Plein Air In Paradise: Embracing The Unfamiliar In Spain

My first demo in Spain at the picturesque La Finca Paradiso.

Teaching 16 painting students in my first ever trip outside the U.S. for my first in-person course in over two years… no pressure, right?

I would be lying if I didn’t say I was feeling nervous heading into this week’s plein air retreat in Southern Spain, wanting to give the perfect experience to artists who had traveled thousands of miles and taken off work to learn from me. 

As much as I hold myself to a high standard when I’m working alone from my studio at home, there’s so much familiarity in that setting to make even the toughest paintings feel low stakes. But you don’t have the same level of control in teaching, and it requires a delicate balance of assertiveness and restraint to provide tailored guidance to each student within a finite time frame.

That’s tough in any scenario, but especially with so many new faces at a venue with the awe-inspiring name “La Finca Paradiso”. Everything is just so in this gorgeous Spanish countryside oasis, and my teaching should be no different.

I’ve taught several unique sections for my online art course, Not Sorry Art School, over the last two years, which have collectively covered some of what I’m teaching this week. But what this retreat has reminded me is just how rewarding and inspiring it is sharing knowledge face to face and working with other artists who share a passion. The pandemic made simply meeting new people feel like a luxury, so I’m incredibly grateful for this opportunity which feels like such a breath of fresh air.

My biggest point of emphasis for this plein air retreat is embracing the challenge of painting from life. There is no one right way to make a painting and the traditional resistance to anything but painting from life is impractical at best and gatekeep-y at worst (I use a reference photo in my practice all the time). But the value of plein air, especially for those new to it, is learning to lean on instinct and reacting to one’s surroundings.

I call this first one David and Goliath—that and more in this residency studio round up 🤠 I’ve always broken up larger paintings with small studies, and this has been especially helpful this year as I’m driving towards a solo show with pieces at my biggest scale yet. So with these studies, what may appear random is really me meditating with a brush and working out color and compositional choices I’m hoping to develop further. Slide 4 isn’t a study per se, but a painting I’m still unsure about. Slide 5 is a master study of Maynard Dixon’s Wild Horses of Nevada (1927)

Did you know there’s a little goldfish fountain in @sundancesquare? And sometimes if you’re lucky you can catch a lotus bloom 🪷 In between big paintings, new ideas, and research, I found a moment to paint this lovely flower. And it’s not lost on me that during a busy season of life I found a second to slow down while sitting with a lotus 🧘‍♀️ isn’t there a great quote about if you don’t have time to meditate you should meditate more?? 😅 Lotus Bloom Acrylic on wood 9x12”

It seems like a contradiction, but using instinct in our paintings is a learned skill that is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you’re incorporating new technical skills into a practice. But with some guidance on composition and color theory along the way, my hope is that my students this week leave Spain more confident in trusting their gut even with the countless choices plein air painting presents. 

So much of painting is getting it “wrong” many times before you get it “right”, and I’m thrilled that my new friends here were willing to pause their lives for a week to invest in their practices. It’s really fun sharing what I’ve learned in my art career so far, and the payoff after a long absence has been extra sweet.

Adiós for now!