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00:00:31>>I am with Central Ohio Plein Air, which is a
00:00:33group of artists that gets together every
00:00:35Saturday morning and goes
00:00:36out somewhere and paints.
00:00:37>>Out here in a plein air situation, I have only
00:00:40moments to capture a moment.
00:00:42>>The nice thing about plein air, you have such
00:00:45a choice of what to choose from when you go on a
00:00:48location.
00:00:49>>You're supposed to be able to show up to a
00:00:51spot, pick a location, and paint a painting, the
00:00:53whole thing, in about 3 hours.
00:00:55>>We started out about 10-12 years ago as a
00:00:59group of 6 artists meeting in my studio and then
00:01:06we started painting outside.
00:01:08As the years passed by we kept adding
00:01:11more and more artists.
00:01:12>>In order to do this, you have to have a
00:01:13looser, quicker style,you have to be able to
00:01:15accept mistakes as they happen.
00:01:20>>We paint at least once a week, sometimes more,
00:01:26and we paint all over Central Ohio.
00:01:30
00:01:40>>The reason I chose watercolor is because
00:01:43you have to be more spontaneous
00:01:45with it and work quickly.
00:01:48If I had chosen oil or acrylic, where you can
00:01:51re-work it I'd still be working on the first
00:01:53thing I ever did because I'd keep
00:01:57trying to get it right.
00:01:59With watercolor, you do it, get one shot at it,
00:02:04pretty much ,and then you go on.
00:02:06So I like it because it makes me
00:02:08work fast and be spontaneous.
00:02:11It's totally against my character
00:02:13so it's good for me.
00:02:15
00:02:20>>I really didn't know that I would like the
00:02:22plein air style.
00:02:23I thought it may be too high-pressure and it
00:02:25helps me get over that meticulous studio
00:02:27style.When I got here today it was still raining
00:02:31and we were all kind of ensconced up there and I
00:02:34took a few minutes to look across the street and
00:02:39use my little field book that I made with
00:02:41handmade paper and cardboard,
00:02:43to make a quick kind of thing.
00:02:45I'll sit out in parks and just take 10 minutes or
00:02:49so to do these quick water colors.
00:02:52If I'm spending any more than
00:02:5410 minutes, its too long.
00:02:56And then when the rain stopped, I come around and
00:02:58I thought I'd start out here, try to frame a
00:03:02picture within my hands like this, find something
00:03:05that interested me.
00:03:08And right now, it's right behind you, that
00:03:12grouping of trees, where one is layered in back
00:03:14of the other and they kind of form a little
00:03:16composition.
00:03:18And that statue of the soldier with the gun,
00:03:21that's going to be the focal point of the
00:03:25picture, I've got artistic license now.
00:03:26I can't see that statue, but I'm going to cheat
00:03:29and make it visible anyway.
00:03:31An artist gets to change stuff.
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00:03:40>>When I retired from the state, I took up
00:03:43drawing and art again.
00:03:45And this is every artist's ultimate,
00:03:47to be able to paint outdoors.
00:03:49I just like being outside, and I think the
00:03:51immediateness of it is very appealing.
00:03:55The atmosphere you get, you never are sure how
00:03:58it will turn out because you're working so fast.
00:04:00Like today it rained and so unexpectedly I have
00:04:03this wonderful marbly texture that I would have
00:04:06never been able to get without the rain.
00:04:08Normally I paint out in the country, maybe a cow
00:04:14or deer or something.
00:04:16And I take a dog and just a picnic lunch and make
00:04:19a day of it.But these paint outs with the group
00:04:22are always fun.
00:04:24
00:04:25>> What generally inspires my work is the play
00:04:27of light, the contrast between sun and
00:04:29shadows.The outdoor light is just more
00:04:33interesting than anything you can replicate in
00:04:36the studio.
00:04:38I like a lot of color in my work.
00:04:40And I don't particularly care whether my color
00:04:42looks like the thing I'm painting or scene that
00:04:45I'm painting.
00:04:47gray, brown trees are kind of uninteresting so I
00:04:49paint my trees blue, and purple, and red.
00:04:53I don't like to paint buildings so I didn't want
00:04:56to stand back and paint the Statehouse.
00:04:59But the Statehouse as a backdrop for this lovely
00:05:04bronze statue of the Civil War
00:05:10soldier, that's interesting.
00:05:12The column s of the Statehouse sort of replicate
00:05:14the strength and endurance of the soldier
00:05:16himself.
00:05:17The solidity of the statehouse as a backdrop for
00:05:20a great historical moment, I think that's kind of
00:05:22interesting.
00:05:24
00:05:26>>Initially I was directly in front of the
00:05:29Statehouse and I didn't like that because it
00:05:32seemed like I was going to get into more
00:05:34technical drawing, trying to make sure all the
00:05:36columns are evenly spaced.
00:05:39And here I was able to get the important part of
00:05:43the Statehouse but also the tree to block it so
00:05:46there's something in the foreground.
00:05:48Just making sure there's a foreground, middle
00:05:50ground, and background to create that depth so it
00:05:53draws the eye in a little bit more.
00:05:55I just moved here 3 years ago and I'm still
00:05:59getting acclimated to who's who in town and...
00:06:00it's always fun when I get a chance to walk
00:06:04around and see how everyone else is starting
00:06:06their painting because they may start a totally
00:06:08different way, may use a different color palette,
00:06:11and I respect everybody's work here.
00:06:14It's not a group where there's a lot of pressure,
00:06:18it's like having a friendly dinner.
00:06:22
00:06:30>>I kind of like pushing myself in different
00:06:31directions to see what I can do given a certain
00:06:34style or technique.
00:06:36So I wanted to try out this technique.
00:06:38I've always been a fan of impressionists and post
00:06:39impressionists painting and this is the style
00:06:41that they developed.I really wanted to get the
00:06:46building with the rotunda and unless you cross
00:06:48the street, it's a bit of a challenge.
00:06:50I also wanted to get some of the more
00:06:52contemporary and historical buildings.
00:06:55We have the statehouse, which is 150 years old,
00:06:59and the buildings over here, 8 on the square, are
00:07:01some of the older skyscrapers in the city, from
00:07:02what I understand, and then some of the newer
00:07:04buildings I thought were a nice contrast.I just
00:07:08like an iconic sort of image and I think this
00:07:11composition achieves that with the strong
00:07:13architectural elements and the dichotomy between
00:07:17the old architecture and the new.And I really
00:07:19like symbolism and history so anything that has
00:07:20meaning, I'm really drawn to.
00:07:23
00:07:25>>They say that a piece of art is never really
00:07:27finished, you have to abandon it.
00:07:28>>The hardest thing about painting, whether it's
00:07:31watercolor, acrylic, pastel, is knowing
00:07:36when to stop.
00:07:37>>Because you're always tempted to pick up the
00:07:39brush and just do one little thing, and then do
00:07:42one more little thing, and then.
00:07:45Put it down and walk away.
00:07:47>>One of the characteristics of this group is
00:07:52when we get through painting, time is set aside
00:07:56for a critique.
00:07:57>> It's an informal critique, we don't beat on
00:08:00anybody, it's always constructive.
00:08:03It's good to be out with people that can help you
00:08:06with problems you might be having ,or somebody
00:08:09that you can share successes with.
00:08:15
00:08:19>>There's a tradition that you're tapping into.
00:08:25You feel connected to them because you're all
00:08:27going out and doing the same thing.
00:08:29Packing your paints, going out into the fields,
00:08:33and trying to paint something in the open air.
00:08:36>> I particularly admire the work from the
00:08:38French plein air artists of the 19th Century.
00:08:41Monet, Vissaro, that group of people.
00:08:48>>We all look toward the impressionists and what
00:08:52they did.
00:08:55And some studio artists you look at and say, I'd
00:08:59like to emulate that.
00:09:01>>Nobody has ever since done it as
00:09:03well as they did.
00:09:04But it's fun to try.
00:09:06>>We just enjoy ourselves painting.
00:09:09>>I just like to catch the moment if it's pretty
00:09:13and save it.
00:09:16>>This is what I enjoy doing, and I don't mind
00:09:19people coming up to ask questions, if they enjoy
00:09:22my picture, then they've enjoyed what I've
00:09:26enjoyed.
00:09:27Maybe not at the same time, but much later.
00:09:29>>It's so fleeting, it's never going to be the
00:09:31same again, it's so fleeting, you need to get it
00:09:34down right away.
00:09:35>>When I'm painting, all the other cares of the
00:09:38world seem unimportant for those few hours.
00:09:43I'm totally in a zone that I enjoy being in.
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