I took a weekend trip to the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge near Moses Lake to do some plein air painting. The area near the Potholes Reservoir Dam is great for plein air. The desert scenery is fantastic and the network of dirt roads has lots of pullouts and parking and access to restrooms and a nearby general store. It’s about twenty miles from Moses Lake.

After a year of studio painting I had forgotten how hard it is to do plein air. The problem is time. In the studio, you can always paint an hour longer or return another day. In the great outdoors, the light is only good in the early morning and late afternoon and it changes constantly. It also takes time to scout locations, and if you are painting far from home, you really have to wrap things up because it is not practical to return.

You also have to pack carefully and make wise use of limited space.

All in all it was a great trip, but I really need more practice.

In order to get the best light and shadows, I painted early in the morning and late in the afternoon. This shot was taken about an hour before sunset.

On the first day I only had enough time to do a rough block in before the sun went down.

The thunderclouds that had been building all afternoon put on a great show as the sun went down.

During the hottest part of the day when shadows were few and far between I scouted locations.

In order to make the best use of the golden hour, I spent time during the middle of the day blocking in shapes. Having a good drawing freed me up to think about color when time was short during the good light at the end of the day.

End of day two. One take away is that time management is really important in plein air – with changing light conditions, you just don’t have much time to mix colors and apply paint.