Plein air landscape

(C) 2018 Dale DiMauro

Once I learned that southern Vermont was entering a prolonged heat wave it seemed wise to brush up on my plein air painting skills. Weather.com was reporting a record seven consecutive days of ninety plus degrees of heat with multiple days approaching the century mark. 

This watercolor was painted outside under the shade of a tree in our back yard. Time constraints limited this painting to a little over an hour. Of course, over this hour, the light can change a lot. As a result, I take a photograph, once I have settled on my subject in case I have to finish my piece at home.

I have come to embrace plein air painting even though there are many frustrations along the way. Plein air painting forces me to simplify my compositions and paint directly. By this, I mean, you can not cram every little thing into your picture, nor should you. Additionally, I need to minimize my color mixing and brush strokes. As a result, cleaning up is much easier and my painting approach is freer in nature.

Winter in Vermont

(C) 2017 Dale DiMauro

Yesterday, I set up my easel by the window, in our house and painted this outdoor scene. I approached this as if it was a plein air painting. Fortunately, the sun broke through in the afternoon creating all these beautiful shadow patterns across the land. 

In the morning, I was eager to experiment, with an underwash, before painting this scene or even laying it out. The warmth in the foreground, which is more noticeable in the painting, than in this photograph, is a result of putting an initial, wet wash of yellow ochre across the whole sheet. 

Usually, I start painting from a white surface but in this case it was already toned. This way I could exaggerate the warm qualities the sun was providing, in contrast to the cool blues and shadows, which characterize this landscape.