Original Plein Air Drawing, “Plein Air, Lakeside School Study 1, 11.1.20, Monday, Late morning”, acrylic paint marker, marker, graphite, colored pencil on yellow paper, 11 x 17”, 2020

I really enjoy this drawing - but I recall that making it was less enjoyable.  It is a Plein Air Drawing ( or PAD, as I abbreviate it for my purposes), from “en plein air” French for “in the open air” (meaning no reference from photos, just outside, from life) and it is most definitely a drawing, although the finished effect is similar to a painting.  I believe this might be the first Plein Air Drawing I made, fall of 2020, before I’d spent six months in Santa Fe studying optical oil painting and forever changing my vision.  I look at work made before Santa Fe (before 2021) as “pre-optical”, but in this piece, I can see some of the ideas and ways of seeing I would really dive into in 2021 beginning to show themselves, kind of pre-figuring the work I’d go on to make a year later.

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