Using Watercolors En Plein Air

I like painting en plein air (outdoors) but have mostly used acrylics since I started painting with the Cincinnati Brush & Palette Painters. We go on an annual fall trip and last autumn's was in Hillsboro, OH.

 

This year I want to go to the trip location early and scout out some subjects to paint in advance because I wasted a lot of time doing that in Hillsboro; the sunny weather was pretty and the fall color spectacular so I was just having fun looking at potential painting sites. I liked how the downtown area was decorated with these pumpkins and cabbages, so I decided to see how well I would do outdoors with watercolors.

Enough that I want to take them out with me every week this summer and on our trip to Madison, Indiana in the fall. When I first started painting with this group, I guess I assumed that I needed to finish the work I started that day on site. And I have done a few successful alla prima paintings from our weekly outings.

But even with watercolors, I see that if I can get the basics down on-site, there's plenty of room to go back and work on these paintings later in the studio. I need to keep this in mind when I paint!

It feels sort of like it does when I'm singing in the Sycamore Community Singers or with the Sycamore Presbyterian Church Choir: I find that I sing a lot better once I've memorized the music. I think if I can get "the bones" of a plein air painting down while we're outside, then I'll be free to really paint it once I get back home, with the memory of being on location coloring everything I do with it later.

In business, we used to talk about the Conscious Competent, Conscious Incompetent, Unconscious Competent, and Unconscious Incompetent. As an artist, I think I work best as an "Unconscious Competent" because when it's really happening for me, I'm not even thinking about why I'm doing what I'm doing; in fact I'm hardly even aware of it. And of course, I've certainly been an "Unconscious Incompetent" because one has to be brave and risk failure to be an artist! As one of my old bosses used to say "You can tell how good an artist is by the quality of work thrown into his or her wastebasket (or painted over)."

Right now I'm having a lot of fun being a "Conscious Incompetent" by trying all kinds of things I haven't done for a long time in order to practice, learn, and get better at them. Watercolor painting for example: I started a large one yesterday inspired by a photo of irises that I love. And I may try painting that same subject tomorrow in acrylics. Or even with knives in oils.