30 in 30 Rounding Home ~ Potomac Artworks

9.26.2014

30 in 30 Rounding Home

I have finished my 30 paintings for this month! And it only took 25 days! If I am able to work on some larger ones next week, I won't stop at 30. I am really enjoying how loose these miniatures are. It'd be fun to translate them larger.

(My plans for the weekend preclude painting, so I actually got them done in advance. Woo! for the artist with little sense of time!)

(I spent the day as the desk jockey at my gallery today in Building W-9 at the Workhouse and had to do something!)

So here ya go. They will be gradually uploaded to the challenge site as the days open up for posting.

All are 2.5x3.5" in soft pastel.

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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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9.26.2014