Plein Aire Painting

This last weekend I was away visiting family and while there I snuck away with my Dad for a few hours to paint! I don't usually get out much to paint landscapes even though I love it and learn so much each time I go out. So anytime I have the chance to paint with my Dad, I take it. We were in Green Bay Wisconsin on some random back road in the country. My Dad chose the location, he really loved the color in the wheat field. He taught me a new technique that I really love, it's a mud palette, basically you mix up a mud color either warm or cool depending on the feel you're going for and then you paint all of your color into that. This creates harmony, and it's a lot of fun too! The colors on my palette when painting Plein Aire are: French Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Lemon, Naples Light and White.

The first painting below was the one I painted with my Dad, and was my first try with this Palette. The painting is a 9x12 Oil on panel. About an hour or so worth of painting. The second painting I did yesterday, right outside my apartment in Uptown Chicago. I only had a little over an hour to paint and I didn't want to venture out too far from home. Not the most interesting scene, so I decided to make something out of the verticals that I was seeing. This painting is also 9x12 Oil on panel.