Plein Air Adventures Day 4, Outside Union Gap

The purpose of this trip is to understand what to bring in a way that is efficient and how to teach it.  My cart has been carrying the equipment or at least some of the stuff for 3 different artists.  Our pile of assorted odds and ends grew smaller each day until the last day I had a board and 2 pastel boxes (one I sat on).  All three of us had ditched the easels and one of us was trying to get everything into a back pack.  Like learning to concentrate our items, we had also started to understand how we needed to concentrate on a small area of material and stick with it.  Understanding how to block in the colors and doing a quick sketch after the thumbnail sketch seemed to help.  I finished a pretty nice piece today but alas, there were very few hikers today and those who went by carried fishing poles.  My painting went largely unremarked upon.  Oh well, I will be able to take it home and offer it at 33 Artists Market April 20th in The Wonder Building.
 

One of us worked really hard at not getting distracted by the things outside her composition, the other was trying to understand how to capture the initial shape of her subject matter to create color blocks that she could build on.  This isn't easy, I am understanding why it makes us better at our craft.  To think that in today's world we learn it backwards from the masters.  They used plein air to capture images so they could paint from them and paint a large masterpiece.  I am considering one day a week where I am committed to getting out and painting.  I am open to company.

I will say my ankle seems to be getting better, my companions are not pushing but helping me to put at least a mile on it each day.  Yesterday took a tole as the path was rocky and put unhappy pressure on it but today was a paved path all the way into our spot.  Hopefully, I will be able to paint again tomorrow.  It might be in my front yard but I have found a new challenge that is inspiring me to push my pallet.  I have to rework my pastel box, and I am envisioning a backpack of my own.  I was really bummed when we arrived on the first day to find I had left my grandmothers sit/stick at home.  I wanted to try it out but perhaps, I will be using it around town.  I think I will be needing it for a little while longer.  Again, I want to thank The Washington State Arts Commision for funding this and the National Endowments for the Arts.  There are so many things I want to accomplish, I do believe this will help.