Open-air painting
The plein-air watercolour
Some works find their right form outdoors, in the light and movement of the place.
Open-air painting
Observation notebook
Observe
To observe is first to stand as close as possible to the place.
The foreshore, the tide, the light, the wind and the movements of water form a sensitive memory.
Notebooks, plein-air watercolours, impression watercolours and studio work belong to the same process: to grasp, retain and transform.
Sometimes the watercolour finds its right form outdoors; sometimes it continues in the studio; sometimes notebooks and studies feed a broader, immersive work completed on paper.
Painting the foreshore.
Observe
Painting the foreshore.
The gesture is born from the place: water on paper responds to light, lines and the movements of the foreshore.
The foreshore first.
Open-air painting
The foreshore first.
The shore gives its rhythm: tide, foam, mist, the slow displacement of forms.
Observation notebook
Open-air painting, notebook, studio
The work moves through direct observation, plein-air watercolour, notebook and studio. It is not a mechanical return outdoors: it builds a continuity in which the work finds its right form, sometimes outside, often in the studio.
Three possible outcomes
Three possible outcomes
An observation may become a plein-air watercolour, feed a studio continuation, or open the way to a larger work.
Notebook
Through the notebook
The notebook keeps lines, masses and tensions. It may prepare a work later expanded in the studio.
Notebook
Studio
The studio as completion
The studio gives duration, depth and breadth to what was gathered outside.
Studio
Large format
The immersive work
Notebooks, studies and plein-air watercolours may feed a more monumental work built on paper.
Large format