About Me

My photo
Documenting a period in my development that could become pivotal

Monday, May 09, 2011

The result of two handed viewfinder for plein air painting.





















2 comments:

Rain Trueax said...

So what makes that a better method than just looking at the sky, deciding you want one part of it and then painting it? Basically what does that give you then that just looking does not?

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

Rain,
Thanks for visiting and commenting.

What advantage is there to viewfinding over just looking and choosing?
1) Beginner plein air painters are overwhelmed and do not know where to start or can't decide what they want to paint. This is a method I will try on some children ages 7 - 11 and their mother tomorrow. It may not be successful. We will see, The alternative is to have them count something like flowers or trees or birds that they can see and then have them arrange them on the paper. One method might be better for one and the other for another.
2) For someone who has done many paintings and wants a fresh beginning beyond a limited number of design elements that they use repeatedly. To stimulate their imagination they may use the viewfinder to find new ways of seeing as I did with the clouds. I didn't slavishly paint the memory of one viewfinder image.