I’ve been away for awhile so no blogging. Having just recently returned from a fantastic trip to Cambodia and Vietnam and settling down again which is a bit hard to do, I thought it would be nice to share my experience of plein air painting, which I had not done for many, many years.
The main reason was work commitments with often very long hours so all my painting was done in the studio often at night. And often using photo’s as reference material. Nothing wrong with that but I found a distinct change in my style of painting once I was outdoors.
First I would find a suitable subject to paint and then I needed to set myself up comfortably to paint which wasn’t always easy, particularly when travelling overseas and considering weight of materials etc.
Sometimes I was lucky, such as finding a table in an outdoor restaurant. Lunch and painting. Perfect. Sometimes I would find a piece of concrete wall to sit on and would be surrounded in short time with locals wanting to practice their English. All good and good fun.
What I found interesting was that my style loosened up. I would have only so much time to sketch the subject then start adding colour. I was surprised at how much freer I felt and it was nice for a change. There were some times where I was squashed into a low and rather uncomfortable plastic chair, but it made me more determined to continue till I was satisfied with the painting, rather than give up and find another, more comfortable spot.
Now back home I will definitely get out and about and do more plein air painting. I will be able to speak the local language as well. Bonus.
