Plein-Air Paintings That Heal Me, original art. Nature/Camping/Okanagan. Episode I - 2013

Due to positive feedback I decided to share my complete portfolio of outside paintings. It is also my first blog where I offer paintings for Steem. My first post about how I heal my wounds by solo camping/painting in nature seemed to hit the sweet spot, so I will publish my “open-air” paintings year by year, starting with 2013.

If you missed my post, where I tell the story how I escape to nature every year, to face my inner demons and pay tribute to breathtaking nature in Okanagan, you can read it here:
https://steemit.com/art/@jankasparec/why-i-sleep-in-forest-alone-healing-and-painting-in-nature-tribute-to-okanagan

The above painting in progress

The reason I chose Okanagan is simple: it's dry and hot in summer, and it's just very beautiful. Okanagan region of British Columbia is famous for it's wineries, fruit trees plantations and Okanagan Lake (and probably other stuff I know nothing about).
Cherry, apricot, peach and apple picking attracts hundreds of season workers every year. I pick a few too, for myself, but don't tell anyone. I mostly buy them in the stands by the road, but sometimes you just can't resist. Bad habits from childhood :)

I had good times sitting on the "bridge to nowhere" and gazing at the horizon.

Finishing this morning's work.

I started painting plein-air around 2006 in Prague. You can see my old works from that time here. There is some cool architecture work, most of them are sold, but hit me a line if you see one you like, you never know:
https://steemit.com/art/@jankasparec/how-i-found-my-dream-and-made-it-reality-disclosure-of-my-early-art

This one is sold

Plein-air comes from French. It literally means “full-air”, meaning painting outside whatever is in your chosen field of vision (you need a field easel and portable palette), and aiming for “a la prima” finish, which means- finish the painting in one session, since the light changes fast as the sun moves across the sky, and with that everything changes- shadows, colors, even objects (clouds...), so you don't wanna lie too much and get it done as fast as you can. And that's the whole beauty of plein-air painting. It's very expressionist. It's fluid, it's vivid, it's hard to do, it's merciless and eliminates wanna-be artists right away. You don't have days in your studio staring at a 2D photo on a laptop screen, correcting one mistake 5 times. No, you got whole open world in front of you to squeeze on a little square canvas and you gotta bust your ass and capture the essence of it, not every detail.

Finished result above, artist in plein-efforts below :)

That was hard for me in the beginning. Now I usually execute a 20 inch painting in 1-3 hours. Oil painting is bit more complex to do then acrylic, cause it doesn't dry fast and you need oil medium to dilute it. Acrylics just need water and it dries super fast. Washing your brushes is another hassle you save yourself if you paint acrylic. I still love oil the best and I don't even try to wash anything when I am out for 3-4 days. I just use the same brushes, keeping them soaked in oil as much as I can so they don't try. It's a dirty business, but the light and shine on the finished painting is worth it. Da Vinci knew what he was doing!

In the opposite order:)

On a good camping day, I do 2 paintings a day. I like to chill by the fire and cook my food and swim naked in a lake and meditate while ants crawl all over me, not only stand in front of the easel. One in the AM, one in the PM is good enough and time well spent. In 2013, I only stayed 3 days, so these 6 paintings are what came out of that trip. I still have them, besides the one that I mention as sold. They are all oil on canvas.
Price is much lower than my studio works ($2-$20k), only around $600. I accept steem for my work now. Halleluiah! You do the math please, I gotta paint. Thank you! :)

Thank you for reading and for upvoting, and most of all – for liking my art!!<3

Follow @jankasparec for bad-ass originals to come!

Final wrap up of a successful camping/painting trip. Evening is kicking in. I love driving at night, cause I can go 220km/h :)