“Grand Afternoon"
Original unframed oil, 6"x8"
©2012 Diana Moses Botkin
This is one of the lovely inspirations from a recent trip. The Tetons are such a powerful and amazing place.
My first real plein air experience was there almost a decade ago when I took a workshop from Jim Wilcox. Although I had already begun to paint on location outdoors after I moved to Idaho, I hadn't worked far from the conveniences of my studio. The Wilcox workshop took me completely out of my comfort zone.
I learned that painting en plein air meant alternately freezing or roasting, especially in a place like Jackson Hole where it can snow in the middle of summer, or heat up on a spring afternoon with burning sun. Painting out also usually meant no running water and no nearby coffee stands or toilets.
And I saw pretty quickly that carrying a lot of supplies very far, camera and lenses (plus lots of film!), along with food and drink, would tire me out more than the work of painting, which was plenty challenging just by itself.Everywhere I looked was potential material and I had to learn to choose a scene, compose and edit. I'm still learning these facets of painting.
(above) "Teton Highlights" Oil 9"x12"
©2003 Diana Moses Botkin
Here is one of two decent paintings from that time painting in the park in 2003. This had started out as a 16"x12" painting which was unrealistically ambitious for a plein air piece. I managed to get the top part of the piece painted on location, so turned it into a smaller painting with some later touch-ups. The view is pretty much straight on, compared with the newer piece above showing the viewpoint more to the south (and a month later in the year, so with less snow).
I do see progress from those earlier plein air pieces, but I want a whole lot more!
No comments:
Post a Comment