Over the last three years I've experienced significant growth in painting en plein air. After this last shockingly successful autumn, I wanted to share my journey of going from "what the heck am I even doing out here?" to "wow, I really captured the feeling of this place!"
Howdy - I'm Lauren and I've been painting almost exclusively in watercolor for the better part of a decade, only recently taking on the challenge of painting en plein air (outside.) They say watercolor is the hardest medium, and I don't dispute that. And if painting on site is the hardest way to paint, then I am attempting a double difficult feat. It's pretty daunting, especially when I look at all the pros out there so confident, and rightly so. They seem to so easily capture the light and essence of the wonderful scene they are standing in. I wanted to gain those skills and confidence too, or at least feel like I've started on the right path. So after a lot of time in the studio and a lot of lessons, I tested the water and then jumped right in. And promptly climbed out of the pool, freezing cold! I got back in eventually, and now consider myself a pretty good swimmer....painter... you get my analogy!
The first time I tried painting outdoors was during a road trip around South Park, Colorado. It's a desolate valley with only one town really, Fairplay. There were plenty of sweeping grasslands crowned with cobalt mountains, so I thought it would be a good place to experiment. I figured the shapes would be easy enough to capture. What I didn't count on was the wind! I had to hold my foam backboard as I worked, otherwise the wind was determined to throw my paper into the woods.
We parked and I taped down my paper to the foam board, then adjusted my easel. I realized I probably wanted to sit, and needed shelter from the wind, so I sat facing out the trunk of the car. It felt a bit awkward with my feet not being able to touch the ground. The easel also felt too far away in this position, but I was not used to standing since I only painted in the studio previously. Here was how I set my palette up:
Not exactly an organized work area, but it was really fun to try to capture the lonely landscape all around me. I managed to produce some decent paintings, too, and I happily took my souvenirs home. Not a bad way to spend the weekend! Here are the final paintings, with the tape on:
The bottom right painting turned into my inspiration for some fun 3x5s I completed in the studio later. I definitely wanted to try this again soon!