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ART & TRAVEL
Adventures in Plein Air Painting
Forgotten clothes, spiders, and dark red paint on a white t-shirt
I set up my easel underneath a shady maple on a tree lined street during the first day of my very first plein air painting event. I had a perfect view of the ornate building that I wanted to paint, and the morning sunlight was shining on it at just the right angle. I laid out my paints, and began blocking in my composition. I was ready to start mixing my colors when I noticed a shadow in front of my easel. I looked up to see another artist plop their easel down right in front of mine, completely blocking my view. I was incredulous, didn’t they see that they were right in my line of view?
I asked them what they were doing, and they said that it was “their view” and that they were going to paint it. To this, I replied, “That’s fine, but please paint next to me, not in front of me.” They barely moved an inch to the side and I ended up having to look around them and their massive set up which included an umbrella to get may painting done. I was really surprised at this type of behavior, it was the first time it had ever happened to me. Little did I know that this was a fairly common occurrence at these type of events.
