My plein air group PAPO (Plein Air Painters of the Ozarks) was invited to the garden party that Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. They wanted it to be an educational experience for visitors so can learn how artists take in the outdoors. They even provided the guests watercolor supplies! CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE BIGGER VERSION
My thumbnail sketches
Something I am training myself to do more often is to draw thumbnail sketches of my composition. I don't know if I actually enjoy doing it but I seem to sell most pieces that I take time to do it for lol
drawing
Then while keeping an eye on both the subject and my chosen thumbnail composition, I draw. I have double vision problem so when I feel intimidated by all the details of a landscape, I use modified contour drawing method.
Painting begins
I build up the painting from light to dark which gives me option to change things as as I go and slowly enrich the colors. Note on the upper part of photo, a guest was painting along with me. She's a jeweler and we had a nice chat while painting :)
Finished in Bentonville!
On my way home I saw bicyclists posing in front of this wall for photo so I thought I'd get my shot too :D
This evening, Friday, November 20, a plein air group I belong to PAPO (Plein Air Painters of the Ozark) is having artist reception at the Visit Bentonville which is in Downtown Bentonville, Arkansas.
Please click to play video ~
"En plein air (French pronunciation) or plein air painting, is a phrase borrowed from the French equivalent meaning "open (in full) air". " ~ Wikipedia
They tend to be smaller paintings.... 4"x6" - to whatever size the artist chooses. Common sizes are 4x6, 6x8, 8x10, etc. The tradition is the artists paint as much as they can while at the location and call it good. Some use the paintings as studies for a bigger paintings they plan to produce in their studio with the help perhaps of some photos they took. I often paint on location, take photos, and finish the piece in my studio. I also occasionally embellish my final results by adding people, etc. A local artist I highly respect made a statement I can't forget. Fred Betz declared that "Every landscape needs something that poops!" Since that time it's been very difficult for me to leave a landscape painting without adding something two-legged or 4-legged!
Some of the paintings at the PAPO show 2015
Plein air pieces I tackle are fairly manageable sizes so I usually go ahead and frame them myself, mostly to save on expenses. It's not because I take joy in handling a whole different set of tools from my paint brushes to hammer and electrical things at all, since I am extremely bad with measuring and numbers and I am always in danger of damaging the painting because I am mostly working with one arm! Those wires in the back don't ever satisfy me at all because they're never as tight as I'd like them to be. Still I'm definitely grateful that I can do it at all and as I said, to cut back on expenses and keep the prices more reasonable.
So I thought I'd go ahead and create short video of what it takes to prepare for this art show. I'm sure fellow artists would say it's still a very limited depiction of what we had to do. For instance, it took a couple hours designing the installation; moving the paintings all over with people climbing up and down the ladder. This was all before the title cards were organized with great precision and exhibit statement was written up. I must say the group did a mighty fine job to get us ready for the curtain call!
