First, this is the top of Summit Hill, Brookline, not a vista from one of our more northerly rural states. Dense foliage covers a lot. And a lovely time was had with Elissa and Andy.
A year after my close encounter with vertigo, and subsequently staying far away from solvents, I was still using cooking oil to swish the paint off the brushes (using more brushes than ever), trying water-miscible oils, using many different solvent-free painting medium and staying far away from the phthalos pigments that magically get into everything. I knew what I missed most: the loose, lean, initial washes for the initial blocking in of values. I felt like a toddler who skipped his nap and is no longer fit to be in public. Missing this step was a big problem with plein air; in the studio where I work more slowly and have more tools at hand, not so much.
It was time for a test, I slipped some odorless turp into a portion of stand oil, I obsessively kept the cap on when not using it and set up at a nice breezy point on the top of the hill. Hallelujah! It worked.
Carol Schweigert 