Plein Air

I've been reading James Gurney's blog of late and he has inspired me to attempt art making in the great outdoors (plein air).  So far in my art journey I have done very little drawing from life, I tend to use reference photographs instead.  I have NEVER made art out in public.  Having set my mind to trying this I asked my friend Sherri if she wanted to come along and do some art.  Thankfully, Sherri was very keen and we arranged to meet today at a park that overlooks Moffat Beach Headland.  It was a glorious day.

 Below, Sherri's set up using a crafting or tackle box and a HUGE pencil case to hold her supplies. 

 Never having worked plein air before I was feeling rather disorganised and really not sure what I needed or how to set myself up. In the end I decided to ditch the paints as the thought of managing paint, water, brushes etc in the open did my head in. Instead I grabbed my rarely used and limited range of pastels and threw them in a basket. 

 An old Tupperware craft organiser holds my pastels. They are stored in a combination of rice and rice flour. This protects the pastels and keeps them clean. It looks like a lot of pastels but many of those pictured are actually single sticks broken up into smaller pieces.  The deficiencies in my palette became apparent once we started working.

 Sherri had found this lovely park that is very quiet.  We were self-conscious about being watched our first time!  Here I am sketching in an outline in charcoal.  Cool enough for long clothing but a hat was still very necessary.  Australian sun.....

 Here I've done a very loose charcoal sketch and then blocked in some blue for the sky.  Making things up as I go along as per usual.   Sherri had a book that outlined how to go about doing a pastel drawing, which I looked at and then just got into it and forgot about. Ooops.

So much for the quiet, private spot.... Here is Sherri working away and in the background you will see the yoga or pilates class that turned up and stayed for much of the time we were there.  We also had a number of walkers stop and chat to us and I found that I really didn't feel self-conscious and enjoyed the experience.

 Here is my finished piece.  You can see that I don't have enough darks in my painting as I didn't have them in my palette. 

Here is Sherri's finished piece as she adds some last minute highlights.

Same view, same medium, different artists.  Just love it.  I wonder how long it will take me to not feel like an imposter when I call myself and artist?

We are really inspired to do this again as it was just the loveliest experience. So much fun!  I LOVED working with the pastels.  LOVED IT.  I am now keen to add to my pastel collection and know that I definitely need to add some colours in darker tones to give my art the impact it needs. On the way home I stopped at BCF (Boats, Camping, Fishing) and picked up a tackle box. On special too, the Art Gods were looking out for me. :) Just need to fill it up now!

Next time I will remember to bring my water bottle. We had a snack and a flask coffee but judging by my headache this evening, I really needed to drink some water too.  I usually have it with me at all times so not sure why I forgot.  Oh well.  A great day and possibly my favourite day of art ever.