Marcela and Terri enjoyed a warm and sunny morning, on the shore of Lake Jessamine, in Cypress Grove Park. Blue skies with large puffy clouds provided a picturesque background for some folks fishing on the dock.

Lake Jessamine

We brought our lightweight plein air supplies to do on location sketching and enjoyed being out in nature. For those of you who might wonder, how to start in outdoor painting … Marcela and I have some tips for you.

Marcela uses pen and paints              

Marcela started with her Pilot Razor Point, water soluble pen, to draw in the basic shapes. Then using a water brush, which can hold water in the barrel, and small Wilson and Newton plein air watercolor kit she painted in the lakeshore scene.

  • Marcela’s Materials list, basic items:
  • Wilson and Newton set, 14 halfpans
  • Old film cannister for water
  • 5×8 wc or multimedia journal 140lb.
  • Water brush large – flat
  • Isabey travel brush #6202, about #6
  • Or,  any other similar brush available in Amazon
  • Pilot Razor Point pen, black, water soluble ink
  • Paper towel small
  • Bamboo cutting board as support
  • Mounting putty to secure palette and water to the board so they don’t slide off.
  • Extra mounting putty to stick brush, pen when not in use so that they don’t roll off.

Pens, brushes, paint kit used to paint the lakeshore scene, by Marcela.

Terri started with a basic pencil sketch, then using Blick studio brush markers, quickly drew in the dock. The 6 shades of grey are useful for value sketching as well. Then, using a small red, pill minder turned into a tiny color palette, she mixed the 3 primary red, yellow, blue colors needed to capture the essence of the scene. A water container, 1 flat and 1 round brush and watercolor pad complete the art kit.

photo of supplies used by Terri

The dock, with folks fishing.

On location painting can be as simple or complex as you want. We travel light and have fun!

Join us next month on March 16, at the Center for Health & Wellbeing, in Winter Park.

“Outdoor painting in Watercolor”

Time: 10 am – noon

Where: The Ward Park side of the building on the back patio.

We will need volunteers to help the folks try watercolor, some for the first time.

We need a volunteer to do a 10-minute demonstration of plein air to get things started.

Contact – Marcela  [email protected]

or – Terri   [email protected]

to volunteer for this fun event!