Grace En Plein Air

For me, plein air painting is the most challenging way to paint, and the rewards are even better!

- Carol Arnold

When I’m in open air standing in front of the live model—feeling the warm breeze of the summer air, hearing the sounds of nature—it is a moment in time that I’m capturing and want to share with you, the viewer. Also, if painting a model in a landscape isn’t hard enough, there can be flies, the clouds going in and out, perhaps rain, snow and the challenges go on and on; they are all worth it. Each time, there are learning experiences that are so valuable, and you can only get them by experiencing it.

I took time to set up my daughter Grace outside in a pose that I thought was interesting. I made sure I loved the way the light was hitting her and that she was comfortable. The pose is one of the most important parts of painting people outdoors for me. Next, I chose a light-colored cloth to put behind her and draped it over the clothesline. When arranging the flowers around her, I again took care to find the pattern, colors and values that helped to create the painting in my mind and would be great to paint.

Before I began painting, I thought about how I was going to paint this, what this painting is about and how I’m going to relay my message to the viewer in my artwork with paint. I have four tools I am using: values, drawing, color and edges. I start by finding my lightest light, darkest dark, softest edge and sharpest edge. Squinting is a great way to find these things and simplify what is in front of me. It also eliminates unnecessary detail and groups the values into manageable shapes and patterns.

STAGE 1: I began with laying a cool, light value over the entire board. Doing this tones down the white and helps in determining my other values. The light is filtered through the white sheets and is relatively cooler than the areas in shadow. I put a flesh tone down loosely without committing to where the edges of her head would be and keeping the edges soft.