All weekend I have been feeling so discouraged with plein air...but will keep at it.
#42 6x8 oil on panel
I did a color version of the same scene but it turned out pretty awful. The weather was colder than expected, I got tired, and my mind was just not clear.
Here is #43, 6x8 oil on panel, a quick tree study from the playground. The sky needs another layer, because the venetian red tone was lifting and came through. That's what happens from toning panels last-minute.
I will probably start tweaking my paintings at home from now on...so far once the outdoor session is done, so is the painting. Perhaps now I will try and focus on both the mechanics of outdoor painting and also getting a good end result even if that means going back into the painting at home. Most plein air painters do this. Perhaps I am being too ambitious to try and get it all done in one session.
This plein air stuff is really difficult. It is frustrating that I can do a decent alla prima still life in the same time and size as plein air, the the plein air is hit or miss... more often a miss. I need to keep reminding myself...plein are really is a lot more difficult, and I am still very much a newbie to it. Also, I never did any landscape before I started plein air. First 120 paintings before you *begin* to pregress... that's where it starts........ I'll get there eventually, given my time restrictions it just takes me longer than most. But this is something I *really* want to get good at, and every single available chance I get, I go out to practice and i take local workshops.
It just seems like not enough sometimes.
