Click (below) to Watch Video: Join me for a late afternoon watercolor on a beach in Carmel. In the video you’ll be able to see how I quickly captured this scene in watercolor and hopefully it will give you ideas on how to approach a quick plein air study.

 

 

It’s late afternoon so the sky has a cerulean that goes into light sunset colors.

I will link videos in the notes below on how I made this custom travel palate. I’m painting 4 plein air studies in this weekend and by the end of the trip my palate is filled with sand.

I also couldn’t find the boom for my normal travel tri-pod so my son set me up with an alternative. He composed the frame and was in charge of most of the camera work for the next videos…and I just trusted that he would do a good job.

He’s in the background of most of my beach painting videos. I treasure these days where he’s on school breaks as he is growing up so quickly.

And I realized, due to the fact that I had less control over the filming, that the bigger lessons  in this video (isn’t the painting this time) but in the ways one can adapt to paint on location when things aren’t perfect.

The day initially started out very cold and windy and drizzly. We drive around to look for a location to set-up for a painting and I just don’t want to get out of the car.

I’m just not made for cold weather and I have limits that make painting pein air miserable. 

So in this moment, I decide we’re going to drive down to Big Sur…and my son is very mad because unlike me, he’s not phased by cold weather. He wants to go to the beach.

So the painting session here happens at the end of the day.

We drove around and enjoyed the scenery and Big Sur was Stunning.. It had been a day filled with light showers. I don’t have a set-up to paint in the rain.

But on the way back from a drive down to Big Sur, the sun came out. My son stated that it would be a GREAT time to go to the beach…and could we?

And we were coming right up to a beach that we love…and it was after 3pm. The sun would be setting soon, it’s also the end of December.

We were very lucky that the sun came out and the beach felt warm…for December.

When we unpacked on the beach and I realized that I didn’t have the camera boom, which is the the long stick that attaches to my tri-pods and holds my phone for videos…when I couldn’t find that, my son searched my travel bag and told me, don’t worry, mom, I’ll set-you up and he did! He found a solution, focused and framed the video…and I thought, well, if it doesn’t turn out good, then life will still be Ok.

The device that’s holding my phone is tethered to my chair. I couldn’t see how the frame was composed in the video. I told my son that I wanted the painting part to be big in the screen…and he did this but we didn’t manage to capture how I’m mixing paint on the palate.

But actually, I was super surprised at how well he did frame my painting. It’s interesting enough to watch and he captured all of my brush strokes.

…and this video is the outcome from that painting session. It was a 24 minute session.

If I could change anything in the filming, I’d show you the 4 colors that I’m choosing and how I’m mixing them on my custom travel palate.

My goal for this session was to capture some color for references for if I create a larger painting of this beach. That’s one reason to make watercolor sketchbook studies, they are for color references for larger studio paintings. 

I wanted to keep the painting simple. There is a lot of moisture in the air so the paper is not drying as quickly as a painting session in the summer. It’s remaining damp and so it’s not as easy to put down detail…as I’m not waiting for anything to dry, there really isn’t enough time.

To be transparent in that I’ve been a studio artist for most of my life. Painting outdoors, on scene is a newer journey that I’m taking…and with everything that we try that’s new, there’s always a lot to learn.

Also painting in a sketchbook releases the idea that I need to make art for a reason, for a client for a show or gallery, etc…

When you are a full-time, professional artist, nearly every minute of the day is consumed with either making art for a client or the artist is thinking of marketing and all the content that has to be made.

By the way, making content for artists is extremely easy.

The part that’s NOT easy is editing and condensing that content. It’s a completely different job with as many hours as the first.

This is just my thoughts…but I bet a lot…and if not all professional artists struggle with the concept that painting as a study (that isn’t related to a custom painting for a client) is a difficult thought to accept…because it’s difficult to let go of the concept of making art that isn’t related to a goal. This probably comes from years of working under deadlines.

I’m trying to re-train my brain to let go of a bit of that thought process.

And as the sun here is slipping away and the marine layer is approaching, I’m feeling cold the entire time. But I told myself that I’ll feel happy at the end of the day IF I at least tried.

Anyway, this quick painting session was a lot of fun.

The big takeaways are that it’s always possible to solve a problem on the fly…and the painting that you do doesn’t need to be a masterpiece but it IS important to follow through on it. Bring it to a point of completion and reflect on how you might approach the scene differently the next time you paint on the scene.

If you liked this video, you might like my video where I paint Shells on the Beach. I’ll link that in the show notes below.

And if you want to see how I set-up my custom travel paint set, check out: Watercolor Custom Travel Paint Set…or Swatching at the beach those videos will also be linked here: