Indiana Plein Air Painters Paint In

Through IPAPA, we were invited to paint from the collection of a couple in  Indiana who have an extensive collection of early Indiana impressionist paintings.   This is an excerpt from an early T. C. Steele (1885) painted at the end of his stay in Munich or shortly after returning.   The painting was very large and we only had approximately 3 1/2 hours of actual painting time.  I had to choose quickly of what to include and eliminate from the much larger painting.  This T. C.'s painting was "tighter" than his later paintings.  But, the thing that captivated me in the larger painting was the atmospheric background bringing you into the more intimate, backlighting of the figures in the foreground.