Finally tried painting outdoors and the wind won
Tried plein air for the first time last Sunday. Picked a little spot by the creek, got all set up, and the wind just wrecked me. My easel tipped over twice, a leaf landed wet side down right in the middle of my sky, and I packed it up after about forty minutes with maybe ten minutes of actual painting done.
But here's the thing. I got more done in those ten minutes than I do in a whole afternoon of painting from photos. The light on the water was doing something I've never been able to fake in the studio. I've been chasing that same look for weeks from reference photos and it's always flat.
Now I'm looking at those little wind-proof clamps for the canvas and a heavier easel, and I keep checking the forecast for a calm day. I think this is my new thing. Just wish I'd tried it before I turned forty.
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the leaf landing wet side down in your sky is almost too perfect. i'd have kept it honestly, just painted around it. that's the kind of accident you can't manufacture.
but yeah, the photo thing. i think that's the part people don't warn you about. you spend years convincing yourself you can capture enough in a reference and then the actual moment shows up and it's just... different. light moves. it's not being stubborn in the studio, it's that the light is already dead in a photo. you're painting a memory of a memory.
the wind will always win, that part doesn't improve. but the ten minutes thing, you'll chase that now. good luck getting anything else done on weekends.
On keeping the leaf, I get the instinct. But you made the right call packing up. A leaf in the sky is a one-time gag, not something you build a painting around. You'd be painting the story instead of the light, and that's how you end up with a gimmick.
The photo thing though, you're right about it. I worked from photos for years doing commission pieces and it's a different animal entirely. A photo flattens everything into what's in focus. You lose the weight of things, the way the air sits. That's why so much studio work looks stiff even when it's technically fine. You're not missing a technique, you're missing the moment itself. No amount of skill puts that back in.
Ha, the easel-tip dance. At least I know it's a rite of passage now and not just me being hopeless with equipment.
That second part though, that's good to hear. I was half convinced the whole thing was a fluke, that I got lucky for ten minutes and it'd never happen again. Knowing the light stays different out there, that's worth the wind. I'm already eyeing a day this week to try again somewhere less exposed. Maybe I'll figure out the easel stakes by then. Maybe. 🙂
Ha, "the light is already dead in a photo", that's exactly it, I just never had the words for it. I've been staring at my reference shots for weeks thinking I was missing some technique thing, some glazing trick, and it's just that the photo is a flat little ghost of the moment. The creek light was doing that shimmer thing on the water, and even a bad painting of THAT beats a good painting of a dead photo.
Next time I'm definitely keeping the leaf. My husband said I should've framed it, honestly. Wind and all, I'll probably do it again this weekend if the forecast behaves. It's addictive even when it's frustrating.