From Natty Bo to CamdenYards ~ Potomac Artworks

9.23.2014

From Natty Bo to CamdenYards

Baltimore is a world unto itself and I love it. As a small child, my now teenaged son, who had easy access to the wonders of Washington DC, would exclaim, "Baltimore is my favorite city in the whole world!" He was highly motivated to make the one hour drive in order to visit the B&O Railroad Museum as well as the features of the Inner Harbor, like the National Aquarium, Constellation historic ship, Coast Guard vessel, WWII submarine, and water taxis. Delicious crab cakes from Fells Point made our stomachs happy, too.

This painting is from an image I took from the eastern edge of Baltimore near Dundalk, back toward the winking, red neon, National Bohemian beer sign to the glow of Camden Yards in the distance. It was during the second home game of the season this year. The sky was celebrating in Orioles orange.

From Natty Bo to Camden Yards
soft pastel
9x12 on black Canson
(Private Collection)

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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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9.23.2014