and I wanted to put them all in. I am getting better at realizing that what is good for nature isn't necessarily good for my painting.

My friends and I have been painting once a week and are hoping that the local art association will decide to add a plein air category to the annual show.