John Lovett: Australian Outback

Bringing just a few simple materials along, John Lovett details his experience painting on location in the Australian Outback

There is nothing like sitting down in an interesting location with a sheet of paper and a handful of painting materials and getting lost in the atmosphere of the subject.

I was reminded of this simple pleasure during a recent painting workshop to outback Australia. A group of students and I traveled to many fabulous locations and immersed ourselves in what was before us. It is amazing how the process of painting on location forces you to examine, analyze and interact with the subject before you.

A palette with half a dozen colors, a few brushes, some ink, gesso, a collapsible water container and some watercolor paper are all that is needed. The colors I use are quinacridone gold, permanent alizarin crimson, French ultramarine blue, phthalo blue, phthalo green and occasionally for glazes, permanent rose, aureolin and cobalt blue. The brushes I use are a ½, ½ and ½-inch taklon one stroke, a 1/2-inch bristle brush, a #1 rigger and a #2 inch Hake. I also have a black and a white charcoal pencil, some burnt sienna pigment ink and dip pen, and a pot of gesso.

We discovered this wonderful old house in the back street of an outback Queensland town, perched up on tall stilts with fading green paint, a matching letter box and rickety wire fence. It was a lot of fun to get to know it through careful examination over a couple of hours.

To increase the intensity of the green I made the sky and foreground lean towards a dirty pink using permanent rose.