Plein Air Painting

I like to paint outside during the school holidays for a few reasons. Firstly a couple of weeks of no painting is way too long for me. I just can't not paint. There's not enough time to be in my studio and get stuck into a painting and it may be many days until the next chance so there's no 'flow'. Secondly it's a great lesson in observation, it teaches me to really look and paint what I see not what I think I see. And lastly it's good practice to have to paint fast and freely. My studio paintings get so precise and detailed so it's good to be forced to capture the feel of a place quickly and spontaneously.

So, during the school holidays when we head out to the river or the beach I bring along my bag of paints and a piece of canvas. In between swimming, boggie boarding and snorkeling I speed painting my favourite places. I say speed painting because I never know how long I’m going to get. It could be minutes or hours. One day I was just getting to the best bit in the foreground when I got, ‘Mum, I have to go poos. Now. It’s coming now!’. That was a quick pack up. Another day it was, ‘Mum, bees are chasing me, Mum!!! They got Felix. Mum he’s got two stings’. And another day they climbed a pohutukawa tree above my head and got stuck.

I’ve found the process trickier than I remember. With studio painting your reference material stays still and you can zoom in plus you get lots of days to put in so much detail. I put down many layers letting each one dry before the next goes on. When outside it’s all a lot messier and faster. Less layers and more slapping it on. I also find myself looking at my painting a lot and assuming what colours to use rather than observing and keeping my focus on my subject matter. One of the downsides of having created a lot of work over the years is I have a successful formula that I follow. The great thing about this plein air summer is having to break that and really look at what I’m seeing and copy that instead. I’d say it will have a positive effect on my usual work once I do get back in the studio.