Painting Plein Air

Limited quantity of printed version of
"The Language of Energy in Art:
Finding Your Vision"

eBook Available
Details

2017 Workshop Schedule

June 10 - 11th - Townshend Morgan Horse Farm, Boylston, MA  Details

July 8 - 9th - Tower Hill Botanic Gardens, Boylston, MA  Details

October 9 - 12th - The Art Barn, Valparaiso, Indiana    Details

Join us at Tower Hill Botanic Gardens in Boylston, MA on Thursdays. No instruction - Just painting. Details

Painting Plein Air with Expression - 21 Tips

Charlotte Wharton, Copley Master, PSA,

Author, "The Language of Energy in Art: Finding Your Vision"

This article is an information sheet that I send out to the artists that attend my plein air and landscape workshops. I thought that it might be of interest to all artists.

1. Have a goal for your painting. It serves as a decision making guide

2. Note where the sun is, its temperature, the atmosphere, various lights

3. Identify the flow: either in a pattern or in an orchestration of shapes

4. Link middle values/shadows in charcoal/pencil in small bordered sketches

5. Design with uneven negative spaces and shapes

6. Use a limited palette: three primaries or warm & cool of each of the three primaries

7. Decide on the mother color for your painting

8. If needed, use a transparent under tone on your canvas

9. With various values of wash, link mid values/shadows for composition

10. Or wash in local colors/values in shapes designing composition and flow

11. Keep paint thin either with turpentine or medium saving thick paint for the end

12. Keep shadows transparent. Thick paint reflects light and comes forward

13. Paint reflected light and color in shadows

14. Impact - use as few values as possible: three or four, and highlights and accents

15. Place hard and soft edges for rhythm of repetition and movement

16. Note planes: foreground, middle ground, background

17. Planes 'usually' get neutralized (grayed), cooler and lighter as they recede

18. Focal points 'usually' are placed in middle ground

19. Edges of value and color contrasts are sharper around the focal point

20. Edges of objects in the background are similar to read as in same plane

21. Hard edges stop movement, soft edges allow movement through shapes

STOP WHEN YOU HAVE EXPRESSED YOUR GOAL FOR THE PAINTING.

PAINTINGS THAT LOOK FRESH AND AS THOUGH THEY WERE PAINTED WITH EASE ARE AN ARTIST'S LIFE LONG WORK....NOT AN EASY TASK, BUT A WORTHY ONE! ENJOY!!

Images and Paintings by Charlotte Wharton: (Top to Bottom)

"Workshop Demonstration at St. Joseph's Abbey, Spencer, Massachusetts"

"Morning Light", Oil on Canvas, Weston Nurseries, Hopkington, Massachusetts

"Reading By The Thames", Oil on Canvas, Essex, England

"Wild Iris", Pastel, Moore State Park, Rutland Massachusetts

"The Barn", Oil on Canvas, Weston Nurseries, Hopkington, Massachusetts


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