Villa Mettlen Take One
I did a practice round of my ‘city artist’ fantasy by painting ‘en plein air’ just down the street. Here’s what I learned.
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Glass jars are a no-go when working outdoors. I’m lucky I had one left to clean my brushes and provide water for mixing. I’m going to need some plastic cup-sized containers.
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0.6 liters of water is not sufficient. The combination of water for mixing, cleaning and drinking in the hot sun exceeds the capacity of the little bottle I regularly carry. I’m going to need a one liter flask.
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Liquid paints are not really an option. It is better to have tubes of paste-type paint or solid dry pans in a suitable palette box. I can’t believe how much liquid green can come out of a little 30ml bottle and make life so miserable.
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Paint dries a lot faster in the sun. If you think you’re going to lay down a colour and go back to fix it, you’re too late. You have to hit it correctly the first time - there is no backup plan.
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An easel is optional. I can hold the pad of paper with one hand and apply paint with the other. There were only a few times I needed to park the artwork while playing with accessories.
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It’s a “one-big-brush” operation. There is no time and no need for a bunch of brushes smaller than a number ten. You just have to be able to handle a big brush well enough to do the detail work.
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It takes more than two hours to do a painting. My time budget was blown away by the time I had the basics painted in. I would now estimate at least three hours.
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There were people who stopped by and provided some comments. It is, as I expected, somewhat of a novelty for people to see an artist at work. I need an elevator pitch (in German) to explain how I will give them the painting - gratis - if they want it.
| Data | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | Villa Mettlen - front |
| Artist | Derrick Oswald |
| Medium | Watercolour and ink on acid-free, cellulose, fine-grained, natural-white paper |
| Dimensions (w × h cm) | 42 × 29.7 |
| Date | 2023 |
