Bruce Street 10" x 8" acrylic on CanvasFor the last two years now I participate in an art event in Wortley Village, which is a creative community district within London, Canada, the city where I live. This past June, I painted this view as a demonstration during my art show at the corner of Wortley Road and Bruce Street.
Perhaps the hardest painting to make is one where you spend two minutes painting and five minutes talking and greeting people. However, I do still enjoy this painting for the colour and light values. One of the most important aspects in painting plein air is to not "chase" the shadows, and especially so it this painting that took far too long to complete under the demonstration circumstances. For anyone just starting to paint outdoors, use big brushes and block in your shadows fast, it doesn't even matter if you have the colour correct, aim to get the value as close as you can, just get them down. Then as they move, ignore them for their position but view them only for colour and value purposes. Also, I try to paint my darks a thin as possible --that is, I use more water or thinning medium, because as the painting progresses, I will be changing colour based on value and temperature and I generally do those changes in thin washes. --I really like to see the underlaying hues which add excitement to the painting.
--Rob
