What to Paint This Winter: New YouTube Demo

'Breathe'                8x10               pastel          ©Karen Margulis
available $150

It is dark and cold. You might be longing for those warm summer days. Or you might enjoy being cozy in your studio. I enjoy the dark moody days of winter. It allows me to stay inside and just paint. The problem is trying to decide what to paint. It is not for lack of reference material. I have more than enough inspiration.The problem is deciding! I find it helps to give myself an assignment. Here is one assignment that is great to do during those winter days in the studio.

Paint from your plein air studies! Pull out those plein air efforts from the warmer days. Hopefully you didn't throw them in the bin! Use these studies as inspiration for a studio version.

To get you started I created a video demonstration that you can see on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/Nc37eu1StRw

The 5x5 plein air study that inspired this painting

An Excerpt from the Archives

 I have been meaning to do more of this. Ever since Richard McKinley suggested I use my plein air studies for studio paintings. That was a few years ago during his Lake Tahoe workshop.  I really haven't done much with that idea though. I usually come home from a trip or plein air outing and throw my paintings in a box.  Once I am home and wrapped up in everyday life I don't take time to revisit these little studies.

I am missing out on one of the benefits of Plein air painting. Making use of the studies. These studies may not always be great or frameable  but they do give you better information than a photo.

I discovered that my plein air studies shows the emotional response I had while studying the scene on location. If you were to compare a photo of the scene and my plein air study  you would see the drama in the sky and feel the wind in the painting.  You can't see that in the photo. When I look at the study I am reminded of the wind and the ever-changing drama in the sky. Now to recapture that drama in a studio painting!