Over the weekend I was on Salt Spring visiting my Mum and Dad. Since the weather was glorious, we headed out to do some plein air painting. It’s been quite some time since I pastelled on location so I was a bit apprehensive. But you know what? It went okay. I see a few things I’d like to alter and will post the final version later but for now, here’s what happened. (The photos were taken quickly with my iPhone so please excuse the quality!)

I was using Unison’s Starter box of 16 half sticks (a limited palette for sure!) on 12 x 9 inch piece of Wallis paper mounted to foamcore. I first made an ink sketch in three values. Then I drew up the image on the Wallis paper with vine charcoal.

As I already have an idea from my sketch of how my three main values are placed, I can get going with pastel straight away. I start with the light value then….

…….apply the middle value then…..

….go on to the dark value. It’s quite a cool scene so start with a warmish first layer. But my colour choices are rather random.

I then begin applying a 2nd layer, bringing in some of the colours I see. The great thing about plein air painting is that you can see so many more colours in life than in a photograph.

I leave the highlights until the end. They are the reward for the hard work!! By now, in some places, I have maybe four to five layers. I stand away from the piece and feel it’s as finished as I am going to get it onsite. Already I can see a couple of things I need to change but I am tired and I will just be fussing with it. Better to work on it back in the studio when I am rested and have fresh eyes to look at it.

Really there is nothing like plein air painting!!

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Thanks for being here,

~ Gail

PS. Here’s a photo of my Mum and Dad as we check out plein air painting possibilities.