Saturday, January 3, 2009

"A Warm Day"

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I can't believe it is January. Today's temperature is above 80 F here at Austin. It feels like summer. I went out and did this plein air painting. To do plein air, you want make sure you bring everything you need. I really learned the hard way. When I did my previous plein air, I forgot to bring my tripod. It wasn't too bad. I set my open box M on a picnic table. Well, today I went to the same park again. I remembered the tripod this time, but I found I did not bring my canvas. "Well that's it" I told myself. So I had to go home. After I got my canvas, I went back. I setup everything and started painting. Then I found I didn't bring my palette knife. I use it a lot to mix my colors. I was really frustrated, but I didn't want to go home again. I ended up like a man in the Stone Age. I found a piece of tree bark. That was my palette knife of the day. I hope you plein air painters do not like me.

6 comments:

WCaro said...

Plein air is like going camping but with an extra box of painting stuff. Tree bark for a palette knife? It is like camping: tree stick for fire.
Enjoy all your paintings.

Kim Carlton said...

I've done that too, so I made out a detailed check list which I keep in the pocket of my gear bag. I have it memorized now but I still check it every single time I'm leaving, just in case!

Art with Liz said...

Your trials and tribulations have certainly produced a great painting.

Anonymous said...

What a great story! The tree bark worked great, I love the volume in the tree and right hand foreground mass. I have a small bag that is an almost duplicate tool kit to what I use in the studio that I keep ready to grab for plein air painting. It can be frustrating when you don’t have a certain tool with you that you are used to…although a mark of a very good artist when you can improvise your tools to produce a painting like this.

Jala Pfaff said...

What a beautiful painting! And a very funny story. :)

StilinStudio said...

I loved the story, but the painting is even better! What a fantastic result for such a problematic plein air day!