At a Distance, Painting with John MacDonald, from the Unrecognized Essential Workers Series

Out Painting, ("socially distanced") with my friend John MacDonald on the Deerfield River. I was doing a plein air watercolor of him as we talked about the difficulty in nailing the intention, composition and values in 2 hrs and wouldn't it be great to have that all worked out in the studio and go into the field to add the color, (kind of a reverse process, we had talked about this in the past). My intention was to follow that idea, capturing the energy of Johns' intensity while he is focused on painting. I took the watercolor and some photos of John and created a tonal study in raw umber and white, then returned to this spot on the river with John for 2 more sittings to add the color, this is the result.