Fayerweather Friend
My first En Plein Air painting was pretty informal: it was on cardboard. My professor last semester assigned us the task of painting something outdoors on a surface five times as long as it was high using only 6 tones and the colors yellow and purple. I had no idea what it would be like to paint outdoors, I did not have an easel, and the restrictions of tone and color were a lot to handle. It resulted in traveling to Crozet and painting a graveyard so I could be out of sight from traffic and find a place to park my car. I popped my trunk, set up my paints and palette and leaned my dinky gessoed cardboard between the hood and the trunk of my car.
Only once did people see me, and that was a couple coming to visit someone interred in the ground, so I had to move my car (I stayed on a path so as not to desecrate the burial grounds) then re-setup again. What is the conclusion of all this? It was a season when I did not enjoy painting and it was an experience I would not with to repeat- needless to say, En Plein Air scared me a little bit.
This semester in my independent study, I thought I'd give the outside another chance. My canvas is a lot smaller- less intimidating in my opinion. Again, it took a while to search for the setup location. I wanted to stay close enough to the studio so I could retreat there if there were any difficulties. I felt like a little kid wanting to stay close to home, afraid to explore the unknown. I settled on a view overlooking the Art History building at UVa along with a road and some fraternity/sorority houses.
As compared to my graveyard trunk experience, this time I had an easel. Although it was clearly not mine ("UVa Painting" in permanent marker reminds me of that each time), it was a thousand times better than a car trunk. The building I chose is called Fayerweather Hall, presumably after a person named Fayerweather and houses the UVa art history/studio art department. I loved the name and idea of the painting being "Fayerweather" because it sounds like fairweather. It made me think of my relationship with painting- I can be all about it on one of those good days, but want to avoid it whenever there are struggles. This painting and many paintings have been struggles, but I aim to make painting a more regular thing and a more enjoyable thing hopefully!
It took two days to complete (maybe 6 hours?) and I'm excited to do more outdoor paintings. There is something about being outside and seeing other people and observing that is very relaxing. The light got me a little with shadows at different times of day, but I will learn from these I believe- and that's a step.
p.s. I did not listen to this while painting, but I listened to it when writing this post and I like this song, And Can It Be by Indelible Grace.