I packed up my gear and headed out this morning to join a plein air group painting in Spruce Creek park. It sits close to the border of Port Orange and New Smyrna, Fl.
I chose this view on the path just for a change from the usual water and marsh that I seem to gravitate to. I did a thumbnail value sketch and toned my canvas.
A word about toning the canvas. In the past I used a mixture of paint and a little odorless turpenoid. After reading a lot about the toxic nature of any turpentine solvent including the odorless variety I decided to look for an alternative. I came across Lavender Spike Oil on the Jerry's Artarama website. The bottle says that it is an historic alternative to turpentine and has a distinctive non-toxic lavender scent. I'm very happy to have found a non-toxic alternative to my odorless turpentine, but... Let's talk about that distinctive scent. In a word it's POWERFUL! I mean knock you over with a lavender brick and then have it inserted in your sinus cavities powerful. It is very, very, strong. At first whiff, not unpleasant, but it just gets stronger so don't leave it out opened. The other thing that I'm trying to adapt to is that it doesn't move the paint around as easily as my favorite carcinogen. It dries and holds its ground very quickly. Since I just wanted to tone my canvas and hadn't planned on wiping my design out it was ok. Just be aware that it doesn't work exactly like turpenoid.
If you have been reading the previous posts, you know that I am a novice at plein air painting. I have a lot to learn and hope that you will learn with me. Last spring I painted outdoors 3 or 4 times, but I'm counting this as my first official painting in my plein air adventures.
Until next time... Happy plein air adventures!
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