I saw the Plein Air April hashtag going around for the first time this year, and thought it would be fun to make an extra effort to get out and do some plein air.
Here I am on Christmas Day in 2020, I made this photo after doing a quick livestream of getting some plein air painting in.
Plein air is, perhaps oddly, one of my favorite things to do. I love it. I’ve done plein air on my birthday and also Christmas Day, both are days where I think about what I would like to do most. Plein air painting also got me through the end of 2020 and 2021. I was incredibly lonely during the lows of the novel coronavirus crisis, and being outdoors and making art was something that was decidedly safe.
A plein air painting I made near a river in El Dorado canyon in 2021
It’s an odd thing to love, because by my own assessment, my plein air paintings are usually not good. I might have a good one that I do, one out of five outings. It’s terrible odds. It’s a highly ineffective way, for me at least, to make pieces that might be good, or that might sell.
But I keep doing it because I enjoy it. I enjoy plein air painting because every time I go out, I learn something new. I love learning, and plein air is a high-intensity way to learn. It’s more likely for me to fail at plein air than succeed, and that’s where the learning comes from.
Even if the plein air painting I make on any given day isn’t good, it’s still the best possible painting I could have made at that moment. When I’m painting en plein air, I find I am doing my absolute best with what I have. Plein air is a way for me to leave it all on the field.
Plein air versus studio time reminds me a bit of how a science experiment can be structured in the world or in a vacuum. The studio is like the vacuum, it’s a resistence-less environment. The plein air environment is like stepping out of the vacuum.
Maybe the thing about plein air is that it pushes me so far out of my comfort zone that I get stronger and faster in ways that I couldn’t have imagined. Beyond the frustration and the gear obsession is the kind of artist growth that can’t really be put to words.
One of my first plein air paintings in April was this one, facing the flatirons from Wonderland Lake. I had a lot of fun making this. It’s small, I think it’s a 5 x 5 claybord painting.
Apparently Claybord is a little unusual to use for oil painting, but I didn’t know that! Gessobord is supposed to be better than Claybord since it is less dry, but I didn’t have any issues with the Claybord
This next painting I was able to make at Chautauqua. It was fun to get out, I went with my baby. This one is also about 5 x 5 inches:
I did a painting on Pearl Street too (photo at the top of this blog, haha)! The tulips on Pearl are a can’t-be-missed kind of situation each year. City paintings are something I’ve never done before. I had a lot of fun. This was a slightly larger painting than the first two, and on plexiglass instead of Claybord. I ended up scratching this painting a bit somehow, which is pretty fair game for plein air, yet very easy to fix eventually!
The next plein air journey I went on in April was to the Red Rocks trail in Boulder, one of my twitter friends went with me and we painted for a while. My baby also went along for the ride. The red rocks are always a fascinating rock formation to paint.
I ended up getting some dirt on this painting, which is pretty typical for plein air, which I will brush off when the painting dries completely.
For the last day of Plein Air April, I went back to Wonderland and painted some hills from a different angle. I ended up liking the painting I made a lot, it’s drying now so I will try to get a photo of it soon. It was pretty toasty out so I packed up relatively quickly after unpacking.
I actually tried an acrylic painting first on this outing, which is the panel that is in the photo above. The acrylic painting I tried was so terrible that I gave up almost immediately and switched back to my usual medium of oil. I think my brain was in oil-paint-mode which doesn’t work well with acrylics!
So that was my Plein Air April! I really enjoyed participating in this hashtag/month/event. The good thing about plein air painting in April is that it has geared me up for a summer of painting, which I am very excited about.
Until next time, thanks for reading!