Category: Plein Air
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Spiker Park Duck Pond
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After dropping Winnie off at dance the other night, I drove to Spiker Park and set up my easel next to the duck pond. I drive through this park on the way home, and I always feel like I take it for granted. It really is a pretty urban park and it gets a lot…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 1
I enrolled in a watercolor class at the Canton Museum of Art. Last week was the first class. In that session, we covered a lot of the basics about what materials are used to paint in watercolor, why those materials are used, and a little bit about some of the techniques you can use to…
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Plein Air Monument Park
After my first day at IOP, I went to the park and painted this before I went home. I wasn’t expecting my first day painting outside in over a year to result in anything mind blowing – I simply wanted to force myself to go do it. I am intimidated by painting outside because so…
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Nimisilla C-6: #1-4
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I went out to Nimisilla Reservoir today to try some Plein air painting. I am not happy with any of the results, so I tried again at home, and I’m not happy with that either. I don’t feel like doing a full write up on another failed painting, but I am committed to posting even…
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DIY Plein Air Easel
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So, I finished my Plein Air easel today. I am proud of it, so I figured I’d share it here – I think the idea of using a bar is pretty inventive, and I think it’s going to be useful when it’s warm enough for me to get outside. Inspiration I should start by saying…
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Plein Air at Salt Fork: #1
I took this photo of my easel set up for Plein Air painting when I was at Salt Fork a month or so ago. Tonight, I decided to try to paint it, and I guess I’ll try to toss myself into the picture. I don’t want to lean very heavily on the photo, which may…
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Branden’s Yard: #1
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My friend Branden lives out near Amish country – I guess you could say IN Amish country, since horses and buggies regularly drive past his house. A few weeks ago, I went to his house, and sat in his back yard and tried to paint it. That painting was a pretty royal failure, but it…
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Gervasi Gazebo: #2
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I tried to execute my plan on my second attempt. I went off the rails in a few places. I’m following the “five steps” from Tim Wilmot’s video. The steps he recommends are pretty much the same steps I see again and again. Some say: “paint dark values over light values” or “sketch large shapes”…
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Gervasi Gazebo: #1
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When I was at the Gervasi Vineyard a while ago, I took a photo of a gazebo because the light was striking in an appealing way. I wanted to paint this gazebo, so first I decided to take my time to create a strong sketch/value study. I particularly liked this sketch, and decided I would…
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Salt Fork: #1
I drove out to Do some Plein Air Painting today. A while back I drove home from camping along Route 21, north of Salt Fork State Park. On the drive, I passed a Mutti Dairy Farm, and I took note of it as something to paint some day. So, when I decided to go painting…
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Plein Air “Sketchbook”
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Watercolor sketchbooks are really expensive. So, I bought a square of full-grain leather, and a leather sewing awl. I cut off part of the leather square, and cut it in half, then I sewed each half onto the square. To get the threads nicely spaced, I used a drafting compass to punch a hole, and…
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Beaver Creek: #1
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This past weekend, Rachel took the girls to Pennsylvania to see their cousins, and I got a weekend to myself. Alone time is medicine to me. I decided to take advantage of the alone time, and tossed my easel, my inflateable kayak, a tent, a fishing pole, a blanket, a pillow, some left overs, and…
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Appalachian Sky
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I wanted to capture the feel of standing on the balcony and looking out over the mountains in Banner Elk, North Carolina over our Fourth of July vacation. Composition At first, I painted the scene from our balcony and tried to frame the valley with the trees in the foreground. I tried to “zoom in”…
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Church: #1
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Every year for the past eleven or twelve years, some of my closest friends and I have gone on a camping trip for a long weekend. At first, there were a lot of us, and gradually life got in the way for a whole lot of us, but Babs, Sean, Branden and I still keep…
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Nimisilla Plein Air: #1
I went out to the reservoir to paint tonight. I planned on walking a bit out to the peninsula, but this little window into the kayak launch struck my fancy. So I painted it. As I painted, I met a nice woman who has been an art teacher for a long time, she seemed happy…
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Mohican Covered Bridge: #1
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It’s absolutely gorgeous out today, so I went to Mohican State Park near Loudenville, and painted the covered bridge. On my way out, as I walked across the bridge, I passed a park ranger, so I gave this to her. It took a lot for me to paint this outside because there were a ton…
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Mites, mud, and a microscope.
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I spent a glorious day yesterday outside with my dog Lego. We fished in my inflatable boat. We walked through the woods. She sat while I painted a church. We drove for an hour and a half through Amish country to my favorite camping grounds. And, she lolloped through tall grass as we climbed a…