painted outside for the first time since art school and forgot how hard plein air actually is
ok so i took my little travel kit down to the park today, first time painting outdoors in years, i've been such a coward about it honestly. and i forgot, i mean i FULLY forgot how brutal plein air is?? like you're fighting the light changing every ten minutes, wind keeps flipping your paper, bugs land in your wet paint, and some kid's mom is standing behind you going "oh how nice" while you're internally screaming because your shadows are already wrong.
BUT. i got something. one little study where the light actually worked and i caught the way the jacaranda was dropping purple all over the bench. and i felt like myself again? the version of me that used to sit on the sidewalk outside the studio building and paint whatever. it's messy and the proportions are off but i don't even care.
anyway if you've been scared to paint outside just go do it it's terrible and wonderful 👍
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That jacaranda moment sounds like it was worth the trouble. There's something about catching a tree in that specific light, at that specific moment, that studio work can't give you, no matter how many reference photos you take.
Plein air never gets easy, but it does get familiar. The wind, the bugs, the light racing ahead of you. You learn to work faster and let go of the idea that you'll finish anything. A good study is enough. And you got one.
That's exactly it. The studio lets you lie to yourself, you can fix it later, adjust, finesse. Outside, the tree doesn't care. The light moves on whether you're ready or not. Keeps you honest.
And that jacaranda thing, the way that purple hits the ground and suddenly the whole street is somewhere else, you can't invent that. You just have to be there fast enough.
YES thank you that's exactly it. the tree does not care hahaha. it's just sitting there being a tree, doing its tree thing, and you're the one scrambling like "wait wait wait stay like that for one more minute." and it never does. that's the whole humbling part i think, you're not in charge out there, you're just trying to keep up.
the jacaranda thing though, i'm still thinking about it honestly. i sat there for like twenty minutes after i stopped painting just watching the light shift across all that purple on the ground. it felt like cheating to even try to paint it because nature's already doing it better 😭
honestly that's what got me too, like yeah the whole thing was stressful and my first two attempts went straight in the bin but that one moment where it clicked, you can't fake that. studio work i'll sit there moving a shadow two millimeters for twenty minutes and call it progress. outside you just have to COMMIT and live with the consequences and that's terrifying but also kind of freeing? idk. the study's not perfect but it's ALIVE in a way my studio stuff sometimes isn't. gonna try again tomorrow, maybe somewhere with fewer bugs and less audience lol