Search This Blog

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Painting from a plein air field study


8 x 10 pastel on pale olive green LaCarte
 The other day I painted out in the field, but wasn't happy with what I did.  I'm painting plants I am unfamiliar with, and experimenting with the pastels how to paint a "whispy" tree.  So today I did a new painting, using the other painting and my photo displayed on my laptop for reference.  Teachers have said this is a good thing to do - to paint from your sketches or field studies.  It really frees you up to experiment - I changed the format from portrait to landscape, I moved trees, rocks and the path.  I got the wispy tree better this time.  I think this painting is a little bit better, but I still see things here I could improve on.  I can see the benefit of this type of work.  I should do this more often.

3 comments:

Euphoria said...

Good job! Experimenting is always a good choice.

Nancy First said...

Beautiful work!

ti-igra said...

Oh, Carolyn, I like this little tree - it looks very alive! :) I feel an air among it branches :))) This tree like a character from fairy-tale! :)