Tag: en plein air

© Tracy Algar, Forest 1. Acrylic on stretched canvas, 30 x 30cm.

I have a new weekly ritual with a friend. We go for a walk in a forest, then we spend a couple of hours painting, or in her case, drawing in her sketchbook. It’s fantastic to be in a forest during the current hot summer days in the Overberg. We’re getting in some good exercise, and art practice. Now we’re hunting down every forest we can find within a reasonable distance of Stanford. Lucky for us, it seems there are quite a few.

This little acrylic landscape painting was painted en plein air, in a farm forest a few kilometres outside Stanford.

One of the things I love about plein air painting is the urgency to get it down that provides so much energy to the brush strokes.

Then there’s the wonderful feeling of being absorbed by the environment as you paint.

I had forgotten how fast acrylic paint dries, having not painted with it for over a year. That added extra urgency.

Forest #1
30 x 30 cm
acrylic landscape painting on stretched canvas
ready to hang