Alan Flattmann Workshop with the Pastel Society of Virginia ~ Potomac Artworks

11.11.2014

Alan Flattmann Workshop with the Pastel Society of Virginia

Over the weekend, I arranged and attended an Alan Flattmann workshop with the Pastel Society of Virginia. It was fun changing up underpaintings on sanded paper using workable fixative and charcoal instead of watercolor, which I often use.

My paintings are on the far right: Times Square after a rain and a Curacao village on a cliff over the Caribbean Sea, both requiring a bit more work, plus there's a third behind them of a Curacao inland house, which needs a lot more work. The brilliant one of Times Square will appear in our Building 9 Featured Artist Group Exhibit, "Festive Lights," at the Workhouse during December and January.

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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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11.11.2014