Page 22 - The Decorative Painter Spring 2018

WATERCOLOR
Plein Air Checklist
SURFACE
Journal sizes 6" x 9" and 8" x 10" Watercolor paper 140 lb.
PALETTE
WINSOR & NEWTON WATER COLOURS Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Quinacridone Red
Raw Sienna
French Ultramarine Blue Winsor Violet
BRUSHES
3 - 4 brushes in assorted sizes 1" flat
SUPPLIES
Basic painting supplies (page 96)
Pencil
Small palette filled with your favorite colors Umbrella or poncho
Collapsible water container
Bottle of water
Perspective tool (see text)
Camera with extra memory card and battery Microfiber cloth
Micron Pigma pen
Tissues
Stabilo point 88 pens
Derwent Inktense pencils
Hat and sunglasses
SOURCES
Supplies are available at kathiegeorge.com
20 The Decorative Painter • ISSUE NO. 2, 2016
Many artists have done it and many others have dreamed about it. Traveling to a beautiful location to paint en plein air (outdoors) is a long-standing artistic tradition. Claude Monet, for example, es-
caped the heat of Paris by taking off to his place in Giverny where gardens and lily ponds stoked his imagination. Paul Gauguin once spent nine weeks with his friend Vincent Van Gogh before sail- ing off to the tropics. What they knew is that getting away to a new location that is free from the distractions of home is indeed transforming. Add to that being in the company and support of other like-minded artists and you have the perfect mix for getting outside your own box and making a dream come true.
Okay, so it sounds great, but you don’t have much painting ex- perience and you’re not very good at drawing much less painting outdoors. You feel like you’d be out of your league. Actually, you are in good company. On my journey workshops, perhaps 80% of the participants have never painted outdoors. Yes it can be scary, anticipating all the ways you might look goofy in front of the other students. Perhaps that is why nothing is more satisfying than find- ing out you CAN do it!
The thing is, drawing is not about talent, but about SEEING. Seeing and recording what you see. That is good news because it means that you can learn to draw just like you can learn to do math, sew or cook. Tuck this information into the back of your mind for now while we talk about what supplies you’ll need. Whether you’re painting far away or in your backyard, my recom- mendation is that you take the bare minimum. Keep it simple, light and easy.
Whether you’ve tried painting on location in the past and are wanting to get more from the experience or have only dreamed about it until now, these simple tips can help.
PREPARE YOURSELF
Before we go out on our first sojourn, my students and I coat a few of our journal pages with heavy gels, crackle paste, assort- ed collage papers and the like (this is a great exercise for at-home journaling, too). Prepping some of the pages in advance has a sneaky dual purpose. It’s great fun and, because making the first mark in a new journal can be daunting, it takes away some of the fear of messing up a blank journal page; you’ve already “messed it up.”
CHOOSE YOUR SPOT
Your bag is packed, your journal pages are dry, you’re ready to go! The wonderful thing about a journey workshop is that there’s no shortage of fantastic subject matter. Think sun-soaked buildings in picturesque villages, window boxes, cafes and fields spotted with poppies. No matter the location you’ll have no trouble finding in- spiring subjects to paint. Hone in on your subject, eliminating any- thing but that ‘thing’ that drew you in.
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