Westpunt, Curacao ~ Potomac Artworks

12.01.2014

Westpunt, Curacao

My trip to Curacao over the summer will provide endless painting material over the winter, which won't be a bad thing at all.

This painting is based on a photo I took at Westpunt, which is Westpoint in Dutch. I was located at a restaurant across this bay, where a popular past time is jumping off a cliff into the blue water, below. (No, I didn't do it!)

Westpunt, Curacao
pastel on prepared pumice surface
12x16

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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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12.01.2014