Plein Air Painting: Interesting Question #1

Alice Kelsey painting at Spring Creek

I gave an informal talk/ show-and-tell about painting outdoors last weekend at the Bellefonte Art Museum, and really enjoyed the thoughtful questions offered by attendees. Many people were wondering about the experience of painting outside (en plein air), and the questions gave me a chance for fresh reflections on this mode of creating. I'll write about several of the questions and discussion in blog posts this week.

Do you remember the colors after you leave the scene?

Yes! I do, if I've managed to connect deeply with the scene, and engaged with it with some form of art-making at the scene. I've discovered that drawing or painting on location really helps me to harmonize with the scene before me, and see so much more..... there's something about getting my hand going making marks, even scratchy grey pencil touches, and my eye searching deeper, that centers me in the artistic process. Once I'm there, colors register somewhere in my being, and I can conjure them up later. With these color memories comes a sense of gratitude for having learned from nature about subtleties and combinations of colors that I wouldn't have dreamed up on my own. yet become part of me during the process of plein air painting!