The Overcast Day: "Gray Par-ee"

One of the challenges of plein air painting is dealing with a completely overcast day. Or series of days, as I have experienced in Paris recently. I have adopted the approach shared by a professional fine art photographer: always assume that the conditions of the moment are the best ones you are going to have. Well, if you look at it that way--at least it was not actually raining! So off I went.

The problem with the overcast day is that it tends to flatten everything. The buildings do not have a light side and a dark side to help define their dimensionality. And there are no cast shadows to anchor and reinforce the shapes. Not to mention that the colors all tend to be a version of gray.

On the bright side (pun intended), the great benefit of the overcast day is that the light conditions are NOT constantly changing. There is a fairly constant, albeit scant, source of illumination. That means you don't have to hurry as much, because the light and shadows are not changing moment to moment.

One approach that can be successful in overcast conditions is to paint a distant cityscape in a sort of silhouette fashion. Sometimes the subtle shifts in grays can make for a lovely monochromatic painting. In this particular session, I tried a variation on that approach. I chose a distant skyline (of the Ile de la Cite), and pushed the grays around a bit to get the right color relationships. Here's how things stood when I called it a day. Fellow painters who may have suggestions for dealing with low, overcast conditions, please send your thoughts!

Along the Seine

The sun finally made an appearance, and my painting colleague, Marie Sand, suggested that we head to the Berges de Seine (banks of the Seine). I met Marie at a workshop several years ago, and we struck up a friendship and have stayed in touch. She is a very talented artist, and you can see her wonderful paintings and drawings here.

Marie and I chose the location pictured above, because it allowed us to get out over the river a bit and to have a water-level view of the bridges. Marie chose to paint Pont Alexandre III, and I turned the opposite way to paint Pont d'Alma. Here is Marie setting up:

Marie Sand

At first we had a little interference from the guards who monitor the area. I was very thankful to be with a charming Parisian, who could reassure the guards that we would not get in the way of other visitors, and that we would not allow toxic fumes from the paints to spoil the atmosphere!

So far so good. I was working diligently on my painting when I suffered a strong dizzy spell. I had to grab the chair next to me to keep from falling over. Just when I thought the dizziness had passed, it happened again. Imagine my surprise when I (finally) realized that my vertigo was due to the fact that we were standing on a floating barge--not a fixed pier, as I had thought. Yikes. No wonder the waves of the passing boats were rocking my foundation! I had to move to solid ground in the middle of my painting--a change of location, yes, but I could still see the same view. Thankfully I headed off the vertigo, and was able to complete the painting.  

I did not originally intend to include the boats (Bateaux Mouches) in my painting. But I fell prey to one of the oldest pitfalls of the plein air painter: I listened to the guard when he told me I MUST include the boats, it would not be Pont de l'Alma without them! When Marie and I ended our session and had a short critique, we both agreed that the boats weakened my painting, so I removed them after I got back home. Here is the painting as it currently stands. (Sorry I can't crop the photo with my temporary set up here--but you can see where I lined off the canvas at the bottom when I composed my painting). Stay tuned for future painting adventures in Paris!

"Pont de l'Alma"

8 x 14

Don't Tell the Landlord

My Bedroom, Paris
Photo (c) Lesley Powell

It has been so overcast and dark in Paris that I have not been outside painting again since my maiden voyage. But---I carried my paints and gear all the way across the Atlantic, so I am not to be deterred! A rainy morning seemed just the right moment for painting an interior.

The top photo shows my bedroom in my rental flat. It is simple, but very Continental in feel. (Don't tell the landlord that I was using oil paints in the apartment). I found a way to set up my easel in the bathroom and peer into the bedroom to get this view. I did several preliminary sketches, then an oil panting. The light began to change while I was painting, as the skies brightened a little bit--amazing how fleeting the moment is, even when painting indoors! My nearly-finished painting is below.  It needs cropping and some other adjustments, but I like the way it captured a quiet moment. I hope that my next post will find me painting outdoors, so check back soon.

"My Boudoir"
Oil on Linen