An Outdoor Study

Painting outside from life is tricky for me, and probably more so because I haven't had much practice. I usually work from photos inside since I have two babies and they're big enough now that they won't stay on a blanket under a tree and play with toys for an hour. But on Tuesday I kept them awake way past naptime, bundled them up in snowsuits, and headed out. They slept the whole time I was painting. It was amazingly gratifying. I use a Soltek easel, which makes for a quick setup when you have to jump out and paint alongside the road really fast. (Like when the lighting is changing and you want to capture something.) "Why don't you just take a photo?" you ask naively. Well, I did- and this is what it looked like:

Now you think I made up all of those colors. Actually, they were there, and I toned some of them down a bit and intensified some of them. But there were some colors there to begin with, and they didn't show up on the camera at all. Case in point, if you ever try to compliment an artist with "Wow- it looks just like a photo!" this is exactly why they might be less than enthused about your feedback.

This painting looked absolutely terrible when I got home with it because I fell into the common trap of tunnel vision and made the values (lightness or darkness) of the shed, ground and sky all too similar. So yesterday I darkened the ground and shed, trying to group them closer together into more of one big dark shape. The ground might still be too light... But doing that also made it possible for me to darken and intensify the sky colors quite a bit.

Yes... obviously I made up the creek. Bad move? Maybe... I don't know. It just happened. What do you think? Should I take it out?

Oh and one other thing- for anyone painting outside when it's FREEZING cold- wearing latex gloves actually does help a little to keep your hands warm. Next time I'm going to pick up some winter "painting gloves" at the thrift store though.