THE ARTING BLOG: plein air

Showing posts with label plein air. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Getting Some Fresh Air

Dusting off my box easel to begin the outdoor painting season.

Oil on panel.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

On this beautiful Saturday I saw this odd object out in the yard and grabbed my watercolors. Believe it or not, it is actually a retort for pyrolyzing wood into charcoal that my father built. I feel like this picture represents a synthesis between my father's creative drive as an engineer and mine as an imagemaker. Also, eccentric forms like this demand to be painted.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Painting at Seymour Oktoberfest 2012

I spent this past weekend at the 40th anniversary of the Oktoberfest in Seymour Indiana. I decided to set up my easel and paint a scene of the bank along with the booths along the edges of the street. The following images chronicle the process:

Keying up the canvas:

Lots of people stopped to watch while I worked. It was encouraging to see that people are still interested in painting and respect the craft.

Progression of the painting:

I painted this scene over the course of 3 days to make sure that the light was consistent. Thankfully I established the direction of the light and the main light and dark patterns so I could still work on it when it got cloudy.

Adding a foreground figure helped to push the building back in space.

The folks at the red booth in the center of the picture bought the painting on the last day. I had offers from several other people as well.

"Seymour Oktoberfest" (SOLD) oil on canvas 18"x24"

This was the largest plein air landscape I have ever painted. I had also never painted from the same place over multiple days. I learned a lot about the advantages and challenges that the extended time, crowds, and changing weather provided. It was very exciting and rewarding and I look forward to doing this sort of thing again.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hampton Beach Sketch

Oil on canvas panel 9"x12"

I painted this while at Hampton Beach in NH. I had to work quickly because the figures and the ocean were constantly on the move.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Lake Massabesic II

A quick sketch from my trip to the lake this morning. Gouache & watercolor on paper.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Chicago Plein Air

A 5x7" plein air landscape I painted in Chicago last month. It was about 30 degrees outside (not including the wind chill factor) so the small size allowed me to record a quick statement before my hands froze.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Spillway, or Knife Fight II

Due to the unusually warm weather up here in the northeast, I traveled to a neighboring town with a good friend of mine for some outdoor painting. We took a dirt road to a lovely pond in a rather secluded area and set up (We apparently thwarted the intimate plans of several couples who drove up at different times and upon seeing us, quickly left).
As I was setting up my box easel at the small spillway at the edge of the pond I realized that I had forgotten to pack my brushes. Thankfully I brought my palette knife, which I used for the entirety of the painting. It was definitely an interesting challenge, especially figuring out the order of placing strokes to retain the proper edges. Here is the fruit of my labors:

Oil on panel.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Morning Pine

Oil on panel.

Details:

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Amoskeag Rock

Oil on canvas panel, 5"x7"

I used a painting knife for most of this small study. It's really handy for achieving both sharp & ragged edges. They also clean with a wipe of a rag so it's much easier to keep my color mixes pure.