contact me if you want to get this one
this is a palm from delray and i should have called it "these palms are really hard to paint when the winds blowing them into different shapes every 2 seconds" but i shortened it!
the palm fronds were like trying to paint people eating or drinking in a cafe or paint people walking down the street. when youre painting from life things move, ALL the time. in fact when youre setting up to paint youre not only thinking about the composition, will it sell, can i do it in the time slot (about two hours) but also will somebody let me set up here, and whats liable to park in front of me or leave the scene completely before i finish. thats why there arent that many plein air painters. between these issues and the many more i didnt name, the least of which is the thousands of variables in weather, bugs, and the fast moving sun.
but once you get used to painting two or three a day outside it gets to be second nature and youre not even aware that alot of the decisions on how to handle these issues are being made subconciously. i take all this for granted until i paint with workshop students who are not accustomed to making these breakneck decisions. it overwhelms them and then they still have to PAINT! they sometimes dont like what they do and swear they'll never go outside and paint again. thats like trying to sit down at the piano for the first time and play a song, get mad when all you can do is plink a few random keys and then swear off piano playing forever. painting is a learned craft/skill and plein air painting is a sub-craft/skill that requires constant practice also. you dont do it once or twice a year and think youre going to do a nice piece those two times. i dont expect to get but one A piece out of every five i do. thats why i try to do 3 a day 6 days a week.
so quit reading this boring blog today and grab your outdoor easel and paint a few outside. and try not to get hit by any cars rubbernecking too close, trying to see what youre doing!
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