New Plein air kit.

For many years, I heard the act of painting outdoors is beneficial to a studio practice and I've really been on the fence about it. I was not convinced that lugging all my heavy portable equipment outside to paint would be 1) any fun, 2) have any affect on my painting skills.

Last year, I decided to give it a whirl and went out in the neighbourhood with a small set of watercolour paints, some watercolour paper and a bottle of water. I started in February, which was, maybe, a little eager. It got cold, windy and rainy some days. I did get some lovely little sketches if not completed pieces onsite, I certainly finished them pretty easily back home with a warm cup of tea.

Here is just one example of the small watercolours.

As the spring progressed I got busy in the studio with my regular large oil paintings and lost the rhythm of painting out doors.

Opus had Michael King (Click on his name to go to his website) come in and do a presentation of his plein air practice, his gear that he took and the surfaces that he painted on. It was really fascinating. He shared a resource for a small, lightweight pochade box, which is an palette/easel set up that you can easily transport on location for an outdoor painting session. Here is the link for it: Daybreak Easel

Earlier this year I purchased the box that Michael recommended. I'm so pleased with it. It has a 9x12 palette area for mixing paint and two wings that fold out to hold your brushes, paper towel and palette knife. It also has a hook on the front for a small jar of linseed oil.

There are two levers on the back that swing out and they slip over the legs of a tripod, holding the palette tray in place. On my adventure to the thrift store for a small jar, I though of checking on a tripod as well. Wow! they had a professional photographers tripod for $20.00 amazing. I was skipping out of the thrift that day.

Down to the beach I go.

By the time I got set up, I had about 30 minutes before I had to head back home. I basically blocked in the painting and got a feel for being outdoors. I find it so interesting how my brain works. This was my first time with oil paints outdoors and of course, the marks I was making were not like my studio pieces, and my brain was telling me "give up, you are not good at this, look at this rubbish". Yikes. I quickly told it to shhhhsh and kept going.

On day two I had a better idea how to set everything up and got right down to business. I was at the beach for 2 hours. Come on, sunshine, seagulls, lapping waves and a t-shirt = awesome.

One piece of equipment I added was a little viewfinder. This is a plastic tool that you can open to the same dimensions as your canvas and use it to orient yourself to the image you are trying to paint.

Oh boy, did that give me a new perspective. I was trying to cram too much information into my little painting on day one. Once I realized that, I totally revamped the composition, simplifying what I was focusing on, so much better.

P.S. The mark on my nose.... my rose bush bit me as I was pruning the canes ready for the spring growth. The dangers of working around roses.

Day three should see me finishing this gorgeous little painting. Stay tuned.

I don't have a clear plan just yet for selling these little beauties, however, if you are interested in a small piece of art I will be listing them on my website, for now. I may have these as a small art project for my upcoming display at the Landmark Pop up Gallery in May.

Here is the link to see the pieces I've listed so far. Small Art

I hope you have enjoyed my little adventure with plein air painting. More to come.

Have a great rest of your week.

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