Steve Fleming

Artist Studio

Steve Fleming

In The Studio: Two More Plein Aire Watercolor Paintings

The Artist In The Studio

I am putting up two watercolors that I just finished, I came back from an oil workshop and have not felt like painting oils at all.  Something just didn’t work for me and I needed to get back to a comfortable place.  Watercolors are my home when all else is in turmoil.  I am sitting on top of a ridge of just outside of Washington DC and set up my easel in the middle of the field and did these two little watercolors.  As always I am just trying to get a feeling for the light and a reasonably accurate sense of the subject matter.Spring Shadows12×16 watercolor  Dark tree forms and the shadows on the ground were what I was focusing on.  I used the backdrop of the hill in the distance to set up the foreground and to create and interesting pattern for the rocks and tree trunks.

image 1image for the above painting, remember to edit your subject matter, name a concept and keep your shapes simple, with nice spacing between your principle shapes.  over the wallThis little painting took about 15 minutes from concept to finish and I was just trying to shake off the demons as Brewer and Shipley put it in the 70’s.  I tried to keep everything as loose as possible and to really enjoy the watercolor process, no fussing around and over stating the details.  This valley floor is not the center of interest and it just adds depth and a sense of point of view.image 2image for the above paint.  I know this is a lot more interesting than my painting but I have painted this view many times and was just enjoying the simplicity of form.  I could paint a 100 paintings from this view.  Be selective, be the driver of your painting, and don’t be a slave to your scene.

1 Comments on “In The Studio: Two More Plein Aire Watercolor Paintings”

  1. Hi Steve, thanks for your help. I know that I can rendering to my way what I’m seeing, but when I´m painting, something of me return again to my child school training to copy with accurace, and, without realizing, I’m there trying to copy being slave of that I have before me. I have to practise much… and remember that I have to edit.

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