My First Plein Air Oil Painting

 I bought a bunch of cheap paint and got the rest of the supplies I needed.  I have been thinking about plein air painting with oils for about 2 years now.  There are some gaps in my equipment but I have enough to get started.

 In typical fashion, when I finally get around to doing something I dive in all the way.  I decided to paint a 24"X32" piece on sanded plywood.  I decided to paint on a raw board.  I started with a 3 inch brush and stuck with it until the board was covered and I needed to make smaller marks.

 I picked a simple scene that I had painted several times before so that I could focus on my technique and not be overwhelmed by trying something new and something difficult.

 This is about a half hour into the painting.  I have blocked in the shapes.

 Painting outside in oils was not as simple for me as painting in pastels en plein air has become.  I struggled to keep the paint off of my hands and I had difficulty with the small mechanics of the process.  I was painting on a small pallet which does not give me the space to really mix the colors the way I want to.  I will be looking for a large paint box to work from.

 I was not happy with my color mixing.  The colors were not dynamic enough for me.  This is something that I will be working to improve.

 I also was not happy with the breadth of my values within the painting.  There was not enough separation between the darkest darks and the lightest lights.

 I was surprised by how much paint I used.  I did not want to waste money on good paint until I felt comfortable with my ability to paint outside in oils. 

 The time it took to complete the painting was about 3 hours.

 When I compare my painting to the landscape I was painting all I can think about is how far I need to go and how exciting it will be getting there.

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 In future paintings I am going to work at establishing bigger differences in between the light and dark areas of the painting.  I created a lot of good gray colors in the painting but needed better highlights

 I was relieved that I could pull it off when I was finished.

The finished painting oil on board 24"X 32".

The value shot reveals a lack of aerial perspective issues.  There is not enough separation between the foreground, the middle ground, and the background. The value shot also reveals a lack of quality in the brush strokes.

All said and done not too bad for my first painting.