June in Monet's Garden

June in Monet's Garden
Oil on panel, 14x18

I started this painting during the STEMS plein air event at the Overland Park Arboretum.  The day was hot and I had to set up under a small tree opposite this scene.  Another artist warned me of snakes so near the water - and not long after a very long snake swam across the lake toward this little inlet on the left!  I finished the sky and the water today, as well as cooling off many of the very warm tones I had painted in the heat.  I also widened the path to gently lead the eye more deeply into the painting.  In reality, the flowers are so dense - they divide the landscape in half, hardly showing the narrow path.  I barely got this 38th painting done under the wire!