Plein Air 2013 – Page 3 – Marianne Thompson

Plein Air Painting 2013

August 17th, 2013

August 17th, 2013
Essex Town Hall / Library, Essex MA
Paint Essex – Wet Paint Auction

I just typed three paragraphs about this which my browser decided to delete so I’m a bit too miffed to patiently set it all down again. In a nutshell, I went into this event planning to paint what I know – the marsh – and adorn the piece with all the bells & whistles in order to dazzle my way to being able to afford the veterinary work my cat needs done.

But then I saw this crazy building, Essex Town Hall, and I was too intrigued by it to even thing about painting any thing else, even though I have never in my life (to my recollection) completed a painting of a building. Curiosity trumps commercial pandering every time with me, unfortunately. Here is a slide show of the process. As I said before, there are things I would fix about the painting now that I’m seeing it with refreshed eyes. However, I like it. And as a first building, a very complex building at that, I think that it’s pretty darn good.

August 16th, 2013

August 16th, 2013
Cox Reservation, Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
(sold)

This was painted in the afternoon, while the sun was gradually weakening and the colors of the marsh were glowing. I know I say this all the time, but I really need to retake this photo. The sky looks so washed out in the picture but in reality it’s one of the best parts of the painting. I did this just as a sort of palette cleanser, or an exercise in the familiar, to practice a little before the “wet paint” event the next day.

August 8th, 2013

August 8th, 2013
The Old Granite Pier, Rockport MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in
(sold)

Again, working on rocks. There were some dazzlingly beautiful weeds growing around the rocks. This photo looks a lot more “blah” than I think the painting looks in fact – will retake another day.

August 7th, 2013

August 7th, 2013
Halibut Point Quarry, Rockport MA
Oil on Canvasboard, 16 x 20 in
(sold)

There’s some reflection in this photo that dulls the subtlety of the clouds and sky, which is unfortunate as they really set the tone for the entire painting. Will retake. However, this is another step in the right direction. After being at my beautiful lake, then coming back to what feels like captivity, with all these trees everywhere hemming me in, I felt a lot of pathos for that still, deep green quarry pool – sitting so close and yet so far away from the wild wide ocean beyond.

August 6th, 2013

August 6th, 2013
Bass Rocks, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 22 x 28 in

I need to retake this one when the light is better (I took this today in the rain, so it’s blurry.) Working on rocks, literally and figuratively.

First week of August, 2013

First week of August, 2013
Oil (about 30 gallons of it) on Canvas, 24 x 36 in

Sometimes when you try something difficult you are rewarded with spectacular success – but more frequently, you crash and burn. This is a story of the latter. I am posting it regardless.
I need to understand water better. In case it isn’t clear, this painting is of the lake – the foreground is looking in to the water, and from there as you work back gradually the part of the water that you can’t see into, that’s reflecting the sky.

I want to be able to “see” water better. I am stupefied every time I look into it by its incredible beauty, unfathomable complexity, and utterly bewildering symmetry. I am trying to understand translucency – as told through colour, my medium – as opposed to through light, it’s medium. I have a long way to go. But I suppose I’m one step closer to understanding.

July 28th, 2013

July 28th, 2013
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in
(sold)

I’m back. I managed two sketches, both of which were executed with a lot of frustration. What I failed to achieve due to my colour malfunction I sought to recover with colourful language I hope my niece and nephews didn’t hear. I took a great deal of tonal notation however, while there, and many pictures. I plan to produce a great deal in the weeks to come with help of those. The two above I struggled with but post in the interest of transparency. I seem to struggle with every painting, but these, like most of the them, in time I came to appreciate. I think I’m always surprised by how much of my own emotion and interpretation goes into each painting I produce.

July 14th-26th, 2013

I’m in Canada, on Lake of the Woods, and having trouble painting because they apparently changed the recipe of the blue I’ve been using for 25 years. Since all of my colours are mixed from the three primaries and white, this overly opaque, overly bright blue is throwing off my entire palette. There is no place in town one can buy oil paints, so for the time being, I am thwarted. However, painting this, my favorite of all places, may be as frought with complications as a surgeon operating on their parent.

July 12th, 2013

July 12th, 2013
Unfinished
Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 in

The workshop was on buildings and boats – I had done two boats already, so I opted to try a building. I had only two canvases left – a very small one, or a large one. I thought I’d opt for the large, since it’s difficult to get much detail on a small space with the knife. Downside of course is that there’s much more space to cover on a large canvas. This is as far as I got. However, I left the parts I hadn’t time for completely blank. This means that I can return to the site one day and finish it. With palette knife you can’t paint over dried paint – or I think one shouldn’t (for various reasons.) The only part where I would have to do so would be putting in the dozens of windows that thread along the pier building.

July 11th, 2013

July 11th, 2013
Rocky Neck, Gloucester MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in

Day two of the workshop on buildings and boats. I painted and scraped off two separate compositions this morning before finally settling on this one. I sat and worked on it through a mild thunderstorm and a decent amount of rain. It was a really lovely boat. I may yet tweak a thing or two on this piece, I may not.