Painting En Plein Air - new kit
I realised I forgot to publish this post - so it’s date marked nearly a year later than I wrote it!
I was very excited last week to have christened my new En Plein Air painting kit. Since moving to Kent and joining the local WOKAS art society, I knew that I’d have more opportunities to paint outside “en plein air” with the art group. Last week we headed to a pretty village called Appledore to paint by the river.
It was a bit of a murky day, with low cloud and no sun. The light was pretty flat. I took up a position by a busy road and felt slightly self-conscious but once I got going I soon just focused on what I was doing. First I painted the underpainting in Indian yellow for the lighter areas and ultramarine blue for the darker tones. I used alkyd oils for this to aid faster drying times which really helped. I let this settle a little before then going back and painting the top layers in regular oils
The new equipment I bought is the U-go Pochade and tripod by New Wave. I definitely recommend it and really liked it’s portability and it was quick to set-up and take-down.
I also took along with me: some brushes and a palette knife, some clamps to hold my wood panel in case it was windy, some solvent in a jar and some paper towels, plus a plastic bag for rubbish. All in all, I was really pleased with my first attempt at creating an oil painting outside by the river.
With my second plein air outing, we painting in the historical village of Winchelsea. The village is filled with pretty cottages and is full of ancient smuggling stories. The village is set on a hill which is riddled with smugglers caves. Pretty much every house has a cellar beneath it! You can do tours of the cellars and visit the old smuggling routes, however for us this morning we simply painted the views, the church and for me I chose the allotments. I don’t have any photos of the set-up as I forgot to take my phone with me this time! (photos below courtesy of my painting buddy)
The painting is unfinished but I hope to finish it off in the studio this week some time.
What do you think? Which kit do you use? I’d love to hear your comments below. Thanks for reading!
