I bought a mobile (ish) easel and had my first stab at plein air painting and what a lesson it was!

I picked a spot with a lot of interest (too much!) and got set-up… it was quite grey and I hoped it would be a quiet spot… how wrong I was!

I bought myself an amazing steak pasty from just around the corner, steadied my nerves and got down to business.

I had put a bright orange wash on the panel to match my jumper!

I think at this stage the water was done… I should have left it. Also never start at the bottom… but the tight Scot in me couldn’t stand wasting paint so used up what I had.

The no.1 lesson in plein air painting is that conditions will change… and they defintely did.
The sun came out and everything got harder to be honest – especially the sun on the back of my neck!

With the sun came the people! It was nice and daunting at the same time – people take interest and ask questions, usually just as you smudge something and make your painting worse it turns out!

I’d given myself a four hour limit due to practical issues of not abandoning the family on holiday! And it turns out that four hours is not a long time!

I was out of time, and stopped.

I am not “happy” with the painting, but I learned a lot. I am going to try again this weekend at a similar location nearby and try acrylic as I struggled with drying / smudging and muddying up my painting.

I think I could work up the panel into a nice little painting, but at the same time I think it should stand as it is as that was the day and the time.