I’ve had a few days of throwing myself into painting, it seems a bit of a shame to be sitting in a studio given these fabulous days, but I think the time is coming where we can get back to painting en Plein air.
One thing that has amazed me with the amount of time we now have for painting is how my paint you can get through. It had resulted in me using up all of those squished tubes and trying to substitute different colour combinations.
One of my favourite paintings has been an old rusty bucket that I first painted in 2018 in New Zealand.
This subject does have a lot going for it; it’s a simple enough subject matter but tells a story and has some battle scars to prove it, the subject also emerges nicely from the dark recess it was in and has a rusty metal sibling which helps with the narrative. In the original I had failed to get the dark dark enough and it didn’t blend seamlessly in with the visible detail of the subject. This produced a disconnect in the image. It is interesting that when painting a really dark space it does need to be quite a flat wash and therefore you need to mix up a lot of paint, otherwise you end up with shapes in the not so dark darkness. Both having enough paint mixed up and blending the light and dark seamlessly are challenging in Plein air painting, especially when your art kit is a tiny field box with three small mixing areas. I guess it highlights some of the differences between studio work and open air work.
Amazingly there have been some stunning warm, sunny and not so windy days recently which have allowed me to get back out doors again, bit it’s interesting how easy it is to forget part of your kit, which can be quite frustrating when you’ve spent 30 minutes walking to your location. So I thought I’d make a little list which then turned into this blog.
Here is my kit in all its glory. This is my acrylic kit, the watercolour kit is a little different. A list is shown below:
Field easel (Jakar) I chose this because it is light weight and the controls are chunky, it takes seconds to put up and adjust and can tilt the painting which is great for watercolours. It comes in its own bag in which I usually carry my brushes.
Brushes, I have four brushes, most of which are Jacksons Shinku synthethic brushes. Number 8 flat, 6 pointed, 6 bright and 4 bright. I also have a scrappy number 6 Crimson and Blake pointed for grasses. Which I guess makes 5.
The paints I’ve been using are Golden Open acrylics; cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, manganese blue, french ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadmium red, sap green and titanium white.
My palette is just a piece of white plastic cut into shape. It is very lightweight but needs to be cleaned before it gets packed away. Its also quite small but suits the canvas boards I’m using
Three little water containers and a bottle of water for drinking and painting.
A couple of canvas boards, its useful to have two in case I have energy for two paintings, but it is also useful as a sandwich board in case the painting is not dry when I have to pack it away.
A raggy cloth to dry brushes, wipe the canvas, and clean up afterwards.
My sketchbook, clutch pencil and eraser just for notes or a warm up sketch. Don’t forget a couple of clips to stop the pages blowing in the wind.
Plastic sealable bag to put paint tubes in so they don’t make a mess of my rucksack.
Fleece and waterproof coat, weather on Inishbofin can be fickle.
Small rucksack to carry it all in.
I have seen people with pull along (wheelie) bags but as I’m stomping through the peat bogs I’d rather travel light.
Here it is in action. I’m part way through this painting of The Stags. The scraping lines that you see in the painting are actually from another painting that was on the board but didn’t quite work. It’s one of the things I quite enjoy about acrylic painting, not only can I use the board multiple times but the under painting helps with the second painting.
In my next blog, weather permitting, I’ll take you through my plein air process. I hope you’ll find it useful. I find plein air painting requires a different approach from studio painting (when time and weather outdoors are limiting factors).
If you have any questions about painting outdoors let me know and I’ll try and answer them.
Sorry I couldn’t resist that title (for any Star Wars fans).
How quickly the last 28 days went by, it’s time to taste airplane food once again as we head home to enjoy a late family Christmas dinner!
We’ve had an incredible adventure, some of the world’s best hiking in New Zealand with the freedom of our own car and tent as well as the incredibly generous hospitality of SERVAS and Airbnb hosts. Explored a small portion of Australia’s vastness by Greyhound bus and caught up with many Australian friends, relatives and again wonderful SERVAS hosts. We’ve been charmed by our first step back into Asia through Vietnam, onto sleepy Lao, temple filled Cambodia, an unrecogniseable Thailand and ‘little India’ Myanmar, although I’m sure the people of Myanmar won’t be too keen on that reference!
All these countries have been very welcoming as well as inspirational for travel sketching. I’ve learnt a great deal and have thousands of reference photographs to complement the four sketch books I have completed. I have enough material to paint from for the next two years at least; people, buildings, objects, cityscapes and landscapes.
Tranquil water at NgapaliThe watercolour has been challenging and at times I’ve yearned for a big canvas and some acrylic paint so I can have a bit more freedom but I feel I have also been free with the watercolour, for example not drawing the scene first but relying on good observation and committing myself with bold brush strokes. Using the Alla Prima method of painting shapes has also helped simplify some of the subjects. My colour mixing and knowledge of the pallet I’m carrying with me has improved immensely and has become instinctive. I throughly recommend keeping a simple palette and mixing your own colours it makes life easier, not to mention cheaper, in the long run. The same goes for brushes, having a few brushes means I’ve learnt to use my small selection of brushes in several ways in order to create a full range of marks (wearing them out on the way).
Painting on the streets, at the station, in the cafe and at tourist attractions sometimes with quite an audience has been an experience of its own. I found it depended on the stage of the painting as to how welcome the audience were. When I started a painting I felt I really needed to concentrate and engage with the scene, this framework stage was the most critical to get right and really needed no interuption, so sorry to those viewers who were expecting me to chat to them at this stage. However once the foundation was down the pressure eased a little and there was a bit more time to acknowledge onlookers. That said I find painting quite meditative and whilst I’m happy for people to peek over my shoulder I’m not generally sociable as I do not want to break the connection and flow that develops along with the image.
So here it is, the last Chedi…
Temples of Bagan – The last Chedi
I appreciate that’s a lot of words but if you have any questions about my experience of painting en plein air feel free to add a comment to the blog and I’ll get back to you, as soon as we are back on solid ground.
Happy painting and thank you for following this blog.
An Artist on Tour 