Paint in the Park

I recently participated in a fund raiser for the Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria. A group of Victoria's artists came out and painted en plein air in the park behind the CAC and offered their paintings up for auction with the proceeds going to the CAC. It was a really fun and rather challenging day, as I hadn't painted en plein air for a long time. It's quite humbling to go out in the great outdoors, and try to edit the scene down to an 8 x 8 canvas. My first piece was the only one I was happy with - a painting of McCrae House, which is a bit like a still life. The second was a landscape which was so bad I wanted to throw it like a frisbee as far away as possible, but I don't pollute, so instead I threw it face down on the grass under my easel so no one could see it! Below are some of the scenes and my auctioned painting.

This is the one painting that I was pleased with from my day, and it sold! This is McCrae House, an historical house on the park grounds behind the Community Arts Council. I went into the shade of a big tree, and sat my painting on a compost box in order shoot the picture. It has a bit of glare but you can get the idea.

There are some lovely Garry Oak groves in the park, with paths leading through and on to the golf course. The CAC staff came around regularly in golf carts offering us chairs, cold bottled water, and transporting people who wanted to view the paintings in progress out around the park.

I loved the light glowing warm through the trees here, but didn't select this view to paint. I may paint it in the future.

And here's a view of the golf course with a row of tall elm trees. I thought with a few compositional adjustments, this could have been a nice painting.

Paint in the Park