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Author: L._Diane_Johnson, Contributing Editor
| "From My Window"
I recently had the pleasure of instructing a workshop in Monet's
garden for the second time. There is nothing quite like painting
en plein air in the master's garden, birds singing, breezes carrying
the scent of oceans of flowers, while furiously trying to capture the
light and joyous colors. Painting in the garden was limited to Mondays and a few designated
hours. We were free to paint in and around the village of Giverny at
any time which is rich with subject material including hills,
pastures,
charming
cottages, and delightful
rooftops. Even while in my tiny hotel room, I was itching to paint. I had
the perfect view of a lovely private garden just below my window. I'd
sneak a peak when dashing back and forth between sessions. At any
time of day the changing light was interesting, sometimes dramatic.
The days were very long, the light lasted till nearly 10 pm. Dare I
paint an outdoor scene from my window? Would this still be considered
a plein air painting? At right, is the view from my window. Sun coming from the West. Even
with the parking lot, it was appealing! |  |
I reached the point where I just had to paint this scene. So I set
up my pack equipment in the window sill then made a quick charcoal
sketch to accurately work through architectural features. The
canvas was only 12x12 which is small for such a scene. I welcomed the
challenge of creating an intimate feel without crowding the subject.
Charcoal also allowed the flexiblity to move things as needed. Since
I would have the luxury of painting for a few days (a few minutes
each time, and even during the rain) I worked just a bit slower than
I would have if painting on the field. I will use cobalt blue, cadmium yellow medium, lemon yellow, vermilion, cadmium red medium, alizarin crimson, viridian & white. |  |
Sketch completed...now time for some paint! Using acrylics I applied a wash of warm vermilion/cadmium red medium with a large
brush. When nearly dry, I blocked-in the largest areas with local
color. You can see the warmth of the red wash glowing through on this
overall cool-colored scene. Staying loose for as long as possible
helps me make changes/adjustments all along the way. I place in the
darkest darks and mid-tones in to anchor the composition. Notice that
I remove one arbor and replace with the gate / fence to open up the
foreground. This change will assure directing the viewer's eye inside
the painting.:
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Next, building the painting with second layer of paint. I applyed
more color to the flower areas. But even using dabs of color I looked
for masses otherwise the painting would fall apart visually. I also
varied my strokes to achieve visual texture and movement. I try to
paint as fast as my eye can see. This is always a challenge, but when
I paint this way, I know that I am painting what I "see", not what I
think I see. Things are still loose enough for me to make necessary changes. If
the painting becomes too loose however, I just stop to restate the
subjects before moving on:
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I finally get to the fun part -- really painting. I step down to a
medium-sized brush to push/pull the values and colors. The lights get
lighter, the darks become richer, and colors begin to glow. I define
crisper edges as well diffused ones to achieve depth. The last
touches are done with a still smaller brush, but never a tiny one
unless I am creating a very tight, realistic painting. The final
strokes applied are the highest highlights and very darkest darks in
the scene:
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