Jenna Leigh Design Co.

Well folks, we made it.

I completed my last plein air painting session this week.

Classes end soon, and summer begins. Woohoo!

This semester has been a whirlwind, so I can’t say I’m sorry it’s almost over, but as my great-grandmother used to say: “The end of anything is sad.”

Though I’m looking forward to break, there’s still a bittersweet finality to wrapping up classes in which I have learned, grown, and been stretched in many ways as an artist.

Life Drawing is no exception!

I’ll save my deeper reflections on the semester for my next post, in which I’ll be reviewing all my work from the second half, but for now let me share with you what I painted for my last plein air:

Painting Process

The goals for this week were to complete a painting session outside, as usual, then add finishing touches later in the studio.

Because I have spent a lot of time working on more distant subject matter—pastoral landscapes, trees, and gardens—this time I decided to zoom in a little bit and paint something close-up. Most of my paintings have also been overwhelmingly green, so this seemed like a good chance to add a different pop of color.

Flowers were the obvious choice, since everything is blooming right now. I landed on some lovely purple wisteria in my parents’ backyard.

It was supposed to rain the next day, so I planned on fitting in my outdoor session in one sitting, then transitioning inside for some studio time.

Surprise, surprise! Lynchburg’s weather predictions were not 100% accurate. It did not rain the next day; the sky was blue, and the sun shone through fluffy white clouds.

It was too nice to come inside, so I continued working outside until I had finished my study.

I began with an underpainting as usual, then blocked in where I wanted to place the clusters of flowers and started painting. Instead of blocking in larger masses of color, however, this time I developed one section of the painting before moving on to another.

(To be honest, I wanted to make sure the flowers were going to turn out alright before I spent too much time on them.)

Early on in my second session, I realized I would not be able to paint all the clusters of flowers in the amount of time I had remaining to work on my painting. I decided to stick with the three main clusters, which worked better compositionally, anyway, and rubbed out the others.

Reflection

Painting trees, bushes, landscapes, fields, and water has been an excellent challenge for me over the past few weeks, but focusing on something smaller was a welcome change.

I still faced the difficulty of simplifying complexity and detail, and I still struggled to articulate what I wanted to emphasize in the painting without being overwhelmed by its intricacy.

But all I needed to paint was flowers and leaves.

I allowed myself to use confident brushstrokes, manipulating my brushes to form the shapes of leaves and petals, and rarely reworking what I put down. The result was something different from what I’ve painted before—it’s hard to put my finger on it, but something more distinct.

And the wisteria flowers do not look like grapes!

(They’re still a bit too bulbous. But I believe grapes have been ruled out.)

My goal to follow this week’s process—outdoor session, then studio refinement—did not go as planned, but I think I benefited more from the extra outdoor session. The photo reference I took of the flowers simply did not do them proper justice. I needed to see them in the dappled sunshine, in their natural habitat, waving and rustling slightly in the breeze.

There’s still much that could be improved. My triangular composition, for instance, is a little too symmetrical; I had to shift the last cluster of flowers over to fit it fully on the canvas.

But there are also qualities about it that make me happy. The colors, the depth. I was able to take what I’ve been putting into practice over the last few weeks—my challenges, my foibles, my small successes—and apply them to entirely new subject matter.

I sat in the peaceful shade of my parents’ backyard—a place I still call home—and tried to match the vibrant purples of the wisteria, while birdsong and other soothing sounds of nature filled my ears.

What could be more picturesque?

It was a pleasant plein air session to finish out the semester, a semester that has been filled with ups and downs and many new experiences (but more on that next time).

Just remember, sometimes you need to take a closer look.

(And sometimes you need to add a pop of purple).