A Painting A Day in April – Day One

A Painting A Day in April – Day One

Well, I know I have been down the painting a day road before. And somehow it never gets old, it is always a useful practice to return to.

This month I have decided to do this painting a day project again for a number of reasons:

• to get back momentum of painting quickly everyday in preparation for the upcoming plein air season
• to make some new discoveries in my approach and way of working
• to make some new smaller paintings working specifically on synthesizing and looking for the big shapes and relationships over painting those oh so tempting details

So the first day was a lot of fun. I was pumped and knew exactly where I wanted to go.

This is a place I return to over and over again and so this was an opportunity to see it with fresh eyes and to go quickly, simplifying and looking for the big shapes of light and shadow and to also really see the color variations in the shadows (not all shadows are blue!)

In going back to the same place again and again there is something that happens- I see what I did not before and more importantly I seem to be able to better synthesize the idea into simplified shapes, looking for what is just the essential information.
This is my first watercolor study done here last fall and what got me started on painting this place.

After the initial watercolor I thought that the light and color combinations (red/green) are so wonderful here that I would attempt a large oil painting here, which is still in progress

Really there is a huge benefit in falling in love or becoming slightly obsessed with a place. The more I look, study and recreate it, the more I seem to take in and be able to make it into its own world in a painting.

To follow the daily updates of a painting a day in April, you can tune in here on the blog or on Facebook or Instagram.

I look forward to sharing these paintings with you.