Plein Air Painting and Purple Flowers

Hi!

Guess you noticed right away that this painting is quite a departure from my usual. I'd like to share with you some things I enjoyed while painting this one.

"Birdsong And Purple Phlox" 8"x10" was painted completely en plein air in the space of a short afternoon.

An artist friend, Christine Panyard, pulled together an "Art Walk" last Saturday for the enjoyment of her fellow residents at Beaumont Commons, a retirement community nestled against the Rouge River.

I usually take a lot longer to complete a painting when I'm in my studio, but I must admit, I'm growing quite fond of the spontaneous nature of painting on location.

It's also neither a sunrise or sunset, another departure for me. So painting the early afternoon light was a bit of a challenge.

But the real challenge was making sense of the tangled mess in the scene before me as you can see from the image below.

Another artist friend, Janet Kondziela, showed how to simplify a complex scene during the Artists' Retreat I ran last Fall in Cheboygan, MI.

In this image you can barely see the purple phlox under the tree.

Everything is just green green green (including the river) with little to break it up.

So how does one make sense of the scene so that the viewer is not confused or overwhelmed?

Answer:

You take artistic license.

(In other words, you cheat)

I strengthened the contrast by darkening the tree limbs.

It was a picture perfect day with a rose-petal-soft breeze and no haze, so I had to manufacture some in the area across the river.

I used cooler colors and blurred that section to give a sense of distance.

I wanted to make the lovely purple phlox and tree the focal center, so I painted that area wider than in real life and used more saturated color.

A couple walking by stopped to chat with me when I was almost finished. The lady was wearing a blouse almost the same shade of lavender as the flowers that drew me to this spot.

When she mentioned that they were phlox I suddenly realized why I must have chosen this scene; a memory of Dad telling me flower names, and flashes of purple in our wet side yard where such blossoms flourished. And here they were again, alongside a river.

She asked if they might buy the painting and we made arrangements to get it in their hands when it's dry.

After they walked on, I tried to see my handiwork through their eyes.

There is a LOT of hurried palette knife work to save time, and no elements are very detailed. And yet, it works. There is a profound sense of quiet in it that I didn't realize I had captured.

There is great pleasure in carefully planning out my still life paintings. I derive joy from capturing memories with lighting and placement of the elements.

But the beauty and wonder awaiting outdoors will not stand still, and so there is another kind of joy derived from the spontaneous nature of painting en plein air.

And I crave more.

Next Saturday I will be at Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, searching for another flash of beauty to capture in oil,...

...and another chance to delight in birdsong.

Jan

P.S. There is an exhibit planned for people to view the artwork created by the eleven artists who participated in this event. If you are interested in going, reply to this email and I will get you complete details as soon as I have them. It's either June 3 or 4 and held in the Rotunda Room at Beaumont Commons.