A Brush With Rusty
A Brush With Life

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Plein Air-A New Adventure in Watercolor

Garden Tomatoes
Alla Prima 
Watercolor
6" x 6"
$35.00
(includes custom 12" x 12" mat)

I've always been more of a "studio" artist.  I take my photographs and studies into
the studio and workout my paintings before I begin.  This has served me well.
When the opportunity came up to take a plein air workshop with Christopher Leeper 
at Studio 14 I saw an opportunity to expand my experience and perhaps improve
 on my scenery painting.  So I headed out with my watercolor supplies and easel to
 practice painting  "plein air" before the actual workshop.  It was a challenge.

Challenge, true, but an enjoyable  as I experienced the panoramic view, sounds and smells,
the frustration of changing light and distilling information.  Yea, I needed the workshop.
One afternoon (before the workshop) I really wanted to feel that I had accomplished
a painting.   
So limiting my view to a garden spot, and sitting on a case with my pallet 
on the ground I painted these glorious tomatoes.  I loved the smell of the plants as
the breeze drifted over the garden, felt the heat of the sun bare down on my back and 
kept an eye on a huge yellow and black spider in a web that was about 2 feet wide.

All in all, I painted six different landscapes and one garden tomatoe.  

I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop.  Chris was a really good teacher with a relaxed manner.
I appreciated the information on capturing shapes and values.  The most valuable reminder as 
a watercolor painter was to go warm before considering the cools.  

I think when I pack up my
supplies to head out to paint plein air at the October Paint Out in Tipp City on the 20th I will
be a more confident painter.