by Jill Stefani Wagner

“Misty Morn” plein air landscape oil painting    10 inches x 10 inches      See Pricing

What a lovely year 2018 was for plein air painting. Besides attending 5 national plein air festivals, I painted constantly around my own home town. There’s something about creating art on location that gives me waaaaay more information than any photo ever can. I painted this piece onsite on a foggy, wet, fall morning which allowed me to capture:

Big Shapes – I find it easier to see these fundamental building blocks of a composition when I squint my eyes outside and ignore the smaller shapes.

Atmosphere – The moisture in the air created a mist that obscured the details of the farm and the hills in the distance. That effect causes elements in the background to become increasingly lighter and bluer and is often lost in photographs.

Light and Shadow – Photos are notorious for making shadows look black and highlights look white. It just doesn’t look like that when I’m out there in the field. Both shadows and highlights actually have lots of color in them.

Color – Even the very best cameras distort color. There’s nothing like being on location to see and mix the actual hues in front of me.

Less Detail – Photographs show everything in high resolution and with equal importance. When I use them for reference, I tend to literally copy every bit of detail. Ugh. I forget that I have the power to assign the focal point and lead my viewers eye there, by the creative decisions I make.

But one of the advantages of painting outdoors that I love best is being able to capture the feelof a place. While that includes all of the things above, it also means actually “living” in the location for a couple of hours: Smelling the crops, hearing the birds and bugs, watching the farmers go in and out of buildings, seeing the trees sway in the breeze, and so many other sensory delights.

I guess this is how I would explain the difference: When I paint from a photo I capture a place in a specific moment in time. When I paint from life I capture a place over time.

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This artwork was created on: Linen Panel
Medium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Michael Harding, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints