Having a simple plan before you start a painting can help you get further along when you need to work fast.

Here are some process shots from a painting I did this spring in New Harmony, Indiana.
"New Harmony Spring"
8 x 10 oil/linen

For those of you who might be shopping for a Plein Air Rig, here are some suggestions. Whichever you choose, please read the last item on the list, the support (Very Important).

The French easel is a design that has not changed much in the last 100 years. It is a universal indoor and outdoor easel. But sometimes setting it up is like trying to put sneakers on a cow. Parts can be cumbersome, and it’s not something you will want to hike with. It will hold huge canvases and because of this, I own one of these and use it once in a while.

Blick French Easel by Jullian
Dick Blick Art Materials

No frills, lightweight and easy to carry, this particular box made by Judsons Art Outfitters, Guerrilla Painter® is very sturdy. It has the limitation of accommodating only 8x10 and smaller canvases which can be carried inside the box. When I paint I usually paint  no larger then 8x10 anyway. A good starter box, decent price.

Guerrilla Painter® 8x10 Cigar Box™ V2
Judsons Art Outfitters

This Pochade Box by Judsons Art Outfitters, Guerrilla Painter® is a main box for Plein Air painters. Easy to carry, little heavier than the Cigar Box. It usually has compartments and accommodates a range of canvas sizes and accessories. I have a medium size version, but it will accommodate a 16x20 canvas with its telescoping support arm. The umbrella is for shade not water, and not shade for you but for your canvas and palette. I strongly suggest at some point you buy an umbrella and mount.

They offer discounts for seconds (slightly factory dinged).
Medium French Resistance Easel SECOND
Judsons Art Outfitters

Hook for hanging solvent can

Guerrilla Painter® Handy Hook
Judsons Art Outfitters

Extension Wing
(very handy for brushes)

Guerrilla Painter Palette Extension Kit
for the Medium French Resistant
Judsons Art Outfitters

Umbrella and clamp

Guerrilla Painter
Silver Deluxe Soft Clamp Umbrella
Judsons Art Outfitters

I scrape my paintings. I admit it, and I do so often. So did John Singer Sargent (a scraping fool!), but I guess that makes him a failed artist as well. The list of other scraping artists goes on and on.

Not just for starting over, scraping the surface of a painting is also a means of controlling texture in preparation of additional layers.

I met an artist on a recent plein air excursion who expressed surprise and disappointment that I had scraped a painting back that I was unhappy with so that I could start again fresh. As if I had committed a deep sin that wounded the soul and "Spirit of Plein Air" . . . Yada Yada.

I chose oils precisely for their forgiveness, because I could start over. I also like the idea that I can erase entire passages from a painting and re-state it. I like that about oils. It's not a sin, it's a strength.

I don't know where this attitude came from. I see the shock on the faces of the general public, so maybe it came from a system that teaches our children that starting over is somehow a fault. It's not my place to debate that. . . I'm an artist not a social scientist. I'm a failed artist among other failed artists who go back hundreds of years, who happily scrape their paintings so that we can make better ones.

Toned canvas was pretty much a mystery to me for a long time. Until I started thinking logically about it. Off and on for years, I toned my canvases with just about any color and value, sometimes multi-colors and values. But now that I have certain convictions about what a landscape needs, I find that:

Careful consideration for the undertone's VALUE and INTENSITY aids in efficient painting in the field.

Since I believe that a landscape painting without atmospheric perspective just isn't a landscape, I am always finding ways to promote it in my paintings.

Five devices for promoting atmospheric perspective:

• Cool it.
• Grey it.
• De-emphasize detail
• De-emphasize contrast
• Lighten it.

Undertone Value and Contrast Control

It's "de-emphasize contrasts" that I pay a lot of attention to. In short, I control my foreground, middle ground and background contrasts from the very start. If my undertone is getting in the way of that, I'm not working efficiently. I want to avoid having to go back into the painting to lower the contrasts in the background. The value of the undertone should work for us and not against us here.

Undertone Intensity

The other aspect of the undertone is intensity or color saturation. I build my paintings on relationships, so if my initial tone is too saturated, I have less control over it from the start. It can inhibit my ability to judge subsequent masses as they are blocked in. Too colorful an undertone, and I am always competing with it. Too grey, and I can't seem to make the block-in colorful enough.

Color

Finally, I think the undertone color (hue) is up to the artist. Whatever conveys your inspiration and sentiment the best.

The light behind the columns broke thru the trees and filtered past the structure. It was clear to me that this was about warms and cools but to get that right balance with oil paint, sometimes it is better to paint thinly and take advantage of certain colors' transparency.

Once I had established the tone I wanted, I painted in a range of "less warm" colors until I finished with the cool accents.

I painted Apollo Spring during the annual West Baden Paint Out sponsored by Indiana Heritage Arts. The Apollo Spring structure marks the location of one of four natural mineral springs that drew people to the West Baden Springs hotel for their perceived health benefits. The structure stands at one corner of the sunken garden adjacent to the historic hotel.

This is a little painting I did close to where I live. I stopped to paint it noticing first the atmosphere as a result from the heat of the day.

It is my opinion, as well as some other artists, that atmosphere in a landscape painting is essential to express depth.

I like to tempt the viewer in by showing depth in my landscapes, like a hiker on a trail who sees the far off hills and mountains lured to an adventure.

Lot Yachts, isn’t really about yachts or lots. It’s about the light.

My paintings will always be about light and shadow as well as the color of the sky and the air and how a place far from what you know as home can permeate your being.

Michigan is one such place for my wife Kim and myself. The water, sand and cool wind that blows off the lake with the music of the waves lapping against its shore.

Color is of course my biggest reason for painting and Michigan's cerulean sky, weathered barns, orange oat fields and sails out on the open water all make for great inspiration. I hope you can join me for my show "Michigan Revisited" at Gallery Two.