Landscape Painting class



Yesterday was another day of Landscape Painting out on Sandy Hook. Once again we ended up having a somewhat overcast, dreary day, but luckily the rain held off until we were actually done. And then the sky opened up and a pretty strong lightening storm battered up for a bit.

Anyway, here's a look at my "small" plein air set up, and the quick 20 minute painting sketch I did. I had originally started a slightly larger painting (10"x12" versus this one of 6"x8") but I had a new student and needed to move my set up 10 minutes in. Which is part of teaching, just like the fact that sometimes I'm lucky to even get 20 minutes to make a painting.

Basically, what I end up doing is setting up my kit, then walking around and making sure everyone else is set up, talking about what they are going to paint, their composition, underpainting decisions, and the like. This is a fairly small class - yesterday I had 6 students, for example - so I can spend more time with each, which is nice. But also once I get them all started, and after they get the underpainting down and start blocking in colors, there usually isn't much for me to talk about with them until their paintings start falling into place more.

One of my students decided to work inside our building for the day, and that meant a bit of a walk back and forth from the building to our outside set up, so that ate up some time, but eventually I didn't have anything to say and rather than stand quietly looking over shoulders I figured I'd at least start my own painting.

This is the 20 minute result, which I'm calling a sketch rather than a refined piece.