Mason's Landing to the Potomac Study ~ Potomac Artworks

6.17.2013

Mason's Landing to the Potomac Study

Needing to flex our plein air muscles, we recently went to Gunston Hall, the Mason Neck home George Mason, Patriot and author of the Bill of Rights. The home is located on a hill, up from the Potomac River, and it has a small feeder branch from which Mason received shipments.

The watercolor underpainting was done at the same time for a larger work on Pastelmat. That painting follow...

Mason's Landing to the Potomac Study
soft pastel on Uart 400 with watercolor underpainting
4x6

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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.

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6.17.2013