There is a scene I love, something I have wanted to paint for several years. It embodies the best of Tulare County to me – agriculture and the mountains.
I’m not sure where the best place is to set up to paint this, I don’t remember where I was, and I don’t want to go driving around. This scene will lend itself to the plein air style of painting, so why not try it?
When I finished painting, I snapped this photo and sent it to my mom, a former orange grower. She said, “Where were you?” I said, “In my painting studio, standing in front of a photograph”.
I felt like a poser or a cheater. But why? This is a legitimate way to produce paintings, just different from the layers and layers that I am used to.
Now that I look at the photo of the finished painting, I want to “fix” it, detail it, color correct, tighten up things.
HEY YOU– PUT DOWN YOUR BRUSHES AND STEP AWAY FROM THE EASEL! (or else run the risk of converting it to the style I prefer and thus defeat the purpose of learning to paint differently.)
6 Comments
The “plein air” style might challenge you as an artist, but frankly, the results of that style look unfinished and out-of-focus to me. The more realistic, the better, I think.
YEA, MARGIE! Someone who agrees with me. . . Why do people like paintings that are best viewed from the back of a fast horse, anyway?? THANK YOU!
I have found all the new Palin Air painting information very interesting, but for me I love all the paintings you do from working from photos, that you have done all these years to be my favorite of the two types of painting. I truly love your pencil drawings also! One thing for sure, you are a wonderful artist!
Virginia, one thing is for sure with you: you are a wonderfully encouraging friend! (And my favorite medium will always be pencil.)
I like it. It’s lovely. It feels more dreamy or something without the well-defined lines and yet it’s easily identifiable. Congratulations on moving outside your creative comfort zone (says the non-artist).
Thank you, Melinda. I can’t decide if I like it or not. My opinions are tightly woven with years of striving for greater and greater realism, which makes it very difficult to be objective. Besides, who can be objective about one’s own work?
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