Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Day 66 - Plein Air?

You decide!  I paint out my window in the cool ac. Essential in the humid south.

September 10 Out My Window

I seem to paint this three four times a week.  

Today I painted this in my new as in page 4 of my Handprint journal that looks like a Moleskine but the paper...well that paper.  It's not up to snuff...thinner. Doesn't lay flat when its dry.  And acts odd. I don't know how to explain it. Almost like hot press?  It just seems to repel the watercolor at times. 

The wash on the paper dried so fast the paper seemed to suck up the water...perfect one second DRY the next. I was amazed it dried so quickly!

 Took a while to get this one where I liked it.  The trees are already turning gold on the river. And I always love the gleam of the sycamore bark in the sunlight.  

The skies which had been full of puffy white clouds as I ran errands today of course were overcast with a little blue by the time I got home...hmm where did those lovely skies go?? And OF COURSE as soon as I got done painting a nice blue sky again with puffy clouds!! Darn!!  

Painted with cerulean and cobalt in the sky with yellow ochre and raw sienna  added for the greys.  The trees are Daniel Smith New gamboge, Green Apatite, Hematite, Indigo and touches of white gouache for the sycamore trunks.  

Really like the trees today.  I started with new gamboge then added the Green Apatite - Don't you love that name?  Then I darkened it with a bit of Hematite and alot of Indigo for the dark darks.  The way the paper drank the water I didnt have a chance to scratch in tree trunks so I painted them first with Indigo and then with some white gouache.



This is where I sit in front of the sliding doors in the den and paint out my back door.  Paints are on a large industrial sized cookie sheet. Includes the water and paper towels and other things like markers.  I use one of the  Fiesta Ware cups to keep the water in.  Don't want it to spill, since I am rarely where I should be painting...works great on the new sectional sofa! Don't tell anyone!!
Also great for clearing up your mess if the need arises...or moving your set up quickly!

My palette is a Holbein handheld palette that folds up from www.artexpress.com.  Expensive but I love it....not so heavy as those enamel butcher trays!! 

The stool is a folding stool that I picked up for $5 at Marshals...short people can NOT have enough stools...especially when you add a nice feather pillow to sit on while you paint!!


River Bend

Pretty soon this will be the view out the window.  Leaves are beginning to fall.  This is a pencil sketch on Bristol board I did out my window a few winters back...does that count as Plein Air?!  I do love Nekkid trees!!

Thanks for looking!!!

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