First time to try Plein Air Painting...at Beautiful Red Cedar Gardens

Red Cedar Gardens was the special place we chose to try Our First Plein Air Paintings.

Plein Air painting simply means to paint outside. 
 But it is not as simple as it sounds.

-First you need the correct equipment

-Then one must decide what to paint.  There is so much beauty everywhere  you look.

-Set up the canvas...get out the brushes, the paint and turpentine.

-...and by then the light has changed :-(

-but once you begin to paint, you 
wondered ..... 

why would we ever paint from a photo?

So Vicki began her set-up.

and Dana found a perfect spot to paint. 

                                             

Then our mother and daughter team began...   

 ...and Wonderful David had to learn how to set up his brand new French Easel.....

...being sure to tighten every bolt for one thing!...not an easy task! But David always enjoys what he learns.


 It was a special morning...but maybe painting "upside down sail boats" is easier?   SMILES

Upside down sail boats

 We had an exercise of painting from an upside down photo reference.
 Why?...because I wanted the students to paint the color shapes they saw in the reference.....
 They accomplished the task in 2 hours..
 Turned their paintings right side up...and were amazed, just amazed at their accomplishment!

Many want to try again....it really made it easy to have a successful painting.