As part of my “Fifty Shades of Green” series, I’ve started painting on location around the property. It’s been decades since I painted Plein Air and honestly the first time I did it, I didn’t enjoy it very much. I was taking a painting workshop and we painted at different locations around Denver. I don’t know if it was the Urban setting or perhaps the instructor or instructors as I took two different workshops. I remember one session we were painting in Wash Park and the instructor apparently didn’t like what I was doing because she snagged my paint brush and started painting on my canvas! I still have the painting and it is hanging in our house because I really like the subject, unfortunately I don’t consider it a Kim Putnam original because someone else also had a hand in its creation. Although not a great experience as the instructor showed little respect for me or my work, it did influence my own teaching methodology! To this day I will not paint or draw on a student’s work. If I need to show them how to do something, I will demo it on another piece of paper or canvas!

But I digress, this time around painting outdoors on location is proving to be a great joy! Whenever I’m working in the Market Garden, sitting on our patio, or going on a ‘Walk About’ on our property I’m always looking for new subject matter. One of my favorite views is my neighbors’ field that is adjacent to our property. I love the way the golden light reflects off the field and the greenery of the trees that surrounds it and how the pale blue sky shows through the branches of the trees. I find the positive and negative space that is created between the two challenging which makes me want to paint it even more!

Because I work in the garden in the morning, I’ve not yet been able to paint the morning light, but I have been taking a lot of photos of it. My thought behind photographing scenes I find inspiring is that in the winter, I will be less motivated to paint plein air as it will be cold and I will be teaching during the week, and well… it will be cold!

Right now, my plein air paintings are small, only 5” x 7” or 6” x 6”, but once I move back into the studio, I will scale up the canvas. Perhaps I will us these smaller images as studies for the larger paintings. Another option is to frame these smaller paintings and hang them in the Posh Cottage. One of the unique perks tied to the Airbnb is that all the artwork (or most of it) will be mine and it will be for sale. So, guests staying at the Cottage can look outside their window and see the very view that is captured in the different paintings! It’s just a thought and the cottage isn’t completed yet so until then and while the weather is nice, I will continue to enjoy painting En Plein Air!

Plein Air Painting on the Farm

Swiss Chards and Almond Pasta

EASY LEMON CUCUMBER SALAD