February 12, 2010 Getting Started

It's taken six weeks, but I can finally respond to those who ask me about a New Year's resolution. I'm going to use this blog as my sketchbook, and hopefully share some of the wonderful places I go and wonderful people I meet! Add some images. Add some art thoughts. Plein air painting is, simply, painting outside "in the air" in all types of weather. It's a very personal way to see the world.

Yes, I go out in the snow, in the rain, in the sun and in the everything-in-between days. I prefer the perfect day, but in New England (and other places) the weather changes in a heartbeat. The trick is to get outside, and get started.

Today the sun rose in a clear sky. The sky was bright/light aqua with a ramp toward creamy yellow. In front of the sky, tree trunks stood bluish-gray, and the snow beneath them and closer to me wanted to be a grayed cobalt blue. It reminded me of Maxfield Parrish, although I hunted for one of his morning paintings and didn't see the same color combo. The sky was gorgeous blue all day, and in the late afternoon I drove around looking for a view with the last light on the snow, a twinkling bit of yellow-white. The sunset wasn't as beautiful as the rest of the day. Didn't paint today. I dug out a new sketchbook and made plans to paint with another artist on Sunday. The painting shown here is a oil I painted last winter. Some of the sites I looked at today were of the along the Aspetuck River, the ice was breaking up and the water, dark tealgreens and ultramarine blues, bubbled along a zig-zaggy path. I was looking for something like this previous scene, with red berries on the bushes and maybe an evergreen . . . red, green and blue against the snow. While the painting above is an oil, my preference is to paint in watercolors. Not quite warm enough to paint with watercolors outside today. I'm watching for whites in the landscape . . .