Painting on the Move

Sketching on the move has been my thing in recent years.  The rocking and bumping of a train car doesn't bother me much, in fact I use that motion for interesting mark making.  But what about painting, especially watercolor?  Last June I had the chance to give it a try, and turns out it was pretty awesome.

Travelling from Paris to Provence you come across some stunning views of the French country side.  I had my travel watercolor boxes and book with me, why wait until I arrived at my destination to paint?  I set up my supplies on the folding tray and went right to work.

As we passed through the landscape at high speed I had to rely on my memory a lot.  That's actually a good thing, it helps your brain stay sharp.  When I would see something interesting I would put down some quick lines on the page, and try to take a photograph with my mind of what I was looking at.  Then on to the next page until another scene caught my eye.

After I had enough information down in my book and in my brain, I began applying color, that's when the fun began.  I have always admired artists who travel and work en route to their destination.  There is some sort of worldly flair to it and I got to live it.

The fun continued after I arrived in Provence, I continued applying colors to some of the pencil lines I had laid down on the pages of my watercolor book.

I was able to fill my book halfway on this last trip to Provence, and I'm looking forward to finishing it this coming June as I return to teach a plein air sketching course.  I will be posting more watercolors from Provence soon, in the meantime check out the information on my two week course by following this link:  https://www.artistimmersionprogram.com/france