Gone Painting

Not all painting must be accomplished in one’s garret. Aside from leaving the garret to teach, another great reason is to go paint on location. Since my time at university, I have found painting on location and especially out of doors to be rewarding and good practice. It is good practice because it is a challenge – a challenge to seeing, a challenge to skill, a challenge to colour mixing, a challenge to speed. Anytime a painter paints outside, the scene is usually subject to change in a very short time. Generally, when painting on the West Coast, my goal is to complete a painting or have it very well established within half an hour, after that time it is a work-from-memory situation as the whole composition could have and probably has changed dramatically from when it was first started. A plein air painting has the special quality of being a moment in time captured in paint.

This entry was first posted on August 2, 2014.

“Gloria” – A sunrise painted on location at Jordan River. Watercolour on gessoed paper.