Back to Plein Air Painting

The landscape show is over and I am ready to get back outside to paint. I just finished several spring-time paintings from sketches that I began outside last year. My favorite is Spring at Lock 16 shown above. I especially liked the way the figure fits into the scene. I found her in a sketch book from several years ago. It's a great pose from a 15-second sketch.

I have been accepted into Plein Air Easton, the premier plein air painting event in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The event is in July, so I have to get ready. I get a bit rusty during the winter cooped up in my studio. I like the idea, as Asher B. Durand did, of returning to the same spot for several days to finish a plein air painting.

Tomorrow morning I will begin painting outdoors at a Washington Society of Landscape Painters paintout at one of our favorite spots: The Old Anglers' Inn area of the C & O Canal and the Potomac River. I have already done two scenes there but tomorrow (if it doesn't rain) I plan to paint some large boulders and rocks looking south down the Potomac.

In future blogs, I plan to show sequences of my plein air paintings.

Wine and Cheese, step 12

Finally, the finish



To finish the painting, I added the little parallel gold bars on the inside of the frame, adding a few highlights and shadows to give them depth. To fill the empty space in the lower right, I added two flowers which now help bring your eye into the painting. The leaves are strategically placed to give direction to the viewer.

As I see it, the eye travels along the lower edge of the painting until it reaches the green leaf, when it travels up to the flowers and back to the left following the direction of the pointy green leaf. The eye then travels along the side edge of the cheese board, checks out the grapes on the table, follows the corkscrew up to the silver dish of grapes, meanders through the wine glasses, up the wine bottle to check out Andrei’s painting on the wall. The lower right hand corner of the frame points downward to the vase of flowers, where the eye can finally exit the painting! Whew!

Wine and Cheese, step 11

Coming down the finish line:



The frame around Andrei's painting had really been bothering me. The inner area of it has these little parallel bars of gold wood on top of a gray background, and I had sketched them in hoping that would work. The more I looked at it, the more I knew it wasn’t working. There were so many of them...they weren't parallel, they weren't the same size, they were wonky. In other words: SLOPPY.

So I sanded the surface lightly, and painted the background area gray. After it dries, I will add the gold parallel bars VERY CAREFULLY.

I eliminated a lot of the fussy areas of the cloth and just went with suggesting some gold sparkles in a random pattern.

While I was working in that area, I refined the cheese tray and added the wire cutter on the side. I like the way it breaks up that side area. A little wood grain also helps break up that side.

Wine and Cheese, step 10

Filling in some blanks


As I said in the last step, I was going to have to let the painting tell me what it needed. It cried out for me to fill the large empty space on the table between the silver dish of grapes and the cheese board. I made the dish overflowing with grapes...so many that they spilled onto the table. These additional grapes make a nice transition and fill an unsightly area.

The background looks cooler, but I haven't touched it. It's a variable in the photography.

I then did the writing and illustration on the wine glass...they are only suggested. It looks like writing, but it is unreadable. I did the same with the label next to Andrei's painting.

Wine and Cheese, step 9

Some more decisions


I redid the background in a warmer tone, adding glow to the painting. Then I darken the water in the vase to correspond with the warmer and darker area.

I refined the drawing of the wine glasses, added some highlights and cast shadows. For the record, when I am not painting, the wine glasses and wine bottle are covered with saran wrap to keep the wine from evaporating.

I painted in the tag next to the painting, which I had auditioned in the previous step.

I still have two particular areas to resolve: on either side of the cheese board and in front of the vase. At some point I'll figure these out. The painting will eventually speak to me and let me know what I have to do.

Wine and Cheese, step 8

Making more decisions



You can see I have put the corkscrew back in, but I have turned it differently so that it doesn't look as heavy. In fact, it is rather interesting, being able to look inside of it. I was having a great problem drawing it until I arranged a sight-size set-up that I wrote of earlier.

Also I had the brilliant idea to put in a glass vase...I had scoured my shelves looking for the perfect vase, and of course, I don't own such a thing. I remembered this glass vase that works just fine. Seeing the flower stems gives interest to the vase, plus the fact that it is dark. Not that white staring me in the face! Once I got the vase problem solved, I developed the flowers further.

Since this painting is about an artist reception and I have painted Andrei Kushnir's painting on the wall, I thought I'd take it one step further and consider putting a tag on the wall next to it. To audition the tag, I cut a piece of paper and stuck it on the painting with a piece of tape. Right now there is a yellow post-it note stuck on the canvas.

I have suggested a small stack of napkins on the far left to break up the straight line of the table.

Wine and Cheese, step 7

Some words on drawing



If you compare this step to the one before, you'll note that the wine glasses and wine bottle are considerably shorter. I had been struggling with the drawing and the relative sizes of the items.

If you'll remember, I was struggling in the earlier steps too. I always use the sight-size method...placing the still life set-up next to my easel and comparing the two from eight feet away. I started to do this, but soon realized that I wanted to be closer to the set-up so that I could see more of the food. After all, this painting is about the wine and cheese on the table at a reception.

In retrospect, I should have lowered my set-up an inch or two so that from the eight foot distance, I could see more of the top of the table. However, that is easier said than done. So I didn't. I moved in closer, but I no longer could use the sight-size method. And this is where I ran into trouble. I got the wine glasses and wine bottle too large, but couldn't figure out why. The more I looked at the painting and at the set-up, I knew they were too large. The glasses were the size of water goblets!

I finally figured out a way to do a sight-size from this closer in viewpoint, which solved my drawing problem. It would be too involved to explain exactly what I did.

As I said above, I usually do the drawing sight-size, which is absolutely foolproof! I usually check my drawing like this, but then I will move the easel and sit down and paint. When I need to recheck the drawing, I move the easel back into position next to the set-up.

Once I got the glasses and bottle the correct size, I could deal with the flowers. Since it is so cold here in Maryland, I am keeping the flowers in the garage where it is about 40 degrees. I think they could last for weeks down there.

You'll notice that I have roughed in a different vase. The earlier one was too much the same size as the cheese, and that's boring. So this new one is taller, but I'm not convinced that this is the right one. I find the white is too much "in your face!" I'll try other vases.

Also notice that I have removed the corkscrew...my thinking is that it is ugly clutter. I can always put it back in, if I can't figure out what to do with the empty space.