Plein Air with Pastels Made Easy

'Sunset on the Bay'             2.5 x 3.5      pastel       ©Karen Margulis
sold

'Beach Dreams'            2.5 x 3.5      pastel            ©Karen Margulis
sold

There are no more excuses. I can no longer say I don't have time to paint en plein air.  Usually that is my excuse.  I don't have time to drag out my supplies and set up to paint. Whether I am traveling or home I now can easily paint on the go and get the benefit of painting from life.

How is this possible?  This past winter I took a cruise during which I painted 50 paintings with about half of them plein air studies. This was possible because I allowed myself to paint small....very small. I brought along a stack of pastel paper scraps measuring 2.5x3.5 inches each.  Not only is this a portable size and very manageable.....the small studies have many other benefits.

'Tropical Dreams I'        2.5x3.5    sold

• Painting very small allows for faster painting. It is very easy to capture the light of the moment. No more changing a painting over and over as the light changes....just start a new one!

• Painting several small paintings as the conditions change gives you so much more information to draw on back in the studio than one larger study. I painted the changing clouds one morning and made 6 small studies each completely different in the time I normally would take for one larger painting.

• Painting small and quick forces you to paint what is most important to you....that is all you have time and space for. Looking back at these minis shows me what I was most drawn to in the scene.

• Painting as small as 2.5x3.5 doesn't require an easel or a lot of supplies....set up and clean up is a breeze....no more excuses!

'Bathing Beauties'         2.5x3.5    $15 buy here 

My lunchbox sized plein air pastel kit. I love it!

I just added 10 new mini pastel originals to my Etsy shop. They are all available for $15 each. Have a look in my shop here.  Purchase a mini original and I'll include my demo pdf on painting minis!

If you would like to learn more about painting minis and see my step by step demo have a look at my latest pdf download in my Etsy shop here