Is painting in the studio different than painting on location?

 

The answer is a definite yes!  I think of painting outside, or en plein air, as an outdoor sport, with similar challenges and rewards.

 

Inside the studio, everything is under control.  I control the lighting and the comfort - no wind, a comfortable physical environment, warmth in winter, cooling in summer, no wind or bugs, comfy chair to sit on, or comfy carpet under foot.  Everything I need is ready at hand.

 

   

Here I am, painting just outside of Crested Butte, in the Oh Be Joyful recreation area, and a painting done on the way to Gothic.

 

Painting on location, by contrast, is often the exact opposite.  There can be all kinds of unpredictable challenges - sudden rainstorms, blistering sun, drying winds, windy gusts that pick up my easel and canvas and send it all flying away.  Yes, that really happened!  Sometimes I have to carry all my gear a long way for the view I want to paint.  And bugs!

 

    

Location paintings - Pikes Peak from Palmer Park, a private garden, and Lovell Gulch.

 

In spite of the challenges, painting out of doors is a special part of my life.  As a landscape artist with a deep reverence for nature, I feel a real connection to the world around me when painting outside.    I feel the chi, or life force of our beautiful planet flowing  through me, and all this becomes part of my experience and part of  the art I create.  I feel the wind in the aspen leaves, and hear the murmuring song of water as it tumbles over the creekbed.  Birdsong, scents on the breeze, stones underfoot and the smell of pine bark in the sun, all infuse my painting and my soul.

 

  

Fireweed - painted at Rock Ledge Ranch

 

Infinite Light - also painted at Rock Ledge Ranch

 

Suzanne's Garden - guess where this was painted?

 

Painting on location makes me a better studio painter.  Nuances of color observed on location are far more subtle than what can be perceived in a photograph, and the experience of observing actual color and effects of light on site becomes information I use, back in the studio.  Often, my location studies and paintings become the inspiration for large paintings in the studio.  

 

Summer Snowfields - a large studio paintings created from a field study painted at Glacier Valley

 

 

 

 

Summer Spirit, a large studio painting created from a field study painted at American Basin

 

Painting outside is one of the best parts of my life as an artist!