Poly Plein Air Workshop 09 ~ Potomac Artworks

6.01.2009

Poly Plein Air Workshop 09

Like the last weekend of May 2008, I was able to take another Sara Linda Poly workshop. Last year, I did pastels one day, oils the next. This year was all oils. Both were in the Leesburg, VA vacinity.

Saturday was comprised of a demo by Sara and several 50 stroke paintings by us, much like last year. I found 50 much more difficult than the 25 from last year and she chose to request 25 for the second day. With 50, one loses track of strokes easily and the urge is to just paint. It is much easier to be true to 25. Over the course of the weekend, I did seven, several of which I'll show here over time. I did embellish several afterward.

Following is Sara's demo, two sheds on one side and one on the other. It was a pretty little painting and I realize where I borrow my style now.

After the demo, while we were out working on our 25 stoke pieces, she laid in the final "dots and dashes" to complete the painting.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Charm of en Plein Air

Much of my work is done en plein air, French for "in the open air." People often associate it with the Impressionists, but the move to paint outside preceded them by a number of decades. The trend to appreciate landscapes as a genre at all was new for the time.

Several characteristics contribute to the distinctive beauty of en plein air painting. They are generally smaller in size in order to be able to capture a scene in a single sitting. Because of the time limit and environmental factors such as the sun and shadows moving, they often lack extensive details and might appear slightly fuzzy or unfinished. Lastly, they tend to have a freshness and spontaneity which makes them impossible to compare to traditional and methodological studio work. That said, my own studio work tends toward the same feel as en plein air, which then identifies my overall style: softness with an edge.

My aim when painting en plein air is for alla prima paintings, which roughly translates for me as "what happens outside, stays outside." It adds another level of difficulty to the work.

Pages

6.01.2009