Plein Air Painting at the In Sight Festival

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of being one of ten plein air artists at the In Sight Festival at Fort Rodd Hill! It was such a beautiful sunny day! I started this painting early around 9 am and finished by 1 pm. Head over to @coast.collective to see all the other beautiful paintings!

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It was my first time painting on a watercolor canvas - this brand is

@frederixcanvas that I picked up from @opusartsupplies. It definitely absorbs paint differently than paper but offers more leeway when it comes to scrubbing paint off. I had originally used masking tape to cover the whites of the lighthouse while I painted the sky, but I was surprised to see the paint had seeped in underneath (perhaps masking fluid would be better next time). Fortunately, it was no problem since it was super easy to scrub off! It was also my first time using white gouache with watercolors, and it was quick to create highlights! I'll definitely be picking up more of these canvases - they're perfect for plein air!

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I've painted this lighthouse a few times now and wanted to do a looser interpretation. When I finished the painting and was looking at it in the judging tent, I could only see its flaws and had a big list of things I wanted to fix. But since then, I've been thinking a lot about how rarely I paint plein air and how part of the beauty of this day is seeing what everyone can create in a limited amount of time. So I've decided to calm down and not make any changes to this painting.