WIP, Beynac, France

I'd hoped to be posting a new plein air painting today, but the plein air gods weren't with me. In spite of my best intentions, it was a Murphy's law morning, and I came back home with nothing but a wiper. Back in the studio, I took solace in a new 3x4' canvas. Here's the start:

Right now this probably looks a little like one of those red cliffs out in the Southwest, but it's actually a block-in for the riverside village of Beynac in Southwestern France. I'm experimenting with a little different approach here, blocking in the entire cliff and village as one mass first, rather than sketching out each little building individually.

This is more like the way my plein air starts are beginning to evolve now, with the idea that grouping related items into larger masses (in the beginning)  will provide me with a little more unity in color and composition early on. Here's hoping...this is the largest canvas I've worked on in a long while. More stages as they evolve, and as time permits.