Plein air On the Highlands ( an environmental effort )

Peace and Love be upon you, o Fellow Steemers

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En plein air is an act of painting outdoor particularly by those old schools in the 19th century. Perhaps the introduction of tube paints make it possible for artist to carry their pigments easily. Most noted old masters ‘advocating’ plein air are Renoir and Monet. It is one of the techniques preferred by the impressionist as they used the natural light to add more or less character to their final paintings.

There will be audience!

In my observation in plein air-ing in Malaysia, activities are likely to be held by small group of enthusiasts from every state in Malaysia. My wake up journey was when I was introduced by Nabil Azwar to Gangsta Watakala, initiated by a couple of contemporary watercolour masters, such as Abey Zoul, Jamal Tommy and Hisham Salmin, to name a few. Later to be introduced to the other watercolor big guns such as Azman Nor, Ryzalman and Marzuki Muhammad. One leading practice that conclusive to their awesome works are, by painting live on location.

The ‘that aint working’ moment. The ‘what the hell am i drawing here?’ Moment.

The challenges in drawing and painting outdoors are obvious. You are not in control of the environment. You have to master the environment. Unless you can stand the blistering 32degree celsius and 70% humidity, all the paintings must be finished before 1030hrs, before you started to feel the heat trickling your neck. If you are in very good shades, maybe you can continue painting but not without people started talking how crazy this artist are, roasting himself to death. They will not be appreciating your commitment.

Unless, you are plein air-ing in the Highlands, where the chilling subtropical climate really inspires me- look at that smile, drawing under 22degree celcius at 1400hrs. What a bliss.

The ‘tak jadi’ moment, in detail. This is the moment that I realized that I needed to get more cool tones into the picture. This is when you really question on why you choose to draw for living, the bitterness, the rage...

It is not the control of the technique that we try achieve. It is the control of... well, self. Just like everything you wanted to be good at, you have to master yourself. I just keep on controlling the paint to achieve as observant as it gets. And surely it turns out pretty darn good.

The relief comes as I started to lift the midground color on the right

Inspired by this outing, I had decided to do some studio series of the camp. This is of course done in more managed and relaxed manner. So in this series I had decided to go all cool colors, ( cool ‘red’ is alizarin crimson- good. Warm ‘blue’ is ultramarine- minimal use ). Even the paper selection, I have decided to use the cold press instead of my usual hot pressed watercolor sheets.
For this time around, I’ll be starting with drawings to feel an overall visual and rekindle the environment.

Drawings done with Jinhao crooked pen.

19cm x 28cm

29cm x 37cm

I just hope that maybe one day i will be joining other Steemers sketching or painting live soon- its seems terrifying at first, but if you have done live drawings, you can start enjoying it as an improvement to your perception and lines effectively.