Plein Air - Drawing

I thought I would share my love of painting outside with you today. If you have never taken your painting gear outside, set everything up and worked from life, it is difficult to explain the experience and why I love it so much. Being out in the field for the last week or so working in an area I love and frequently visit has deepened not only my practice of working consistently and steadily, but it has also, surprisingly, deepened my appreciation and love for the woodlands. I didn't think I could love working in the woods more, but each time I go out I know I am where I am supposed to be. Everything around me is constantly growing, moving, living, dying. Paying attention to what you are observing is key. Quiet, focus and pencil/paint and paper are the tools. If you are there long enough, paying close attention, a deeper level of seeing can't help but rise to the surface.

I would love for someone to read this and decide to take a small notebook and pencil outside with them. Record something that catches your eye. Maybe just a tree or a small section of a car, a bush or a lampost.  It doesn't matter what you choose, it just has to have some interest to you even if you can't articulate what exactly your interest is. It doesn't have to be perfect. Be still and quiet and really look at what you are trying to record. Look at the relationships between shapes, which ones are bigger and which are smaller, how far is one shape from another? Look at the relationship between positive space and negative space. Sometimes your eye will try to fool you into thinking a line is straight when it is actually curved. Just such a situation is when relationships can help you see that curved line. Seeing is a lot more interesting and difficult than most people realize.

The photo above is a pencil drawing on 22" x 30" 300# Arches watercolor paper - a precursor for the painting - for my "Fallen" series. I've got three paintings going so far in various stages. I will also show you a quick sketch I did later in the day when I was packed up and looking for another subject nearby as the sun was going down. 

A quick sketch concentrating on the form of the tree in the foreground, and just beginning to flesh out the information behind the foreground tree. I am calling the series "Fallen" because the area I've been working in is rich with fallen trees, some down from recent storms, some fallen for decades. I am so drawn to these trees because of their beautiful forms and shapes, the broken limbs sticking up, the colors of moss and bark. The abstract qualities of the images I am drawn to are striking. Yes, I am seeing trees, leaves, branches, sky, but I am also (and more importantly) seeing shapes and colors next to one another on a flat surface - it's a fascinating idea. The large scale I choose to work in reflects the abstract quality of the images as does my choice to crop the image. Cropping the image down to just the part I find interesting, and right on the border of realistic and abstract, for me, is the most interesting aspect of painting. That line between realism and abstraction keeps the viewer fluctuating between reality which is limited to description, and abstraction which opens up a new world that cannot be described in just language - and what Kandinsky may have been referring to in "The Spiritual in Art".

I will post the 22" x 30" watercolor in progress soon. I plan to go back to this location and do a few more studies; it is a beautiful area.The woods have such rich character. I look forward to getting back out there tomorrow. Until next time!