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This painting is as much about a muscular impression as feeling the forces of nature weighting down a fluid rock. I feel the breeze and hear the birds. The dryness of the air dries the brush. More paint on the brush slows the drying.
Working from this photo would likely result in a more photographic image.
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"Near Painted Hills, Oregon" acrylic on canvas, 18" square
Working on location is rewarding, I really avoid using photographs and studio copying of photos. On location requires immediate selection of your window which could be more panoramic than the limits of the usual lens. Copying is not important - the landscape before me is just a springboard to a precious experience.
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3 comments:
To me, they are two different things. Painting on location isn't about getting a better painting-- not sure it does. What it is though is what you said-- a wonderful way to feel the energy of a place and use the paint to try and capture that. I like doing both and don't think either makes for necessarily better-- they are just different for the feelings I get while doing them. I used to do all my paintings at home after doing sketches and writing down color notes on location. I never used a photo for them because photos are something different. Now with digital and the different energy of a light photo that we see on the screen, it makes a photo more possible. I still like the joy of doing it at the site.
Rain,
Interesting points about digital photographs on a lighted screen being different from photographs on paper that we used to use as a painting referrence. Also digital cameras are more convenient than sending film to a lab and waiting for results.
After being on location and soon afterwards seeing the photographs on my computer, I realize the texture of the rocks as seen on the screen is not at all like what I remember. Even with all the new conveniences, I enjoy painting on location over painting from images in the studio. Though I can see some preferring the comfort of their studio. The camera does some of the filtering and selection of stimulus. Obviously a flat photo has perspective devises to form what we call realism. By the way in my recent painting and the photo of the scene,the detailed shadows on the rock interrupt the intensity of the color and confuses perspective. I selected the color over the texture. Movement and vertical distortion of classic perspective including more of the landscape on either side of the big rock!
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