Plein Air Painting- Elmwood Park

Well, it's Autumn in Omaha, and I wanted to take advantage of the brilliant colors of the trees in the park before the leaves start falling. So I hauled some oil paints to the park and just went at it.

Here are some fun plein air painting facts I learned.

One. BEES. Nobody told me about the bees. BEES EVERYWHERE.

Two. Bring paper towels. If you value your belongings, take paper towels with you. I forgot them in my rush to run down to the park and ended up smearing paint all over my car before I turned to using leaves as paper towels in my desperation.

Three. Composition is still everything in painting, even if it's a quick sketch from life. I spent about 40 minutes on my painting and I so wish I had used a more enticing composition. I had fun playing with colors but even the most vivid pallets can't save shoddy composition.

Four. Bring a suitable stand/easel. I forgot mine at home, but luckily I had a pine tabletop in my car that I had intended to paint. Probably won't be that lucky again, though.

Here's the end piece and my messy tabletop. I used a combination of oil and water-based oil.

Water-based is okay, but I feel there was a definite loss in luminosity. 

Cleanup was much easier though, so maybe it was worth it for experimentation.

Please excuse the very poor lighting! There's still SO MUCH I don't know about oil painting.

I have a lot to learn. I think I'll avoid water-based until I get the hang of it.

(Oh, and I had some time to kill, so I went and drew some kids (and one uninterested mom) at the playground.)