Paint Together
Recent sketch from plein air paint out at O'Neil Park. Scroll below to see final painting
Benefits of Joining a Plein air Painting Group
When kids are under age 3 they don’t play together, they do ‘parallel play’. They each play with the toys in front of them, while trapped in the same playpen. Painting with a group is kind of like that, except for the ‘trapped’ part. But I have found there to be some great benefits of this group activity.
It is true that painting is an individual endeavor, we are using our own tools to paint our own painting. I can remember a time when the manager at my office tried to make painting a picture into a team building exercise. Can you imagine our team and spouses are at a weekend get-away and before dinner we meet to have wine and cheese and do a group painting? I guess other people were having fun, but as a painter I was not enjoying the process. Seriously, I’m over it now, but when someone who didn’t know cerulean blue from raw sienna started to paint over my graded wash. Well, like I said, I’m over it.
I have discovered that there are benefits to painting with a group, just not on the same easel. Some obvious benefits are hanging out with people who have an interest like yours, and the safety in numbers thing. But as I considered what fun I was having with the group I came up with some other rewards for painting with other people.
Being able to discuss the painting process and the challenges of painting on location, I can learn from other painters and improve my painting.
I have met some great people I would not have met otherwise, and as my 3-year-old nephew said, “we have turned friends”.
This painting thing can be a solitary endeavor, we must paint our own painting. But when we meet as a group to paint on location, it becomes a joint adventure. There may be limited shade, so you share the same tree. You may share the same view or share some painting supplies. After a few hours of simplifying the subject, assigning the appropriate values, choosing colors, and manipulating edges, you share a picnic bench for lunch.
I am encouraged by the group. We check out how our painting partners are progressing with their painting, and realize they solved the puzzle differently than we did. This is a learning opportunity for me.
On a recent paint-out, a new painter with our group, commented on my nearly completed painting, “Oh, you decided to make those trees shorter, I can see how that changes the scale”. This person was just making and observation, and I believe was complementing me on being creative with the adjustment of shapes. But this caused me to step back from the painting and look at it from a distance. Interesting, I ended the trees at the top of the painting, can you say, “tangent”? This person may have been new to painting, but their eye was drawn to this uncomfortable part of the painting. Those trees should have flowed off the top of the painting. I was not offended (after all, they didn’t touch my ‘graded wash’). I was learning to step back from my painting and to give it critique from a distance.
Wow, this ‘Parallel Play’ is fun, and I think we ‘turned friends’.
Plein air watercolor from O’Neil Park Paint Out