Plein Air Painting Tips

 

"Spearfish Creek"   5" x 7" watercolor
Available for $75, matted to 8" x 10".

Lately, I've had many students asking for design help with their paintings.  Especially when I Plein Air paint, the first thing that I do is to find the lights in the scene and then find a way to connect them.  I knew in the above painting that my center of interest was the strong light hitting the lime green tree mass.  I started there with my light pathway.  Then I exaggerated the lights hitting the water, so that those lights would lead up to the trees.  The sky is the other light value. I shortened the background trees so that I could have a light sky showing.   This week, I plan to do many different versions of the below photo and see if I can make the light pathway even more interesting.  I'd love it if you would join me. Just make sure that your lights connect.  Notice the black and white that checks up on my values of my painting.  

Black and white to show my values.                                                       Original photo

Plein Air Painting Tips

 

"Plein Air in Excelsior"   Watercolor,   11" x 15"   $195

Since the pandemic, I have been embracing Plein Air painting (painting outdoors on location) so that I can meet artist friends at a safe social distance.  Yesterday was a perfect day, and I set up on a corner, ready to tackle perspective!  Here's my tips about Plein Air painting.  Always take a photo from your painting position right away.  That way, if the shadows change, you can refer to it.  Also, when I got home, I printed off the photo, enlarged the house to be the size of my image on the painting, and traced it.  That way, I could "check" on myself to see how well I drew the image.  I actually did pretty good, except the the width of the windows were a little too wide, which doesn't matter in the finished painting.  The angle of the windows was spot on!  Yay! I usually draw the subject with pencil, come back and add my "wire drawing" lines with a permanent marker and then figure out where my light pathway will be.  See below to check out how my lights are connected throughout the painting.  The below image is how far I got on location, and spent about 30 minutes finishing it in my studio.  

(Work in Progress)

Follow your own heart! www.karenknutson.com

www.karenknutson.com

"Parley Lake Vineyards".  watercolor
11" x 14" image   $195

I started plein air painting (painting outdoors) 2 years ago, while wintering in Florida.  Last year, when I was painting with friends from Minnesota who were there vacationing, one of them said, "I can't wait to see what you do, Karen, with your abstract mind."  Till then, I had been painting traditional paintings while on location, and it really got me to thinking.  So, instinctively, I slashed a red color across the page, and then had to deal with it.  It gave me permission to be abstract!  From that day on, I've been painting like "myself" while outdoors, allowing myself to paint abstractly, and it opened up a whole new world to me.  This painting was done 2 weeks ago at a really cool vineyard in Excelsior, MN, that has countless possibilities for paintings.  My first obstacle was to try to draw the barn, using my perspective rules.  That was hard for me, but I felt like I did pretty well.  The thing about plein air paintings, is that upon viewing them, years later, you remember the sounds, who you were with, the temperature that day, everything!  You really are "in the moment".  That's one of my favorite things about plein air.  If you haven't tried it, please do consider it!  It truly will make you a better artist, and will get you out in nature too.  A tip from me:  I found out that I had to paint direct painting style.  Wetting the paper first didn't work for me.  Once I started just painting more directly  I liked the results better.  These end up being studies for larger studio paintings.  Below is the beginning stage of my painting.

Plein Air Painting- A Challenge and a Privilege!

"Beach Fun"  Image: 11" x 15"
Watercolor  $150

I painted with the Peace River Painters yesterday.  I'm enjoying plein air painting (painting outdoors) so much!  What a glorious way to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine and remember the day.  When I look back at my plein air paintings, I always remember the day's events, the sounds around me, and the smells in the air.  Every detail of that day comes back to me!  We were at Blind Pass Beach in Englewood, FL. When I arrived at 9:00 a.m., there were only a few beach people,  but it didn't take long for the beach to become packed!  Quite a change from the time I started to sketch.  One thing that I learned long ago, is to take a photo from my painting view point right away, because things will change.  It's a little like watching an ant farm when I sat there, painting the people at the beach.  Constant movement.  What I'm most excited about, is that my own style is coming out when I paint outdoors.  I used to paint traditionally, but now I start with a paper with an abstract design on it and work the scene into that!  

Finding YOUR STYLE

"Ringling Museum View"     11" x 15" image
watercolor and marker

Painting Plein Air is not an easy task.  But now that we winter in Florida, I have embraced it and absolutely LOVE painting on location.  I didn't say that my painting were successful, but I really enjoy everything about this.  The sounds, the smells, really "seeing" the scene, and growing as an artist in the process.  I'm still trying to find "me" in this process.  By that, I consider myself a semi-abstract artist, and I like that people can recognize that it is mine without looking at the signature.  I painted this alongside longtime friend, Pat Undis and her friends, Susan McLean and Michele Combs, all of which are very experienced Plein air painters.  It was a really fun day, but when Michele said to me, "I can't wait to see what you come up with looking at this view," I thought to myself, "She's right.  I should be painting just like I do in the studio, putting my abstract spin on these Plein air paintings."  So, I immediately stroked a bright red in the tree area, just to make it a little out of my comfort zone.  Then I drew a fast contour drawing of the scene and started layering to build up my values.  I'm pretty pleased that it looks like the scene, but I'm NOT pleased that it still doesn't have my "Knutson flare" on it.  So, I will keep going out, about 2 times per week, painting on location and trying to find the real "ME" of Plein aire painting.  I'd love to hear discussion of your early ventures with Plein air painting in the comments below.  Happy Painting!

Plein aire painting from Puerto Rico trip

Painting on location can be very challenging.  For me, the biggest challenge is that I prefer to sit while I paint, and in a perfect world, I would bring a large table, a comfortable chair, and a cooler with cool beverages.  Of course, I need to keep it simple and light for carrying; so instead, I bring a fold up chair, hold my painting on my lap, and bend over to the ground to get paint from my palette.  I did something different this time, though, and it really helped.  I did a wet wash ahead of time, and let it dry before painting on location with it.  I also found that if I took a photo of the scene, and then drew from the camera image, that I could draw the scene lots more successfully!  Thank you, modern technology!  I did this painting while on a wonderful painting trip with 6 other artists.  There were palm trees everywhere, so I decided to do my abstract version of them.  I'll always remember the perfect sunny day, the sounds of kids on kayaks nearby, and the peace that I felt painting this scene.  A great big "thank you" to Jim Turner, my friend who owns a house on Puerto Rico, and graciously invites me to come paint with many other artists there.  This was our second time there, and we had a wonderful time, escaping the Minnesota winter for a week.