PLEIN AIR PAINTING

An artist friend of mine and I have been talking about going plein air painting (that's painting outside on the site) since last Fall. Well, Monday we did it. We arrived at the chosen spot about 9:am and painted until 1:30, went to lunch, then got to our 2nd site at about 2:45 and painted until a little after 6:pm. I had attempted plein air painting twice before but couldn't stand the heat or the bugs and hung it up after about an hour. This time it was fun! Probably had something to do with having a buddy to talk to while painting. Somehow you don't notice the bugs or the heat nearly as much as when you're out painting alone. My blond haired "California girl", friend faired pretty well, but I ended up rather crispy (b in a few places. Note to self" Take sun block and a hat next time!!! It was a great day and I came home so inspired with painting outdoors that the next day I talked my mom into driving up the road a little way from our house, where there's 2 huge, beautiful, oak trees with a field of gold flowers behind them, and the two of us painted. It was great! Painting outside straight from nature is supposed to help you make better color choices and help you learn to paint better and I think that's true. My first painting Monday morning turned out looking like a pastel - without my realizing what I'd done. I stepped back and took a look at my friend's artwork and it looked like it came straight out of the field that we were painting - her colors were so true. Of course I had to sit back down and start adjusting my colors to the reality of what we were looking at, but the difference of what I had thought I'd painted and what I really did was pretty amazing. That was a lesson in painting from life right there. Posted today is the 2nd painting from Monday (that's right, I'm not showing the first one) with a little over 3 hours into it. It still needs to be finished up- more details such as the leaves on the trees in front of the church, etc., but this is what it looks like at this point.