Thomas Jefferson Kitts finishing his painting

Thomas shared some of his thoughts about plein air painting.

• He is an advocate of everything fitting in a small tight pack.
• Plein air is not necessarily a 2-3 hour process with smaller canvases.  It is different for everyone but most people are painting larger now because there is money back in the market.
• Thomas believes in finding as many ways to handle the paint and the brush work as possible.  It will only lead to better problem solving, more interesting paintings, and better technique.  The more ways you can touch the surface the better your painting will be.  Actively works at varying his brush marks, his shapes, his sizes, and temperature .

As he continued to develop his painting, Thomas would jump around and work different areas of his painting.  Similarly, Thomas would skip around from topic to topic.  Thomas continued to share his thoughts like they were springing from his brush as he worked the different areas of the painting.

• He paints with the pallet at the same angle as his painting so the colors on both surfaces match.
• Thomas said he is working on painting without solvents because of health reasons and in order to develop his color.
• Thomas discussed his type of painting as planar-meaning he paints the color shifts of his subjects based on their relation to the source of light.

As Thomas worked at finishing his painting, the topics shifted as he put the finishing touches on his work.

• Thomas discussed the foundation of his painting process.  His focus on maintaining a notan throughout the course of the paintings development is key.  He continually returned to this concept throughout the painting.  He asked the group if he had maintained his notan up until the finish.
• Where the notan focuses on a black and white value pattern used to build the composition, he uses color temperature as a basis for the color buildup.
• If you start with the right temperature in your initial lay in, it will provide a solid base for the rest of the color choices in the painting.
• In order to understand temperature before you start your painting you can hold your brush over your canvas.  If the shadow is cool then the light is warm and vice verse.
• Thomas starts his color super saturated and then brings down the temperature.
• Avoid chalky by painting from dark to light.
• For his shadows he starts with a neutral color and adds color to it.