Tastes of Culture

The beauty of working at home is, that you can take as much time as you like for your painting. However, when you set foot outside, you are faced with a whole heap of problems.

What I would suggest is that you wrap up well. By this, I mean keep your head warm and also make sure your feet are not going to let in the wet. You require shoes with a waterproof sole, thick socks and your clothing is better if it is light, yet comfortable to sit in and an absolute must are good pockets.

You will come across many differences painting outside, often in inclement weather, so you need to be up for the challenge and also in the mood for it.

So, here goes. Really, what you need to decide to do, is to work fairly quickly and not waste valuable time as the elements can be very changeable. I think most artists would probably have already put a fairly thin undercoat on their canvas before they left home, to give them a quite strong base to work on.

Just spend some time looking at your subject before you actually begin. It is ideal if you have something like a frame you can observe your subject through. It is certainly a help to choose which sections to use.

You don’t necessarily have to put in everything you see before you. This can be a big mistake, as then your painting can look busy and overcrowded. Personally, I look for the parts which basically shout out at me. Sometimes the subjects are strong and other times pretty non-nondescript.

Do not hang about to long, get your pencil on the canvas and do some of your preliminary sketches. Then make some principal guide lines with thin paint, but there is little point in trying to fill in all your white spaces as you want your paint to dry.

Then I try to block in the mass of the painting and a few main colours. The trouble is, you are in the lap of the gods. Suddenly the sun goes down, or the heavens open up and the light is constantly changeable.

It is never easy to decide what colours to use when you look out at the landscape. Most art needs to have dark and light shading to create light and shade and, all important, shadows.

Put some of your main colouring on, but do not bother filling in other parts which are going to eat into your time, as it is not necessary at this stage. If you feel the need to change the colours, they don’t have to be identical. Let’s face it, chances are you will head home, because the light has altered. There is no other way then, but to finish your work at home from the memories in your mind .

You may have suffered for your art, but usually you will be glad you took the challenge, and be happy with the final result.