You can be lucky

I’m learning that you can be lucky.

With the light, with finding something you want to paint.

But you have to be out and ready for it.

I didn’t think I was going to get out today. It’s been a grim day. Heavy rain.

At 3PM it started getting lighter.

Two hours before sunset. Out I went.

It was still a bit cloudy when I set up. But I’ve been trying to make it normal to go out and be ready to paint.

Because it does take a bit of effort to get up and get out there. It’s very, very easy to find more “important” things to do.

And once I’m out, there’s pressure to make a painting. To find a subject. To make it worthwhile being out.

So I’m trying to get out more, to make it normal to be out, so that the pressure is less, and it’s easier to make the effort.

If I don’t paint today, and just walk and look, maybe I’ll paint tomorrow.

I had the paint squeezed out (do you want to know my palette? Hit reply and let me know, I’ll do a video or something).

I was waiting. Stood around for a bit. Looked at the clouds and felt the strong wind.

I set up behind a tree, which gave me some protection from the wind and also would be perfect shade if the sun DID come out…

You can just see the easel in the shadow to the left!

And then it came.

I got about an hour, probably a bit less, before the sun sank below the trees and the beautiful, golden light disappeared completely.

I managed to work on for a little while longer, from memory of the colours.

Then a purple-grey cloud bank made its steady progress across the sky behind the tree, the sun catching a yellow-pink highlight on it.

So this little painting is actually a collection of different moments across about an hour – and maybe that’s what plein air painting always is.

I love this tree. I’m seriously considering a series, or at least a studio version. I know I want to paint it again before the leaves all fall.

I would have liked another hour with it, really. It’s mostly a colour study. But I’ll take what I got.

Today I was lucky.

If I’d been sitting at home doing the stuff I tell myself I should be doing (i.e. sending out an email about the workshop that’s starting soon!) I would have missed that moment.

To be lucky, I have to be out and ready for it.

So, the main thing is just to get out.

Best wishes,

Paul