PLEIN AIR PAINTING CHALLENGE
APRIL 2015 – PLEIN AIR PAINTING CHALLENGE
Moyra Le Blanc Smith NaturalArt
‘Rail Trail Gums- Melaleuca Road’
Plein Air Painting Challenge -The Idea
After spending months working on studio paintings for my exhibition, I was longing to spend more time outdoors. I was also looking for a new challenge, so what better way than to set myself the task of painting a completed painting, outdoors, every day in April? My studio paintings take much longer than that to complete so this was going to be very challenging but achievable I believe. I made a rule that if there was a day that I couldn’t paint, then I had to make up for it by painting two the day before or the day after.
The goals?
* To have fun and enjoy the mild Autumn weather.
* To learn about plein air painting and develop skills which will help me with my studio work.
* To develop a looser, more confident style.
* To test different surfaces and primers in order to find my favourites.Every day I would complete my painting and write a summary of my thoughts, colours used and what I had learned.
I have included images of most of the paintings with a story about each day.
‘Barwon Heads Bluff’
Conclusion (Did I achieve my goals?)
Each day I awoke with a sense of anticipation. What would today’s painting look like? There was a lot of close weather watching which wasn’t always an accurate prediction of the conditions I encountered.
In some cases, when it was time to head out in the morning, I still hadn’t decided where to go and just headed out and followed my nose.
Plan B (for extreme conditions only), was under the roof in the garden. That’s still plein air right? (I only had to resort to this once.)
Did I have fun? – Oh yeah, there’s just something about being outside in the breeze (well wind, mostly), birds singing, waves crashing and fully emersed in the subject.
Did I learn a lot? – Most definitely.
Did I become more confident? Yes, as evidenced by the change in the paintings from the beginning of the month to the end. Hopefully this translates over to more confident studio paintings in the future.
I hope that the feelings I experienced whilst doing the paintings will be transformed into works of art that will allow the viewer a little look into that moment in time and place.When the last day rolled around and I realised I had achieved my goal, there was a great sense of satisfaction but also a tinge of sadness that it was all over. I wasn’t sure what to do so, naturally, I went out and painted!
What I learned
A huge amount!
If you’re interested in reading the full story and daily diary with most of the paintings, e mail me for a copy of the FREE 36 page eBook.
email: moyra@moyraleblancsmith.com