I took this photo (and a bunch of others!) on our trip to La Jolla last week, and painted outdoors, and had a wonderful visit with my nice brother and sister in law, and spent time with my husband that I truly enjoyed, but... I got really chilled while we were at the beach, I ate restaurant food that really disagreed with me, and I'm STILL recovering a bit from my fun.
I know a lot of my artistic friends and teachers advocate painting on site, but I always seem to be a bit wiped out from the experience. A more practical approach seems to be to take a lot of pictures, pay attention to how everything looks and feels to me while I'm there, and remember as much as I can from observing, and doing the painting part of it at home. I have a wonderful walled and shaded patio, with hummingbirds, flowers, and now it has outdoor speakers (Yule present from my husband!) so it's hard to beat for inspiration and comfort.
I enjoy painting "en pleine aire" or at the location, but I burn, freeze, have stuff blow over, need to have basic facilities that don't always exist, and pay for it later physically, so a lot of the time I'm just better off and more able to be creative if I do some or most of it right at home. B*B, Ysabeau
In my opinion, the most important thing is that you are painting. You have enough imagination and sense of "spirit of place" to convey that in your painting of a location, whether the actual painting is done onsite, or in the back of a pick up truck :-}
ReplyDeleteHey Diana - painting in the back of a truck sounds like fun! TeeHee. Sorry I've not stopped back recently - too many holiday chores/family/work/life-stuff. I love seeing your new work, but you have a great eye, completely evident in your photos!
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of camera do you use? The spray even felt color just looking at it!