Last weekend I participated in a local plein air paint out and even though I was prepared, it was still challenging! Does it ever get easier?
I paint outside often in summer and I have had the same palette of colors for many years (this creates easy prep). Additionally, I know my equipment and can set up my pochode quickly. Along with my paint gear, my backpack has:bug spray, sunscreen, water and snacks. Another timesaver is scouting locations before the paint out--important so that I could head to my painting location the first day right away.
The first major issue that I faced was heat and thunderstorms - plein air pros know that weather will always challenge a paint out. Since I am not a big fan of the heat, I decided I would paint quick and small paintings, focusing mainly on 8x10s ( my gameplan). I have been practicing completing an 8x10 plein air painting in an hour for a few years now and the less time in the heat, the better.
My second challenge was painting storefronts and structures as I typically paint nature scenes. I have love little storefront vignettes but I don't paint them often and this paint-out was limited to a small downtown area. Since heat and storms were expected I started my first day early, in downtown painting a pretty storefront (painting shown above). The storefront seemed simple but was complex to paint, including the chairs and table set up out front. I decided to exclude half of the table legs and chair legs as they were a complex mass of x's. I am an expressive painter but I struggled to determine how to simplify the storefront structure. What goes in and what should be left out to keep it expressive and loose?
After the morning storefront painting, I met up with art friends at a park, where there were a few historic structures. Many of the artists in the paint out were at this location painting images of buildings, so I chose to paint the pond and trees and sky. I loved the stormy grey sky. This is what I am more comfortable painting, water and trees. In the afternoon it got warm so after 2 paintings, I headed home to rest and recover- I was hot, tired and achy. And, I had some brushes to wash and prep to do for the next day!
The next morning was stormy and rainy; however, by 930 the storms had moved on so out I went to paint. Again the skies were interesting and blue and grey with clouds. So I tried to find a place near downtown where I could get a sky view. I found a great back parking lot--it takes an artist to see the beauty from the parking lot. I loved the vista from the parking lot, I saw many painting possibilities. As I looked around I saw a great white construction trailer under some trees--this would be a fun structure to paint. So I painted the trailer in the morning and then turned a bit to paint the sky and trees in the afternoon (painting shown here). Since it was getting hot I rushed through the sky and tree painting, and it turned out the fourth and fastest painting ended up being my favorite!
