Plein Air Painting with soft pastels

On this website you will find my soft pastel Plein Air paintings. I made these in the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands. I started in September 2016. I chose to work with soft pastels so I don't have to go out with solvents and go home with dirty things.

First time Plein Air Painting

The first time I went out alone to paint, I was a little nervous. Suppose someone would see me and come and see what I was doing. So I decided to go to a place close to my house where hardly anyone comes. Shortly after I arrived, a car with a trailer stopped and a farmer and his assistant stepped out. Out of the trailer came four bulls, which the farmer walked behind me to the field, where I had placed my easel nearby. After the farmer and his assistant had finished, they gave me a friendly nod and left. Suddenly I realized that I really liked it. Being outside, painting, friendly people and a little adventure.

Over the years of painting outside, I have spoken to many friendly people, seen a lot of wildlife and had quite some adventures. I have experienced how a place can look completely different from one day to the next. I have painted landscapes in different seasons from -4° C to 38°C. Really fantastic.

Online courses

To improve my painings I have mainly followed online courses. I started at the Virtual Art Academy of Barry John Raybould. Then I took many online courses from Johannes Vloothuis, Lois Griffel (DVD's), Richard McKinley, Ian Robert, Richard Robinson and Kenneth Vloothuis. I would like to thank these people for their very interesting and informative courses, from which I have learned with great pleasure.

The books I have learned from over the years are (+links):

• Landscape painting essentials by Johannes Vloothuis
  
• Carlson’s guide to Landscape painting by John F. Carlson
  
• Painting the Impressionist Landscape by Lois Griffel
  
• Painting Impressionist Color by Lois Griffel
  
• Powerful watercolor landscapes by Catherine Gill with Beth Means
  
• Composition by Arthur Wesley Dow
  
• Painting better Landscapes by Margret Kessler
  
• Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts
  
• Landscape paintings of Richard McKinley by Richard McKinley
  
• Pastel Pointers by Richard McKinley
  
• Making Color sing by Jeanne Dobie
  
• Landscape painting Inside & Outside by Kevin Macpherson
  
• Alla prima II by Richard Schmid
  
• Pen & Ink drawing by Alphonso Dunn
  
• Your artist’s brain by Carl Percell
  
• The Urban Sketcher by Marc Taro Holmes
  
• Meester van de compositie by S.B. Tomanovic
  
• Bold Strokes by Mark Weber
  
• And many books more!!!
  

Thank you for your interest. I hope you will enjoy viewing my work.

Petra Hemelrijk