Poolside

Today was plein air day - I ummd and ahhd as to whether to go and was given the push by my husband. Had a lot of fun - time flies painting outside!

I really wanted to try painting with a limited palette but I am not sure that I succeeded. I still had way too many colours on my palette! cadmium Yellow light and medium, cadmium red light, alizarin, ultramarine, white and sap green. I regretted not having my favourite payne's grey or black. And no I didn't do a colour study! But I did do a value study. Not so sure how accurately I kept to that as I was just really aware of how fast the shadows were moving.

Chocolates

I did get out to paint plein air today but I have it posted on a private blog for critiquing so just some sketches today of chocolates. I've given myself the evening off practical work for more study and note taking.

I've been carefully studying other artists landscape work and in particular their brushwork. Sargent is a wonderful example of outstanding brushwork. It all seems to be about suggestion and letting the viewer create their own interpretation from the information given. This is the painting of Sargents for which I had been searching (Thank you, Karen, for finding it. Jeanette, the one you gave me is very similar and is as good an example) which shows how he masterfully demonstrates this suggestive quality (I had in particular been drawn to the silverware on the table). One of the books I recently brought says that you should paint according to what your eye sees - if your focus is on one object that is what should have the most detail while the peripheral objects should be more suggestive with only as much detail as is necessary to reveal them as they would appear in your field of vision.

I've also been reading, both in books and on blogs, about minimising the tonal values in a plein air landscape to 4 or at most 5 in an attempt to simplify the landscape. Severtal artists advocate doing a thumbnail tonal value sketch and also a thumbnail colour study. Kevin McPherson (Landscape Painting Inside and Out) suggests using a large brush and doing 2" x 3" thumbnails using the the closest colours to the landscape. Vicki McMurray (Mastering Colour) also suggests colour thumbnails to check the balance of the picture. Both if these, I feel are things I need to include in my practice as I am sure they simplify the actual painting process. Lots to chew over and absorb!

Some wonderful snapshots on my drive in to paint today - the soldier sitting on a chair in a tented camp with towel draped around his shoulders, his friend giving him a haircut and there were boys playing cricket in our street, the wickets set up either end of a very short "22 yards" were concrete blocks!

Plein Aire

I really wanted to go and paint plein aire today but I have too much to do at home (those horrible domestic things that get in the way of painting) so I stayed here but determined to at least try something new. This is the view off my back balcony to the neighbours house behind us. There were nice shadows cast off the angles of the house which is white. Trying to get distance into each step back in the building was interesting and working with white walls and trying to create some difference between those closest and those further away but still in full sun was difficult.

Last night was the first night I have missed my daily painting in over three weeks but I was totally exhausted when I got home from work. Its funny how quickly something can become a habit. And how quickly you can lose them! (Guilt here about not working out! Something had to give!). I'm trying to decide whether to go with canvas panels or stretched canvases for my next order. I do really like the "boing" factor of a stretched canvas, but thinking about how quickly daily paintings are going to add up bulk-wise if I do them all on stretched canvases.