How to tell if a painting was truly painted en plein air!
Packing up - Palette Closed
You can see that blue is starting to come into the sky – it was completely gray when I started. If I kept on painting, the light changes so fast that I’d have a never-ending painting.
Painting with the Meadow Stuck to It
I did manage to save it – when I got home, I was able to scrape off most of the dried grass and dirt. Just a little touch up needed…
This morning I woke up at 5:30 am to paint plein air (a fancy term for painting outside). You would think with COVID-19 and being stuck at home I would’ve been out a lot. But somehow… I hadn’t made it out. Finally, the call of the outdoors forced me to head out (and a Spark-ly friend!).
It was gloomy… heavy fog for which we have a term in Southern California “June Gloom.” Most people think of June Gloom as being only on the coast – but since we aren’t that far – we are fortunate to have our June Gloom as well. June Gloom used to drive me crazy – sometimes you want to see the sun so-o-o bad – and then I found out it was natures way of fire-prevention, so now I love it!… but, I digress.
It felt so good to paint outside… listening to the birds – which the gloom actually seemed to amplify – the crisp cool air and the constantly changing light.
I packed up – the light had changed so much that it just was getting too tempting to “chase the light,” in other words, to keep changing my painting.
I should’ve known things were headed in a bad way when I dropped my palette and some of my unused paint smeared over my tripod leg.
I arrived at my car, leaned the tripod against the car and put my backpack in the car. Then… the sound of the tripod (with my painting on it!) falling.
I hoped that it feel face up – but of course it didn’t it fell face down.
Sigh… well, at least it has some of the area in the painting!