Finally, I painted something plein air at home that I like! There are so many elements to making a successful painting, and when you throw in the idea that it is a subjective type of thing, where every viewer has a different opinion, how can a painting ever be judged successful or unsuccessful? De gustibus non est disbutandem which means “it is useless to argue over matters of taste.
Success!
On day two of the plein air painting workshop, we were admitted to a private estate on 1000 acres on St. Simons Island. We drove about 1-1/2 miles behind a locked gate to reach the grounds of the home. Out of respect for the homeowners, I will eliminate many specifics but will show you photos.
We began the day with a tour by the caretaker, and then were set free to find a place to set up. This time we were on our own; Laurel didn’t tell us where or how to paint, although she circulated among us the entire time (and collapsed my beast of an easel on one visit!)
After lunch, we put the final touches on our paintings and then chose a new location for the afternoon.
We interrupt this travelogue to bring you more examples of practicing and putting to use the skills I learned in Georgia.
The Kaweah Post Office was awful. I spent more time on it in the painting studio.
The next time, I set up inside the painting workshop with the giant doors open up to the outside. This one turned out a bit better than the P.O.
Finally, in preparation for an upcoming exhibit called “Seascapes”, I went through my photos of beach scenes and chose one to try in the plein air method. This means painting quickly, front to back, dark to light, and finishing in one session. Have you ever heard of someone doing plein air painting from a photo? I haven’t.
This one was completed while listening to Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty get interviewed by Donald Miller. He talked a lot about having fun, and I had fun while painting this. Will I have the courage to enter this in “Seascapes”? More will be revealed.
On day #2 in Georgia, we gathered at a former plantation to begin painting with Laurel. There were 7 students, from Texas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Central California. (Yep, I think of Central California as a separate place from the rest of the state.)
The Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation is a State Historic Site, where rice was grown, and then after Emancipation, the “enterprising siblings of the fifth generation. . . resolved to start a dairy rather than sell their family home”. (Taken from the official handout at the park).
We wandered around doing sketches to get the feel of how to start, and then Laurel demonstrated for us. We followed her lead one step at a time while she circulated among us, offering tips, helps and suggestions for improving our paintings. The most important thing seemed to be setting up in the shade! Yup, humid and buggy, although I was never aware of getting bitten until I was scratching like a mangy dog at bites I didn’t know had happened.
You can see we are all painting the same scene, which is in front of us, but simplified and refined by Laurel. Real life is too full for a little 2-D canvas, particularly in this style of simplified shapes.
This was a long post. Tomorrow I’ll show you what I saw after the painting session was finished.
The travelogue is now getting interrupted to show you what happened when I tried plein air painting back home in Three Rivers.
The Kaweah Post Office is a subject which I have drawn and painted many times. I am currently without an oil painting of it, so it is on my list to paint next. “Excellent! I’ll just drive the 6 miles there and set up my easel so I can put what I learned in Georgia into immediate use.”
It was one thing to paint with a group of folks painting along with an instructor; it is another situation all together when most of the people driving or walking past are people you know. (And please, do NOT honk – it is very alarming!) I felt self-conscious and pretentious, but when I looked at my little old Accord, “Fernando”, it brought me back down to reality. And no one has ever died from feeling self-conscious.
The easel that I borrowed in Georgia was a “french easel”, and it was a beast. (Laurel collapsed it into a pile once when she was helping me!) I have the same type at home, only 1/2 as wide, and it is sturdier than the loaner was.
I began by looking at the PO from several angles and doing the sketches to decide which was best. The angle I liked best was a combination of liking it, and having a place to set up on the narrow shoulder of the road.
Is the painting finished? I don’t know, but I was finished with standing by the side of the road.
This painting is going to get reworked in the studio, no doubt about it. I won’t turn it into my normal almost photo-realistic style, but something needs to be done.
I figured out why I don’t like this style. I’ve been wearing glasses and contacts since I was 8 years old, trying to be able to see details and edges and distinct shapes. Why would I like purposely blurring things? Of course I don’t like it! But, I will continue practicing in this style of painting so that I can paint in Mineral King. Never mind that I don’t want to be working while the entire world is on vacation. It is stupid to not tap into the hoards of visitors, stupid stupid stupid.
So there, Central California artist. Don’t be stupid. Keep trying this at home. You can look at wildflowers when you are finished.
Want to buy a wildflower book? 😎 The signing will be on Saturday, April 27, noon – 4 p.m. at the Three Rivers History Museum.
I read about St. Simons Island, love the beach, learned that an artist needs to paint plein air, “met” an artist who teaches plein air on St. Simons Island, and met a real person who lives there.
The real person invited me to stay with her and her family at their home by St. Simons Island.
So, I am going next week. Flying to Jacksonville, Florida, driving to Brunswick, Georgia to stay with my friend’s cousins, meeting Laurel Daniel in person, and joining a three day class on St. Simons Island to learn to paint plein air.
This is Uh-May-Zing. Truly.
Normally I NEVER say that I am going away before I go, because this is the World Wide Web. This time is different. Trail Guy will be home with Scout when she produces our grandkitties and is taking that duty very seriously.
Who knows what sort of stories I will tell you next week? Time will tell if I will be able to post to my blog in real time the experience of being on St. Simons Island, meeting Laurel, learning to paint plein air. If I go silent next week, just figure that I am completely in the moment.
In yesterday’s story beginning, we learned that I liked the beach and reading. Where are we going with all this?
I also loved to draw and figured that when I grew up, I’d live at the beach and be an artist who painted. Instead, I live near and sometimes in the mountains, and I used to only draw. I also paint now, but this has never felt as good as drawing. Doesn’t matter, because I can learn to paint better.
When I began painting, a painter I admire a lot told me that although he is a studio painter, it is very important to learn to paint “plein air”. This means to paint on location rather than from photos. I thought, “Ick, no thanks”. I may have said that very thing, and he responded that it really helps an artist develop skill.
That was in March of 2006, and I did try plein air painting on four occasions. It was much harder than I imagined. I didn’t enjoy the experience (such terrible incompetence on public display) and the results did not please me. I had to do a lot of work in the painting studio afterward to turn them into paintings that I was willing to sign.
Why am I telling you all this? Come back tomorrow.
In reference to plein air painting, a friend who is a watercolorist emailed me and said, “I thought as a oil painter you would be into it.”
That is a common assumption about oil painters.
(My friend is more artistically adventuresome than I am. She goes out in an atmosphere where sometimes the watercolors evaporate before they are fully blended!)
When I took a studio painting class, specifically called “photo-realism for studio painters”, the teacher asked how many of us wanted just studio painting and how many wanted the photo-realism aspect. Very few were in my camp, and he told the class that it is just a matter of tricks that anyone can master. (He never did address nor explain or demonstrate those so called “tricks”.) Then he set up still life arrangements and made plans for us to go out plein air painting. I signed up to specifically learn to be a photo-realist studio painter, so after half a semester, I dropped the class.
Sigh.
So, here is the progression of my own weak attempts at plein air painting. It is a Three Rivers scene, which you probably figured out all by yourself.
Block it in from photos while in the studio
Set up on location and make a few stabs at improving it. More was revealed in real life than from the photos – that was helpful.
Finish it up in the studio.
The finished piece is spoken for, but the “buyer” doesn’t want it yet. Hmmm, any other offers? Until money exchanges hands, it is simply conversation.