plein air sketches | Helen Colledge

large painting of Crosdale shortly before being hung up to ‘mature’

The latest big painting I’ve been working on is in its death throes/finishing stages. It’s reached the point where I thought it might be done and so hung it on the wall to ‘mature’ (this is something that paintings are mysteriously able to do by themselves while the artist isn’t working on them). Usually, after a painting has matured for a while you will either be able to see glaring problems that need correcting or you will realise that, in spite of everything, the work is actually done. While paintings are maturing you should only sneak quick looks at them now and again as it’s important to ‘forget’ them in order to be able to see them anew.

An evening of plein air work resulted in several new small sketches and I have placed them below. The light had seemed promising and I staggered out with my kit imagining that I would be sitting bathed in the sun’s last rays as they lit up the fells in spectacular fashion. Instead, the sun disappeared behind a bank of misty cloud and there was very little light to work with – although some interesting pink, red and purple hues did make their way into the scene just before hypothermia set in.

plein air oil painting of setting sun, 6"x8"

plein air sketch, oil on canvas, 6″x8″, setting sun from Crosdale looking west

small plein air oil painting of hills in the evening, 6"x8" on canvas

last light hits the slopes, oil on canvas, 6″x8″, plein air

small oil painting of Crosdale in the evening, on 6"x8" canvas

evening colours in Crosdale, plein air oil painting on canvas, 6″x8″

As winter creeps ever nearer I’ve been working on still life projects more often and enjoying them. This painting of apples (Coxes, I think they were) was one of the first.

apples in a bowl, oil on canvas, 6″x8″

I also have plans for a family portrait. The first oil sketch, which turned out pleasingly strange due to the odd lighting we ended up with, is here. The lighting would have been fine but by the time dog and humans had managed to settle themselves in some kind of order the original set up was no longer pointing in the right direction – we should all have been ‘over there somewhere’. So, we are bathed in fierce white light which attacks us from odd angles.

strange family painted from observation, oil on canvas, 6″x8″

Several return trips to the dreaded but beautiful valley have been made. Small oil sketches only capture aspects of the scenery so I’ve been assembling a set of painting gear that can cope with large canvases. In the meantime, this is my small-scale set-up. You should be able to click on the pictures to get a larger version.

view of Crosdale with pochade in foreground

The painter's pochade box

The real fellpainter ... or is it?

The last light of the sun can appear incredibly red at times. This evening’s attempt was not an exaggeration of the hue, although toning it down would have made it look more believable I suppose, and the foreground didn’t quite work, but I was pleased that the hills had a bit of form at least. When the light does this it’s so exciting if you’re actually there in the valley. The hills are thrown into colossal, solid forms that do resemble the famous Wainwright ‘elephant’ quote.

Crosdale hills, basking elephants appearance

elephantine hills basking in late red sun

On a different evening I tried to catch the earlier evening light with its violet and gold hues and had some small success. The foreground, in particular, continues to elude me, although the white brightness may be more true to life than most of my previous efforts.

Because I am trying to catch how the scene looks and feels in what may only be a matter of minutes the paintings are really hit-and-miss affairs. Most of them are complete disasters and one or two, like these, have just one aspect that captured something I was aiming for.

evening colours fall on Crosdale

Some of the best views and lighting effects always seem to happen when I’m trudging down the lane. If only it was possible to paint in the middle of the road. Not that I’d be happy with a middle-of-the-road painting. Disasters along the way don’t seem as bad. As Thomas Edison said: “I haven’t failed; I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

The lane

Helen Colledge

adventures in a painted landscape

Tag Archives: plein air sketches

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