I went out for plein-air painting last Sunday, The weather was nice. I enjoyed every minute of it.
It has been 14 years since I started painting watercolor seriously. And yet, I had never painted outside until 2016. Last summer, I attended a 6-week residency program, where I attended the summer course of the Marchutz School of Fine Arts in AIx-en-Provence, France. I studied oil painting with much younger students. For a guy who graduated from college more than two decades ago, it was a quite experience. Actually there are too many things to say and too many emotions that I had during the stay. I cannot summarize the experience here in my blog. I hope I can upload my short memoir in Aix in the "Reading" section of this site someday (I've been writing it in Japanese for more than five months, but I haven't completed even a half of it).
Anyway, one of the things that I learned in Aix was a joy of plein-air. Painting oil outdoors requires an artistic sensitivity that is totally different from painting watercolor indoors. Also, plein-air painting in general requires quick work due to the conditions that change every hour, or even every minute. It feels like speaking a different language. Both have pros and cons. To me, however, I like both indoor and outdoor paintings. It was a good change of pace for a watercolor painter like me who has been painting only indoors. Boy, there are so many things to learn in painting.....