Plein Air Off the Beaten Path
Spent the afternoon (Friday) Plein air painting at Riverfront Park in Spokane WA. Painting outside in a beautiful park with friends. We were a group from the Spokane Watercolor Society who met near the clock tower at high noon. Sounds like the meet-up at the OK corral doesn’t it? It is amazing how many people use this park, it was full of people. They were a constant stream of people running, walking dogs, sitting, and admiring the scenery.
I was able to discover a great view of the tower a little off the beaten path, and overhead. It was truly sublime. Initially, trying to render that clock tower in an impressionistic manner proved impossible. Paintbrush sketches produced awkward, leaning towers. There are so many angles and doo-dads on that riverside brick tower with a clock. As a result, another tactic was required. Architectural subjects need accuracy, don’t they? Finally, resorting to using the old artist pencil measure trick with an outstretched arm, got the job done. It was worth it to take the time to do that sketch. The layout is in pencil now, and ready to work on in the studio. I took a ton of photos, to be able to finish it up.
Second Painting Location
I joined the gang from SWS at the ground level down by the river next. Next to Gay W. Finding a great view of the pavilion cables over the ice rink, that had a willow tree getting orange branches in spring. What a vision. Hope it comes out, cause it was quite a cool view. Luckily, I was able to get some washes down before I had to pack up and leave.
Artist Thoughts…
Unfortunately, there was a man playing the bongos next to the river. I kept thinking, he needs to get some other musicians to sing and play instruments with him to break up the monotony. The “bong, bong, bong” started to get on my nerves later in the afternoon, so, I cut the outing short.
While spending the day in that beautiful riverside park I noticed a sad thing. There were couples and friends sitting or walking together, not looking at each other or the view, but instead looking at their phones.
What is with that?
Going to a beautiful park, to walk and sit next to the river with beautiful waterfalls cascading all around. Then choosing to enter into oblivion? Are we loosing our humanity by getting together, to ignore each other and nature’s beauty around us?
As a society, are we so addicted to “blue screen” time that we miss important things?
In conclusion, this Friday painting day outside in the warm air was a beautiful nature wonderful “artist date”!
Initially, the portrait starts with a pencil sketch drawn from my photograph. I have 
Next, I begin to wash-in large areas, reaching more for correct values than finished colors. I actually squint my eyes to see where the darks and lights are. The areas kind of blur together and show up better that way. I have been fortunate to have taken classes from talented artists, and one that I have been inspired by is 
Adding sky background and foliage along with some of the dark values to the doe face and eyes starts to show the personality that I envision.
Things slow a bit as I work on the details of the deer. My focus is on the doe features and her background and I am being careful to leave white limbs from the tree behind.
Progress is gradual as I add shadows to show where the tree trunk and limbs are, along with a ground tone wash to bring in a base for her to stand on. It is not good to have her floating above the ground.
Finally, I am getting more done as I add more details. First, some lights followed by some darks. Using an Azo Yellow, I am carefully applying the final wash. The whole painting is brightened up with the final wash and the greenery and her fur now have a much better glow.
Also, I brought in the painting done for the previous month. Unfortunately, I was snowed-in and had to miss last month’s meeting. The challenge for the February meeting was “Love and Kindness” and that subject produced, a *plethora of ideas flooding my mind. I was trying to choose the best subject and it was impossible with so many ideas flowing through my brain. After a week of fiddling around, I noticed that one set of images kept populating the parade. Kids and dogs. Yep, that was my love and kindness entry. Always, I have always, felt the best of love from my woofie dogs! They want to be with you no matter what, loving you through the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Here is the first study I painted of this view, as a horizontal presentation. After finishing the study, I am able to see areas to improve. Standing back away gives me a good view to ponder how I want to proceed with the larger painting. I’m not so sure I will go with horizontal, I think I like the vertical better.
