The Plein Air Watercolor Adventures Continue

Time for a Cold One

Art is like beginning a sentence before you know its ending.  The risks are obvious: you may never get to the end of the sentence at all–or having gotten there, you may not have said anything.

David Bayles & Ted Orland, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking

Today was not the best of days to attempt a plein air painting.  I had a school day that just would not seem to end.  The year has seemed far too long for students as well as faculty.  I then had to drive away from Waxahachie to enter seven paintings in a competition in which I like to participate every year (the timing was just not good this time).  I then drove the rest of the distance to Waxahachie, and found a pickup truck again parked right in front of the pub.  So I walked around it, sat in front of the pub, and looked at the planters, carefully drawing their designs and plants, and then went back to the easel and faked it–something I hate doing en plein air.  But the truck never left–it wiped out everything below the awning.  I worked all over on the composition for about an hour, heightening contrasts, warming some areas, cooling others, re-doing some details I thought were poorly and hastily rendered last night.  Finally I decided I could make no further improvement.  I was at the end of the sentence, and not sure if I had actually said anything.

I was robbed of a decent night’s sleep again last night, so I’m really too weary to know whether or not this is much of a painting.  At any rate, I priced it at $150, an 8 x 10″ piece in a white 11 x 14″ mat and sleeved in plastic.  It is also in the Ellis County Art Association Office, awaiting Friday’s judging and the all-day Saturday and Sunday sale at the Chatauqua Auditorium at Gezendaner Park.

I will spend the entire day and evening in historic Waxahachie tomorrow, and earnestly hope I can churn out a decent day’s worth of paintings.  Even if the work isn’t much good, it will have been sublime to have been given that opportunity.  This is indeed a fabulous event: Paint Historic Waxachie, open till Sunday at 5:00.

Thanks for reading.

I paint in order to remember.

I journal because I feel alone.

I blog to remind myself that I am not alone.

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Tags: David Bayles, Getzendaner Park, Paint Historic Waxahachie, Ted Orland