Not far from the coast

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

Usually, I get some drawing and painting done when I travel, but this trip has been challenging. Each stop on this Maine vacation has been hot and humid. And I do not mean just during the days. There have been evenings and even nights when all of a sudden I start sweating because of the humidity. Perhaps, I take our heat pumps, which we use all summer, at home, for granted.

This watercolor, I started, one sticky evening, the other night. This picture I treated as a plein air yet was done inside. It has a freer nature than my studio work. What I do love about these are my willingness to try different techniques while my palette continues to evolve.

Since the Spring I have been thinking about better ways to incorporate opaque paint into my plein air paintings. When we visited the Bowdoin College Museum of Art recently, I studied this aspect of Winslow Homer's watercolors. 

For me, opaque paints are best applied after the transparent washes, but in limited areas. When painting outside this can simplify the painting process by making it more direct which is important as the natural light is constantly on the move.

I will discuss other revelations, to me, in my approach to working outside in upcoming posts.