Plein Air Painting with Dulwich Art Group

Two weeks ago a few of us went along on a plein air painting trip with the always excellent Dulwich Art Group. After a pleasant road trip through Kent in hazy sunshine, we arrived at Knole Park in Sevenoaks.  

After we won the game of balancing easels on grass, we started off by staining an umber ground onto our pristine blank canvases and tried out compositions using thinned paint in the same colour.

Simon from DAG doing a demo

At this point, the Sun was strong and the park was alive with colours and shadows. We got on with sketching the underpainting, such fun! Then...

Lunchtime!

After lunch the sun took its leave and clouds rolled in. It was lots of hard work as the light and colours were always changing, and I found that the wet paint muddied all too easily and the atmospheric perspective (thanks Simon) was much harder to achieve than it looks.

Then after tea and biscuits and some hasty last few brush strokes, it was time for a crit: 

All the works looked great

^^The three on the left are Tracy, Wei and Anne's efforts

All in all, it was a fantastic day out doing something really fun. They are thinking of doing it again at some point before it gets too cold, so keep your eyes peeled if you're interested.