Plein Air

Tee hee! I went out with two friends, yesterday, and painting outside. I've wanted to try this, but thought to myself that either I wasn't ready, didn't have enough or the right equipment, or some other  nonsense. One friend asked. I said yes and that was that. I packed what I thought I needed and all was well. The only note to myself is to bring additional paper towels, next time. I brought just enough, but could have needed more given my incident with the yellow paint. Also, my camp stool was okay, but it would be nice to have something with some back support.

We met very early, since it was ridiculously hot over the weekend, plus yesterday was the hottest of the long weekend. It hit over 100 degrees......in Minnesota......in May. We arrived around 7:30 and were done by 8:45.

I'm not sure I have the words to describe how much fun it was. Mostly we worked, but we also chatted. While we were setting up a guy came by who was walking a 3 month old golden retriever puppy. I'm not sure that it should be legal to be this cute (referring to the puppy). The experience introduced a new set of challenges including balancing a piece of hard board and paint on my lap, while keeping water and paper towels in reach and using a viewfinder on the big complicated world. Every so often, one of the legs of my 3-legged stool would sink into the ground a bit more, but I managed to not fall off or drop everything. It was a blast!

I started this painting, but did not finish. As usual, my brain got tired.

Later in the day at home, I used a picture to try and finish.

#224 - Plein Air #1 - 8" x 8" - hard board

I think I like the trees and the grass on the bank better in the in-process version. Still, I will probably keep this one, as a happy reminder of my first plein air experience.

Also, I did start a second painting, but I did not finish it. My brain was in overdrive mode. Rather than starting a second painting, it would have been better to pull out a pencil and paper and tried to do a little sketching.