I’ve painted a lot of pictures. Always using models, still lifes or photographs. I still had never painted en plein air (means “in the fresh air”) until last Friday.
A friend was throwing a party and asked me to help out by painting something while guests walked around drinking wine and listening to music. A pretty cool idea if you ask me, the artist being part of the entertainment. I declined at first, letting her know that really wasn’t how I paint normally but she offered free drinks and food so I gave in.
The party was being held in the clubhouse at this fancy new apartment complex right outside the city. I set up on a balcony looking down on three resort-style pools with a stunning backdrop of the Blue Ridge. You couldn’t ask for a better scene for painting.
Unfortunately the “fresh air” was cold and wet. And windy. There are several fingerprints in my painted sky from where the wind kept blowing towards my easel and knocking my canvas towards me.
But the painting went rather well. I ignored the people milling around and concentrated on my composition. Not referring to a photo like I do normally, I had to mentally frame the scene and even caught myself doing those silly L gestures with my hands as I tried to get an idea of which parts of the view would make it onto the canvas.
I started “sketching” in the mountains and outlines of the pools, hoping it looked good to those passing by. I added some color and soon my interpretation filled out the canvas.
Most of the guests left me to myself but a few stopped and complimented me so it wasn’t too nerve-wracking being on display. I finished it a couple hours later (had to, the sun went down and I could no longer see much of the scenery, and I was freezing!) and went to get some wine while the paint dried. I would recommend acrylic paint for plein air painting; it will dry before you have to stick the canvas in your car. Not to mention oil needs to be thinned with turpentine and you don’t really wanna carry that around with you.
I definitely went outside my normal comfort zone and tried something that is not my normal style but ended up with a work that is typical Pinkie. I also finished a work in a couple of hours when normally a painting can take me up to a month. I would recommend trying this method of painting to those who are used to painting inside. Make sure it’s earlier in the day and with nicer weather.
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Tagged as: charlottesville, plein-air painting
hey there stranger! nice post. makes me wish i could paint beyond a first grade fingerpainting skill level. (with the exception of the unintentional jackson pollock imitation or the pan and roller method of interior walls)
congrats! I’ve always struggled when trying to paint plein air– by the time I get all my acoutrements together and myself comfortably situated, I end up bored and distracted by a n y t h i n g I can keep my attention on– ooh, look at that bee/fly/person/leaf in the wind. It is an excellent exercise in seeing, though.
I would recommend watercolor/gouache over any other medium for it, though. I saw a while back on Instructables how someone made themselves a tiny palette/paint tin out of an altoids tin & polymer clay– that plus a brush pen filled with water (crucial!) are the way to go.
I have a really cool en plein air to show you tomorrow. I won’t steal your position today, but this is one of the coolest pieces of art I’ve seen ever.
Good article, by the way!
@1: Yeah, still haven’t gotten around to hooking up my computer at the new house yet.
@2: I’ll have to try the watercolor suggestion sometime. Let me try to find that tutorial on Instructables too.
@3: Sweet! And thanks!
Here! And what’s a brush pen?
I searched around a bit for the post on James Gurney’s blog where I -think- I first saw them but couldn’t; this site has a fellow yakking at length about them (don’t you feel like artists do this a lot about their materials?!), but in a helpful way.
If you’re a control maniac like myself they can be very tough to get used to, but since plein air isn’t about crazy detail usually it works.
Ooh, I want!
i have two questions:
- what party?
- how did we miss it?
- can we see the painting?
that was three questions.
It was a party called “La Dolce Vita” thrown by local event company Soirée productions at the Woodlands. The party was mentioned on cVillain last Friday. I can put up a photo of the painting Monday.