Last week, I had my first experience painting "en plein aire," French for "in the open air." For those of you who have never heard of that, it means that the artist paints outside, exposed to all the elements, straight from life. Let me tell you, it's very different from painting from a photo...mainly in that there's no cropping feature when you've got a wide panorama in front of you. I rely on my computer far more than I realize. I loved experimenting with the much looser style than I am used to painting indoors. You also have to paint quickly enough that you don't lose track of your lighting from when you started the painting. A friend that I paint with from the gallery was kind enough to organize this for us at the Old South Plantation in Richmond. Located on the plantation is this quaint church, St. John's Old South Anglican. The plantation home was built in 1890, but I neglected to find out the history of the church itself and now can't find anything about it online.
I chose the angle from the pond across the road as I wanted the reflection of the church in the water. Strange noises which members of my group identified during our lunch break as ALLIGATOR made for a less than relaxing finish to my painting day. I was constantly looking behind me to make sure nothing was back there. I'm pretty happy with my first attempt, even if I did rush the end!
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