Practice Makes for Improvement

Cactus Garden, 2008
Oil, alkyd on canvas panel, 10" x 8"
Left: Plein air session • Right: After studio re-work

After my move to Florida, I joined the Central Florida Plein Air Artists ("CFPAA") to get acquainted with the tropical flowers and foliage and to meet other artists in the area. I also was looking forward to the practice of composing and completing a painting within a 1–2 hour time span....a necessity for capturing the ever-changing light. Then, too, the weather is just divine in Florida during the winter and spring months—a lovely time to be out of doors.

Naively, I thought plein air painting would be fairly easy to do, especially since I was working on small 8" x 10" canvas panels. Boy, was I wrong!

Pictured above is my painting of a garden in the historic Eola Heights area of Orlando. The panel on the left is what I had accomplished after about 3 hours of painting "en plein air," meaning, sitting in the owner's yard, with my easel and paintbox, working "live." I had pre-primed the canvas panel with a red orange color to give an overall warmth to the painting. But as you can see, I had barely gotten the composition and basic colors down. Before leaving the site, I took a digital photograph so I could add some details later.

The panel on the right is the painting, mostly finished, completed in the studio after two days of painting!

After several outdoor sessions, what I've discovered is that plein air painting is quite challenging. I have a new respect and greater understanding of paintings by the Impressionists, and sincere admiration for the members of CFPAA and other practitioners of plein air painting. I'll let you know how my next attempt at "live" painting en plein air goes. I am hoping that practice makes for improvement...and quicker results!

You can visit the Central Florida Plein Air Artists website and view paintings by its members at http://www.cfpaartists.org.

Thanks for looking. Your questions and comments are welcome.

Have a great weekend. See you Monday!

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Images and artwork ©Carol L Adamec. All rights reserved.