The Great Outdoors

Painting on location in the great outdoors, or Plein-air painting has been a new and exciting experience for me. I attended a workshop on Plein-air painting last night that I would like to share. For all you Texans the pronunciation is plen that rhymes with ten, not plain. Both my recent try at Plein-air and last night’s presentation were inspirational enough to blog about. It is educational for those interested and a reminder to me of the basics for my next outdoor painting experience.

I have had one Plein-air painting trip to Galveston. Our group of three drew quite a crowd with oohs and ahhs. I was having great fun painting the sails of the Elissa until they moved the sails on me! 

You need to paint quickly and small. Take a picture before you start painting just in case they move the sails on you. Find a good cross light where patterns of light and dark are accentuated. Paint them first—as they will change. Look at the shadow to determine where your light source is coming from and exaggerate it for drama.  

Plein-air painting can be used as studies for larger creations or to loosen you up, like gesture drawing does.  Although you can’t possible paint it all, your main mission is to decode the vast amounts of detail into a simpler version of itself. Placing a compliment next to a color gives a shimmering quality to the subject matter and using strong value contrasts with 4 major value scales imitates the drama of natural light. 

During my first Plein-air experience I took too many tubes of paint. Next trip I will try a pallet of both warm and cool primary colors with white and black instead. There is also a wet canvas carrier I want to look into. I plan to bring a black board to prevent light from shining through the back of my canvas. Some prefer board or canvas panels. A viewfinder would come in handy as well. Using a horizontal pallet prevents a value change that happens when the light is cast on a flat pallet. Pale Drying Oil was also suggested as a medium. It is nearly as fluid as walnut oil though it is quite a bit darker. As far as its drying ability, it is said that a layer of paint could be touch dry in less than 12 hours. I have got to give that a try.

Thanks Lisette, Jim and Bill for your all your advice. I can wait to try capturing the great outdoors again.