Semi Plein Air

I suppose this watercolor is more plein photo than plein air. I wanted to experiment more with on-location watercolor but it's blazing hot out in the sun. So I opened a photo on my iPad that I took of a nice shade tree in Stowe, England, and painted from that. I was, however, sitting on an outside patio, so I think that surely must qualify as plein air painting.

Tree in Stowe, England

Detail

Plein Air Watercolor

Hill

Yesterday I stopped by the Arroyo Hondo Open Space trails to visit some friends who invited me to join them along with a group of plein air painters that meet at a different location every Thursday to paint landscapes (watercolor, acrylics, oil, pastels, or whatever you want to do). I didn't take any art supplies with me but it was nearby and I wanted to just check it out for future consideration.

It looked fun and I thought watercolor would be easiest to deal with while on location, so when I got home I dragged out what watercolor supplies I could find: an ignored collection of watercolor supplies that belong to Robin, a nice set of watercolors she bought for me at the Tate Modern several months ago in London, a set of watercolor pencils, and a pad of watercolor paper.

I’ve been wanting to experiment with watercolor, and I definitely want to experiment a bit before I paint with a group so I’ll have at least some vague idea of what I’m doing and what supplies I should take with me. 

This is the view of a small hill, extremely exaggerated, in the northwest corner of the property as seen from the front patio. This was fun. I think I’ll go along with the plein air people in the near future on one of their field trips, including a trip to some lavender fields in a couple of weeks.

Yoga Model

This week’s model was a Yoga kind of guy. Many of the poses looked stressful and hard to hold. The drawings below are some of the more relaxed poses.