A Day at the Beach

Who doesn't love to go to the beach? The crashing waves, warm sunshine, salt air... It's great. I love to go and put my toes in the water, watch the shore birds, pick up shells and breath deeply of the fresh salt air.  It gives me a feeling of well being and contentment that I can get in few other places.

Painting the beach is a whole other ball game. Some artists manage to paint beautiful beach scenes with warm clouds and waves that feel wet. They make me feel the sunshine and smell the air. I've never been one of them. As a composition the beach seems a bit boring to me. So when I arrived at New Smyrna beach I decided to try to come up with a composition that would interest me and hopefully others.

I concentrated on the sea oats blowing in the breeze. This is the view I chose. As you can see it was a beautiful day.

Take a look at my (less than) one minute video of my plein air experience painting the beach.

Finished. -------------- I think. :)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always interested in learning from you.

St. Augustine Inspiration

 I decided to drive up to St. Augustine to do some painting. It's one of my favorite places and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Check out that BLUE sky. Isn't it gorgeous? I've always loved the look of this old church with the greenish dome. I heard a tour operator tell his trolley full of tourists that it was built by Henry Flagler. No big surprise as he seems to have built most of St. Augustine.

I was able to set up in the shade which is always a bonus. And I scored a parking spot where I could keep an eye on things to avoid getting a parking ticket. So far, so good.

My canvas here was 12"x 24". I've never worked this large in plein air before, so this was a challenge. I'll save you the suspense.  I didn't finish. Well, not on location anyway. I ran out of parking meter change after three hours of painting. So I decided to pack up and finish it in my studio.

My 'Got A Minute' video is actually more like a minute and a half this week. Close enough don't you think? Check it out and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Blue Dome - oil - 12"x 24"
Leah Wiedemer

The Gazebo in the Park

Oh my, but it's been raining a lot here in central Florida. Clouds and rain kept me from making it out to New Smyrna Beach yesterday to paint with my group. So this morning when I saw actual sunshine, I decided to pack up and go paint close to home. This little park is about two blocks away and a favorite haunt for dog walkers, exercisers, and bicyclists.

Most of the passersby seemed pleased to see an artist painting and made complimentary comments as they walked past. One man gave me pause (and not in a good way) with what he had to say. You will have to watch the video to see his comment. It's only a minute 8 seconds.
I'd love to hear any interesting comments people have made while you paint or at art shows. Please leave a comment below.
In the meantime...     Got a minute?   Watch a minute video of my painting in process.

We returned to Spruce Creek Park this week. I decided to set up on the dock  this time. The sun was intense, but the light was beautiful.  We saw a pair of eagles while we were there. Always nice.

Enjoy the one minute video of my painting process.

What do you think? What would you differently? I'm not sure where we will be painting next week, but I hope you will come along and enjoy discovering plein air painting with me.

Painting at Spruce Creek Park

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!

The SunEden Traveling Easel

Since my beloved french easel is a bit cumbersome, I decided to look for a lighter set up. So I logged onto a forum and asked some plein air artists  what they used.
My informal poll came out overwhelmingly in favor of the SunEden Traveling easel. It was priced very competitively so I pulled the trigger and ordered it. And by 'ordered it' I mean I sent the link to my husband with the message "I must have this for my birthday". He got the message. I know. Subtle.
As you can see in the video, it's super light (3.2 lbs) and compact enough to fit into a smallish bag. I would love it if they would design a bag specifically for the Traveling Easel Package. Hint, hint to SunEden. In the meantime I will make do with my Talbots bag.
The other key items I purchased in preparation to outdoor painting are a Soleil Travelers umbrella and a Mijello palette. Both were from ASW. I put velcro on the underside of the palette to stick it on the tray while I'm painting. Kind of proud of that bit of Macgyver-ism. Also it has a tight fit lid and wipes clean. If you use acrylics you can just peal the old paint off. All good features to my mind.

Next week I'm planning on joining a local plein air group as we pack up our necessaries and meet at a state park to paint. So I will let you know how how my new gear works in the field.
Here is the You Tube link for the video if you prefer.

My French Easel

Perhaps it's an emotional attachment I feel to my french easel.There is a certain charm in its antiquarian style and of course having the word 'french' in the name doesn't hurt either. I've had it almost as long as I've been painting. I bought into the romance; the idea of it and used it when I painted demos or taught. But I never actually set it up outside, alla Monet until about six months ago when I dipped my toe gingerly into the cool waters of plein air painting.  I love the wood construction and the way it is completely self contained. It holds all the supplies I need. It's been a true and loyal friend.
BUT  it is heavy. Weighing in at this corner... the French Easel - a whopping ten pounds!
Check out the short video below as I demonstrate how to set it up.