Plein Air - Old Stable in the Paddock

Attempting plein air painting with water mixable oils again
 

After my disastrous attempt at plein air with water mixable oils in France I didn't want to leave it too long before having another go.  A bit like falling off a horse - get back in the saddle asap!  I have fancied the old stable in the paddock as subject matter for a while, and in the sunshine it looked very inspiring.  I loved the leafy shadows cast by the overhanging willow branches onto the old weathered wood.  

A very busy scene

As you can see by the photo there was a lot of detail that would need simplifying - I was definitely going for an impression.  It is very different attempting a scene like this from life compared to working from a reference picture.  Everything seemed high definition yet in a constant state of change as the sun kept disappearing behind clouds and there was a frisky breeze.  Mistake number one - the sun was very bright and very strong.  I should have used my easel umbrella to shield the canvas board, then paint colours could have been assessed more accurately.  Mistake number two - I probably needed to either work on a larger board, or, considered the composition more carefully and made the old stable a bit smaller to allow for more context to surround it.  A quick value sketch would have organised this.  Anyway I started brushing on a diluted wash of ultramarine blue mixed with burnt umber feeling very optimistic.

As I wanted to keep everything loose I decided against any detailed drawing and opted to lift out the pale shape of the old stable with kitchen towel from the damp wash.  

Mid tone wash with pale shapes lifted out
(apologies for the dark photo) 

A slightly more concentrated wash of the same colours was used next to block in and define the main dark areas.  At the time I was quite happy at this stage but with hindsight I would definitely have preferred more room for the foreground grasses.  This canvas board is A4 size and I have found these proportions tricky in the past, if I am working small scale my eye prefers the 8" x 10" ratio (20 x 25cms) for some reason.    

Main dark passages blocked in

My strategy was to have thin darks and thicker paint for the light areas so the work progressed through various shades of green (all made from blues and yellows, sometimes toned down with burnt sienna) and pale neutrals for the weathered wood.  I had to try and capture the cast shadows when the sun blazed, but tricky as they constantly swayed and danced.  By now I realised that this would not be a masterpiece... my heart sank a little.  In frustration I utilised a palette knife to apply linear marks with naples yellow to suggest some of the long blonde dried grasses and finally dotted in the pale blue 'skyholes' in the trees.  At least both these actions gave the work a little boost! 

 

The Old Stable, water mixable oils on canvas board, 21 x 29.5cms

So there it is.  I spent an hour and forty minutes out in the open air, totally engrossed, and although I ended up with a painting that will probably just get stored away somewhere I thoroughly enjoyed the process and learned a few valuable lessons along the way.  Somme, the Labrador, had a whale of a time.  He was either charging around the field or taking shelter in the shade, accompanied by several balls of varying sizes from his collection!

There is still something I find inspiring about this scene and I may try it again with my soft pastels, either working from life again or maybe directly from the photograph.  Perhaps this is an exercise you might like to try - work on a subject you have tackled before but in a different medium?