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A Fair Day’s Ride – Oil on Canvas – 16” x 20”
This painting is available for purchase. Please contact Dean to inquire.
Plein air painting refers to creating artwork, typically landscape painting, outdoors, on site. It’s a French term meaning “in the open air.” On the day I created this painting as part of a plein air contest, we suffered a series of massive downpours. You can see the rolling clouds in the sky over the horses. This meant repeatedly scrambling for cover, with painting in hand, trying to protect the artwork as much as for my own wellbeing. Overall it was a rather harrowing experience trying to successfully complete a painting under these conditions within the six hours allotted.
I was very happy in the end with the impressionistic immediacy of this painting. I deliberately left some of the streaks and scratches caused by the raindrops in the painting as a memento of the fact that this piece was, in a sense, a collaboration between mother nature and me. I like to see a little bit of Degas in the horses and a little Monet in the paint application and in the flapping flags in the background.
The painting was awarded first prize in the contest. I hope everyone else had as good a time as I did under the challenging circumstances. For me this piece represents not only the creativity that went into making it, but also a tangible memory of an intense experience with the elements.