Yesterday and today I had the pleasure of attending another Baltimore County public schools Art teacher workshop, Plein Air Painting at Cromwell Valley park.
This park is BEAUTIFUL! A hidden gem for sure. There are beautiful old structures, meadows, many different trees, and a beautiful creek! We found beautiful rocks, river glass, and a mulberry tree!
It was supposed to rain both days, but it held out for us to get two beautiful days to paint plein air.
En plein air (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃ plɛn ɛːʁ], French for outdoors, or plein air painting) is the act of painting outdoors.
My friend Eli and I chose a beautiful spot at the creek that faced lovely rocks!
Normally I paint with acrylics and with an more abstract flair, but these past two days I decided to paint with watercolors. I used Jack Richeson Watercolor palette and I love to results.
One problem I found in the beginning was that I needed to retrain my brain to see the landscape lightest to darkest. I didn’t leave any of the white from the paper in my first painting. So that is something that I really worked on during the second day.
For my second painting I started out very light. It took more time, but I felt less frustrated with trying to get the right values where the light was reflecting.
Overall this workshop has given me an opportunity to hone my skills with using watercolor.
Thanks for another awesome professional development, BCPS!