On Saturday, a group of 9 artists went to paint plein air at St. Johns Church. St. Johns dates back from the mid-1800's and is a lovely little church, nicely preserved on 3 quarter acres of land. There is a walking grass labyrinth on the grounds as well as a wooded outdoor area set aside for church services when weather allows.
The weather was sunny and warm, with plenty of shade trees to stand under while painting. Everyone found their spot and set up easels.
My mistake was taking too large of a canvas along, so I didn't get very far in my work, but plan to finish it and will post when it's more complete. The church with all it's angles and windows proved very challenging. Most of us chose to stand on the shaded side of the church so showing the shaded side with the sun hitting just a few spots was an interesting exercise. The critique after (we leaned our work around a broad tree) was valuable, and we all came away pretty happy from the experience.
I struggled with my colors getting too muddy on the palette - not sure why that was an issue this time, I had a Whistler like painting in mind - a tonal painting, so maybe that's why I got mud instead! The day was probably too sunny for tonal anyway so I will have to rethink my approach. Thus far, my plein air experiences have been more focused on nature, so a building was much tougher. Very glad I tried this though and learned from watching other artist's approach.
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