The pain seemed to come from nowhere. I suddenly noticed that my ankles and feet felt like they were on fire.
I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I hadn’t noticed the shade I was standing in recede as the hot Provence sun moved across the sky in a direction I hadn’t anticipated.
A direction that meant it was now shining directly on my ankles and feet. Every bit of skin not covered by my Crocs was now livid pink and burning.
Intense
I’ve just come back from one of the most amazing painting experiences of my life – perhaps the most.
When Julian invited me over to help out on one of his plein air workshops, I had no idea what to expect. In fact, I wondered if I was just too busy to go (slaps self repeatedly).
To say that this was a learning experience would be a drastic understatement. It was intense. I think I’m going to be processing it for some time to come.
You see, I’ve never done plein air before. As you probably know, I paint still life. Flowers. Fruit. Bowls. Inside. Where it’s cool. And there are no beasties to bite and sting. And colour behaves.
And this is what really threw me about painting outside – the colour.
A whole new world of colour
More specifically, it was the value.
I knew that part was going to be hard. Even painting still life inside, the value range you see is very often a bit wider that the range you can hit with paint. So you have to compress a bit.
But outside, especially in the summer in Provence, the value range is many orders of magnificence greater than inside. Being prepared for that to happen intellectually made it absolutely no easier to handle in practice.
And despite Julian’s sage advice regarding picking a comfortable spot in shade to paint from, I did seem to keep finding myself standing directly in the hot sun more often than was really sensible.
I realised rather rapidly that judging colour with the sun lancing directly into your eyes and in 35 degree heat is NOT the same as trying to do it sitting in the calming and gentle north light of a Cotswolds studio. Not even a little bit.
As if the violent compression of the value range wasn’t enough, I found it next to impossible to judge the hues much of the time.
Many of the colours were low chroma, and they turned more blue as they receded into the distance. But I kept understating that effect.
And colour on your painting looks very different when you have your painting surface in shade – which it really needs to be. It’s very easy to turn out a painting that is much lighter than it looks to you as you paint it.
Some of the colour, though, was very high chroma – higher than I could reach with paint. The sun shining in the afternoon on a green field was way beyond even Michael Harding’s lemon yellow.
Much of the time, the chroma and value complications work together, so that attempting to keep the chroma at a high enough value to make the colour work in the overall composition was next to impossible.
One-to-one comparisons, which have taught me so much about colour in interior studies, are impossible in that bright sun. It comes mostly down to comparison.
At least having an understanding of hue, value and chroma and what can be achieved with paint helped me orientate myself. And Julian gave great advice on colour as we painted, sometimes using hue and chroma to show contrasts that were too understated with value alone.
But it being challenging should in no way suggest that it wasn’t enjoyable.
It was exhilarating.
Despite the colour challenges, the heat, and all the basic things (like where I was standing) that I got wrong, it was a completely inspiring experience.
So much so that I’ve already started hunting out spots to paint en plein air now I’m home.
The Workshop
Obvoiusly my head is buzzing with new thoughts on painting. It feels like everything I know has been turned on its head and I’m seeing things from a different angle.
But just as spectacular as the painting were the place, and the amazing Job Julian did of running the workshop.
There were 12 people, staying in an incredibly beautiful and atmospheric 900 year old Provence mansion filled with period furniture. I’ll stick a couple of pictures up here, but they don’t do it justice by a long shot.
The food was amazing. A Masterchef-winning cook with a team made us incredible lunches and dinners, and Julian supplied sumptuous wines (which I may have over-indulged in a little during a couple of late night art chats).
And Julian is incredibly helpful and informative. From tips on composition to colour advice to finding us the best off-the-beaten-track spots to paint, he was a mine of information and always on hand and ready to help. He knows the region intimately from a painter’s perspective, having painted there for (I think) about 20 years.
I don’t really know how he did it all. I suspect he may still be asleep and recovering even now.
The experience
As a first exposure to plein air, it was a truly magical experience for me, one I will be carrying with me forever. No exaggeration.
And it’s opened up an entirely new world for me, one that I was surprised to find that I didn’t immediately suck at (I expected to) and that I intend to explore much further now.
Thankfully I happen to be in one of the most beautiful parts of England so I have no shortage of subjects here.
You can find out what workshops Julian has coming up next here. Seriously, go on one. You won’t regret it.
I’ll be auctioning some of the paintings I did whilst I was there over the next few days.
Best wishes and thanks for listening to me gush,
Paul.
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Welcome to the addictive world of plein air painting Paul!! My favorite place to paint is outdoors in natural light. You could set up still life outside in your yard as well. Sounds like an amazing time with an amazing artist! It will be fun to see where this life-changing experience leads you creatively in the coming days. Looking forward to viewing your plein air paintings.
I have painted in my yard – on da porch and in my city park which is only 15 minutes away. Andrew Wyeth reading has shown me that subjecdts are right outside our door.
Oh my, what a wonderful and powerful first PLein Air experience you have had!! I’m like you…inside, out of the bugs and beasties (as you so wonderfully call them)! Painting my still life pictures with a coffee and a cat by my side. I really won’t be having the experience you have just had, but so glad you got such a fabulous opportunity to do it!!!!! We all need a kick in the pants sometimes in order to ‘change channels’ for awhile! I’ll bet your wife was jealous of your trip without her!! Good for you Paul, and can’t wait to see your paintings!!!!!
Wow! So much looking forward to this new chapter unfolding here!
Thanks Paul, for your description of our experience painting with Julian in Provence!
You are such a great writer and you just explained it perfectly!
I will send on your blog to friends who ask about it.
Gary and I are now in Florence, and I haven’t forgotten about sending you the information that we talked about.
Julian’s course was made even more special, because you came!!
All the best,
Anita
Made me smile! Your excitement is contagious and I am so happy for you.
You might find that James Gurney has some answers for you in his blog (210 posts on plein aire alone). He is one of the masters of coping with value, colour and blazing sun while painting outdoors. Here’s a link: http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/ Look for his stuff on creating pochade boxes that happily sit on camera tripods, and movable, collapsible sun shades that can be fashioned from kite sticks and fabric to keep your palette and painting in matching filtered light.
Wish I could sit on your shoulder as you explore this new world!
I just spent the last week skimming James Gurnry’s blog, …all 11-years. (Yes, I have no life!) An amazing immersion, …but worthwhile. He has numerous links just begging to be explored.
Awesome!!! Painting plainair in the Provence! I love this Landcape so much! The light is so great! And the people are so fiendly and the food delicius!
Greetings from Germany
Birgit
Did the Julien thing a year ago. Most amazing and life changing experience. Do gals you felt the same.
Painted with Julian in 2013 and the experience was as you described. Total absorption in the process of painting as well as the joy of sharing that experience with other painters. Congratulations on surviving all the shades of green (and hopefully lavender). Now, ONWARD to the next adventure!! P.S. and thank you for sharing your coursework. Looking forward to learning ever more! ~k
Thanks so much for posting words and pictures from your plein air experience with Julian. I will join him in October and can’t wait!
Hi Paul great to see you’ve discovered plien air it’s just so much fun to be out there painting, forced to get in and just put it down before the light changes and everything is completely different
What a great post and adventure! Look forward to hearing more about where the experience leads you next!
Thank you for sharing. Reading your enthousiasme felt as if I was there.
Beautiful.
Fascinating!
Great to meet you Paul! Loved your post and the basic truth that outdoor painting is the most demanding but rewarding way to paint. I’m back home in Arkansas (USA) and have spent this Saturday fine tuning the 20 or so paintings that I brought home. What Julian does is art not science. He is a poet, not an illustrator. He is a “slam bam drama”
Painter. That comes from CONTRAST! Can’t get enough! I’m coming back next July. Hope we can work up some music! Bob Snider. Www bobsniderfinearts. Com
Hi, Paul- I went to Julian’s workshop in Tuscany last fall, and it was every bit as exhilarating as you describe—a life-changing event! Plein air is SO different from studio painting; pushes you in an entirely new way, right? Even tho the paintings I end up with fall far short of what I’d like, they are invaluable as studies. I’m so happy for you, that you were introduced to a new world of painting by a kind and generous master of the art! Do the one in Tuscany—it’s fabulous!