Studio Notes and Reflections

  Part Plein Air, Part Studio I’m not an experienced plein air painter, but I value the merits of going outside to paint.  I agree with the view that you are never going to learn what light can feel like, what real color and atmosphere is by working from a photograph.  Nothing will force you to ‘get on with it’ than racing against a sinking afternoon sun.  Volume and shape are not distorted by a ‘flattening’ photograph.  Besides, it is great to be outside.   Last fall, full of 'plein-air'  ambition, I set off into the wilds of my central Texas neighborhood green belt to [...]

I never look out onto an open field at sunset without a sense of just how much work farming is.  Ranching too.  I took a lot of liberties with the light of the dirt road.  In fact it is made up of a few strokes of fluorescent pastel.  The photograph does not translate the optical effect of using a fluorescent color.     I'm laying on the pastel here with abandon, I do not have much time.  It was iffy to use such a textured surface for such a small composition, but because the shapes are so simple, I think I got away [...]

October 7, 2019   The much-awaited cold front blew in to central Texas in the wee hours of the morning, and it is finally below 90 degrees.  It was just like this last January when I went out to the Blue Hole in Georgetown to attempt some plein air painting.  I was startled to find kids actually swimming there.  If you have never been to the Blue Hole, it is a park with one side facing limestone cliffs and a good strong stream that cascades over a man-made wall.  The kids were standing on this wall, obviously really enjoying themselves on this rare [...]