Plein Aire didn’t mean a darn thing to me when I started painting a few years ago. I was very happy so see a painting and to create a relatively similar facsimile. Now, because of this painting, I am looking forward to cooler days. I didn’t know when I made this painting that acrylics were not the best material for doing Plein Arie. In my first attempt, my easel setup on the trunk of my car, that acrylics and painting outdoors would be fraught with problems.

Wind and sunlight speed-up the already quick drying times of acrylic paint. That’s why artist use oils with a drying time of days or weeks instead of 15 or 30 minutes with acrylics. Still, I was on a road with beautiful clouds, a verdant field framed by a backdrop of trees and I decided to use this simple formula to create this pastural abstract landscape. As I painted with the gently blowing wind the paint on my pallet dried too quickly. Not to be discouraged I opened the tubes of paint I had with me and pushed out a little paint, caught it with my paint brush and blended that paint with others still drying quickly on the canvas. The drying paint created height and depth as more paint was added and mixed. I think it added a depth to the work. Maybe I am on to something with acrylic Plein Aire painting.

Acrylic paint on canvas. Measurement: painting: 10 inches wide by 8 inches tall. Housed in a thick black frame.