Plein Air Quick Update!

This year, an unusual approach to plein air painting and inclement weather converge to create new and surprising outcomes.

Detail from one of my plein air pieces this year. I’m treating the surfaces this year as if they are pages of a personal sketch journal.

Hi everyone, I don’t even know if I should even take this break to write, considering the task ahead of me, but I thought I ought to give an update on my progress in this year’s Plein Air West Reading competition. So, here’s a quick summary of how it’s going!

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A new approach

I wrote previously about a new approach I’m taking this year. In the last several plein air competitions I took myself out of my comfort zone by painting well-known subjects in public, using acrylics or casein, and trying to manage the challenges that go along with that (new processes, drying time, setting up in unfamiliar places).

This year I’m instead diving inwards to my home and family life. The subjects are smaller, more familiar, and personal, but no less complex.

I’m also trying to introduce some of the more journalistic aspects of the urban sketching tradition and using a variety of tools like paints, pens, colored pencils, and graphite.

The weather

Because of the constant rain and impending electrical storms on Wednesday and Thursday, for the first time this year we have been permitted to paint indoor subjects! This is an exciting development because it will help me explore the themes of home and family even further than I had hoped to.

Can I do it?

I have only managed to create three of the intended nine panels so far. The deadline is tomorrow. Can I produce six new works in that amount of time? We will see. I can tell you that I am happy and excited about what I’ve done so far, and I look forward to what is coming.

By Thursday 6pm all the works must have titles and prices submitted to the gallery. Then I will probably paste wax the surfaces for protection (hoping I don’t have any technical issues), and every piece must be wired for hanging.

Friday is intake, judging, the private showing, and the awards. Early Saturday I help set up a festival tent where all the painters’ plein air works get displayed to thousands of members of the public, then we break down the tent that evening, and it’s all over until next year.

Wish me luck! And now, it’s time to paint.