A lot of these nights I’ve found myself scrambling to fit in a painting by the end of the day. If I don’t knock it out as one of my important morning tasks…….. I’m in trouble!
In the “Plein Air Podcast,” I’ve heard many painters talk about the importance of loosening up while painting. Letting go. Not worrying about applying the most precise, detailed little brush strokes.
Tonight I was SO tired and wanted to whip up a quick painting before bed. I’m trying to lay down by 11pm so I had about 25 minutes of allotted painting time. It was a good challenge to have to fit in all of the colors, shapes, and values in that limited window. I truly had to loosen up or it wouldn’t have been possible.
In addition to getting to bed by 11pm, I try to limit my exposure to bright lights in the final couple hours of the day. This is a challenge for painting a brightly lit subject. Today I tried something different. I set up my subject, these delicate little flowers, with a cozy candle flickering just under and behind them. That created a nice glow of light.
The next problem to solve was lighting my canvas well enough. You can get values correct in low light… In fact it might even help to dial in values… But the colors. That’s where the painting will suffer. You can’t see hue as well in low light.
I set up my lamp from Target behind me with my phone mounted to record the session and used the light to add a little more interest to my subject and, more importantly, to light my canvas from behind without destroying my night vision.
The result of all of these constraints? I’m pleased to say it is a loose and gestural flower painting with interesting lighting that is a fantastic addition to these daily paintings.
As a side note, I also tried labeling my palette for simplicity’s sake. It was fun to look back at my colors without having to worry if I was picking the right stack as I zoomed around the canvas.
