My plein air adventure

Finally after months and months of planning to do some plein air painting, I got myself to actually do it over the Easter weekend. It was something I planned to do in 2009 itself, but my daughter was younger and engaging her while I paint was a huge challenge even at home. So I had to keep my plans on hold for a while. This time though it was perfect. We were holidaying at the Bavarian Alps, easily the most beautiful part of Germany (in the little that I have seen :P) The landscape was simply spectacular! Since the Spring has set in, the temperatures were quite warm and soothing, and there was a fair amount of snow as well. We stayed at this little town called Schönau am Königsee, right at the foothills of the Alps.

I could not accommodate my easel in the car and so I just took the risk of going without one. I decided that if I am unable to paint without the easel, then I'd just do some sketching and then paint later. But then, our balcony was more than enough for me to paint. Just outside our balcony were the hills with a ski slope as well. And it made a lovely view to paint from. It was evening when I started painting, the golden hour infact with lovely shadows and beautiful soft lighting. Unfortunately though, it became cold and I was not able to complete the painting to my satisfaction. I was not on a painting holiday anyway, and managed to squeeze in couple of pieces amidst all the sight seeing, relaxing and entertaining my little one. So with both pieces, there are a lot of tweaks pending and I will post them after I am done. They are not entirely plein air since I am completing them here in my studio, but I am glad I made the much needed start nevertheless!

Here is a pic of me painting, captured by the husband. Soon to follow are the actual paintings :-)

[caption id="attachment_470" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Plein air painting at the Alps"][/caption]

The snow caps of the mountains are not fully covered in this pic, so you have to wait till I post the painting to really appreciate the awesome view that we had :-) I have to say that working plein air was tough, much tougher than I imagined. I obviously need a lot more time to get used to it and I hope to work on it over the summer. I will post my thoughts in more detail soon.

The coming weekend we are traveling to see the tulip fields in Amsterdam and it will be my second visit to the lovely Keukenhof gardens. I hope to do some plein air there as well, and hope to carry my easel this time. With my current spree of florals, a visit to Keukenhof couldn't come at a better time at all. Will update you guys on how it goes.