The Frustrations of Plein Air

My first Plein Air class went off without a hitch.  We had beautiful weather.  My second one, not so much.  We set up our easels in the beautiful Fenway Rose Garden (something you can only do with permission) and began our paintings.  The sky was clear and it was so sunny.  We began our paintings of wonderful rose filled arches and blossoming bushes.  I was very excited because my painting was coming along nicely.  Being in New England it is not completely far off to have a huge storm come out of the middle of nowhere, and that is exactly what happened.  We were somewhat prepared for it because we had heard there would be some rain so we all planned to head for the covered benches.  Once we felt those first drops that is where we all headed.  Well, the storm clouds rolled in and the rain hit full force – sideways.  Everything of mine was drenched, including me.  We managed to avoid getting hit by the lighting bolts that were coming down to the left and right of us. 

This was when I learned my first lesson in oil painting.  I looked down at my friend’s painting and hers looked great; the oil didn’t absorb the water at all, the water just ran right off.  You could have dunked her painting in water and it would have looked fine.  Then, I saw mine.  ALL of the paint on my canvas was running to the ground.  I had been using water-soluble oil paint and well – duh – it’s water-soluble.  So in the end here is what my painting looks like… 

Wet Painting

Lesson learned.  Don’t use water-soluble oils when painting out doors if you think there is any chance of rain, or if you live in New England! 

As an end note I will probably give this painting a second chance and start over, so you may still see it in a gallery someday!

 

Happy Painting!

Mary

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Great Painting Workshop – see the difference!

It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a structured art class.  So I was so excited when I got the chance to study with Joel Babb at the Fort Point Studio School in Boston.  It was only a two day weekend class but what I’ve learned has already had an affect on my painting technique – specifically Joel’s technique of mixing colors and setting up the palette.  Joel is an amazing artist and if you have a moment you should check out his work at http://www.joelmbabb.com.  The most important (to me) part of the workshop was learning how to set up a palette so the colors can be organized by hue, value, intensity and shades.  For me it created an organized palette to work from.  I have two photographs I want to share with you.  The first one below is a painting I had started years ago and have been struggling with ever since.  Then, following the workshop I decided to give this subject matter another shot so I started another painting using the techniques I used in the workshop.  It is unfinished but if you continue scrolling down to the second painting you can see the difference.

Untitled1

Untitled2

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