This summer has been gloriously hot and dry so has been perfect for outdoor painting. My two groups have had a break from formal classes over the summer so instead we have been meeting up most weeks to paint somewhere nice. One outing was to Nunney Castle on a very hot day where we found shady places along the moat path.
We generally bring packed lunches and enjoy the opportunity to catch up on news and compare notes on our painting struggles. I always find picnics delicious though mine are basic – a marmite sandwich and a marmalade sandwich for pudding – perfect, however you may not agree!
I also go outdoor painting most weeks with a group from the Frome Art Society. We go both to private gardens and to gardens open to the public all around the Frome area, in Wiltshire and in Somerset.
Painting outdoors with easel, paints and all the assorted kit is always challenging. Often there is a wind which blows stuff around and dries out paint very quickly and the light changes, of course, as the sun (if there is a sun) moves across the sky. This also changes and moves shadows. An outdoor painting should take only around an hour and a half to complete before the light and shadows have changed too much.
One day we met at Rode Manor where there was a pretty little leat flowing into a large pond. The work below was painted from the middle of a narrow bridge over this leat with wide gaps between the planks. No sooner had I got all set up, than the legs of my easel fell through a crack and the whole lot, palette, brushes and easel, fell over the edge and into the water below. Down the steep bank I clambered through the nettles (nettles are so, well, stingy!) and I was thoroughly wet, hot and grumpy by the time everything was retrieved. But I got back onto the bridge in the end and I hope that the reflections in the water were worth the struggle. We have been so lucky to have had such a lovely summer and the opportunity to paint outside ‘en plein air’.
