Lower Manhattan Skyline Plein Air

Today I wanted to go paint by the water, so I decided to take on a new challenge- the lower Manhattan skyline.

On an 8x10.

This view is from Pier 34.

I had a technical issue which made things a bit difficult.... I primed and toned some panels on Friday, but the tone wasn't quite dry. This was a problem because it mixed into my sky color.
Burnt Sienna plus turquoise does not look good.

Usually my panels are dry enough the next day so I don't know what happened there.

To get proper coverage I had to cover the sky with a very thick coat of paint, much more than I normally use. This was troublesome with my edges against the buildings and I had to work in small sections. It was a bit frustrating but thankfully something I don't normally have to deal with.

Otherwise this was a pretty difficult painting.
While I always analyze all my paintings and I can see issues with this one, there is still a lot I am happy with. It really was a difficult painting and would have been without technical issues, so I'm proud of myself for attempting it to begin with.

8x10 oil
Three hours

                              

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Sometimes if I talk to people about my painting self-analysis they think I am looking for suggestions from them. Especially if they have something of an arts background.

I am not.

I am not currently at a place in my plein airs where I want critique or "suggestions" of any kind.

Especially from people who are not plein air painters.

Well if they are a really accomplished plein air painter- then I'll take it.

Being out there painting is just a completely different perspective and experience.

And the truth is that I'm painting from my perspective and learning journey, and another person cannot know that from the inside.  I'm experienced enough to know what I did well with, what I missed and WHY.

I almost never go out painting randomly to "see what happens". Almost always, I have something I'm working on, a problem I'm looking to resolve, something I am looking to improve on. Sometimes I add a new color to my palette- recently, viridian. Or sometimes it's literally just trying new subject matter.

This is why VOLUME matters so much- because trying to focus on too many things to improve in one painting is too much. It is a cumulative journey.

(That being said, I desperately want Simon to run a plein air workshop again because I really want to learn from him and have him pick apart my paintings. I would LOVE that.)

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Outside of a teaching context, I actually don't think plein air in general should be critiqued, not really, and absolutely cannot be evaluated the same as a studio painting. It just can't. It's too different.

The above painting is about a thousand times more difficult on-location than it would be in-studio.  This is why even experienced studio painters almost universally feel like they have no idea how to paint at all when they start plein airing. This is normal. 

Plein air can be evaluated in the sense of "what elements are you looking to improve.... values? drawing? composition? paint handling? foliage edges? variation in greens? sky holes? painting windows in buildings? Clouds? Brushwork? Simplification?" And about a million other things- it never ends. 

I think it's better to evaluate plein airs as a group of work to see trends.

Every single experienced and accomplished artist I have spoken to about this says the same thing.  We are always self-evaluating.  I have never met someone who thinks they are "there".