Plein air is not my usual method, but here I learned a lot. I stood in a small park at the foot of Allison Street on a cloudy day, simpifying and simplifying. The geese in the foreground are gone. So are the people lounging on the float to the left. The vessel almost looks like a child’s bathtub toy, and all the boats passing in the canal as well as moored to the opposite shore are missing. My actual topic was the light and its effect on the water, the clouds, and the roof of the blue building.