Plein Air Paintings
This page holds my ventures into plein air painting, in which I aimlessly bumble around the city and paint mostly lake scenes, because I live on a lake, and lakes are pretty.
Early April, 2024. I gave this piece away, so I don't remember the exact date. This was my first piece I did when I started doing plein air pieces. Not my best work, but it's the thought that counts.
April 16, 2024. This one was painted while I was squatting on a pile of rocks and probably bird poop.
April 22, 2024. Not too keen on how this one turned out, but it was so cold that I became more focused on finishing rather than it looking good.
May 7, 2024. The beach was swarming with flies while I was painting this one.
May 29, 2024. I really like how this one turned out.
August 16, 2024. I usually struggle with forests, so I'm proud of this one.
April 3, 2025. After a long break of not doing any paintings, I return with another view of the pier in early springtime. I really like this one! This is the exact same view and location as my first plein air piece a year ago.
June 4, 2025. It was very hot and windy out while painting this, so this one was a challenge. My brushes fell into the crevice between some of these rocks! One of my darling friends gifted me some thick boards to paint on for my birthday, so I can finally get back into the swing of painting. While, yes, I can paint on watercolor paper, I really prefer working on boards. These hydro towers were hard to paint.
June 7, 2025. I painted this one on a boat. Fun! I forgot to bring paper towels to soak up my paint water with and dry off my brushes with so my friend gave me a tampon to help paint this.
June 8, 2025. I typically avoid painting buildings whenever possible (and I must admit... sometimes I omit them entirely) but this time I was big and brave and depicted this little cabin.
July 9, 2025. This park and its ridiculous light tower thing ALWAYS seems to evade being painted nicely. I've never been able to do it! I aired my grievances right on the piece and then found later, when I realized that the sketchy style was actually kind of cute, that I could no longer erase my commentary on it.
July 9, 2025. After getting frustrated and going on a leisurely jaunt around the harbor and getting myself a tasty bagel, I returned to the beach to try another painting, and it turned out quite nice. There was no bench or rock to sit on with a nice view here, so I did this one standing with my palette precariously balanced on a fence post. It was fun!
July 9, 2025. I attempted to do a plein air of my plein air painting setup, but it didn't turn out. Instead I turned it into a mixed media piece and used one of my linocut stamps to make it cutesy!
July 10, 2025. Back to the lake we go! I forgot my pencil this time so this was done without a sketch, and I feel quite proud of that.
July 10, 2025. There was a fence by the grass, but I couldn't be bothered to paint it so I simply erased it from existence. Reality can be whatever I want.
July 12, 2025. I was at an outdoor market today, so I painted the view from my table during downtime. I quite like how this turned out! For someone who avoids painting buildings I think I did an ok job. I traded this one away to another vendor who wanted it as a keepsake for their first in-person market. I love trading with people!
July 18, 2025. This one is the first out of a series of 8, which I produced in the same walk from the far end of my city to about halfway through the next one. Why? These are the sorts of things one gets up to when one is unemployed. Here we start with the elusive light tower thing, which I actually kind of like how it turned out this time. However, I got an unfortunate smudge on the sky this time. The whole day of rubbing against the other paintings didn't leave this one unscathed. Couldn't it have been literally anywhere else? On the water or rocks or something? Sigh.
July 18, 2025. My goal for my painting trip was to walk along the lake and stop at each park to make a painting and take a break. I don't quite like this one, but hey, we can't make bangers all the time.
July 18, 2025. Okay, here's a painting I actually like! I was worrying at this point that I'd just keep making subpar paintings during my entire trip because I'd be so tired from walking. However, this time, I did a really good one! The bathroom at this park is one of the most silent places I've ever been in. I could hear my own blood in there.
July 18, 2025. This one's okay? It was a fun challenge painting the willows. This is actually painted from underneath the same willow I painted earlier in this page, so that was fun.
July 18, 2025. Another hit, I think! I don't paint boats because they confuse me but this time I had no choice. I think it turned out splendidly!
July 18, 2025. Okay, here's when I started burning out again. It's a tree? I guess?
July 18, 2025. At this point I was worrying that I'd take so long on this painting trip that I'd miss grabbing dinner. This one's alright too, though I could've added some more darkness to it.
July 18, 2025. And finally, I'd made it to my destination! I put more effort into this one because it was the last one I was planning on making during my trip. 10 hours, 23 km and 8 paintings later, I'd finished my fun painting trip! I then took myself out for dinner as a reward.
September 9, 2025. I just started university. I was feeling in a paint-y sort of mood, so I took a crack at one of the buildings.
November 10, 2025. I've been so busy the past few months, and I've been meaning to go to the beach all this time but just haven't been able to! Anyways, here's my first proper beach painting in BC and I'm quite pleased with it. It was crazy windy at the beach and there's a diabolical staircase to and from the place that I nearly fell over from climbing (and also nearly got knocked over by an offleash dog on the way down). I'd like to come back here more and make more paintings! It's very picturesque.