Studio Painting versus Plein Air

SOLD "Rowing Home," 11 x 14 original oil on canvas panel

I kayak to find remote locations. I find little shallow side creeks that large boats miss, where there are island chains with no houses. I find places that only the wildlife and sunbeams know about. These places are where I get my inspiration and my best painting subjects.

Finding great locations is my passion. I always have my camera with me, in case I pass something that I want a quick snap as a reference. Painting plein air, out in the wild, is a wonderful experience, but bringing my hefty oil palette, turpentine, canvases, rags, easel, and brushes is unweildy in a kayak. These accessories are necessary for oil painting. I guess I could strap the things to the side of the boat, but I lose immediacy when I have to lug out all the gear.

Plein air painting means I can feel the sun and the wind, breathe the humidity, hear the waves, and smell the salt water. My plein air paintings are wonderful. But just as wonderful are my studio paintings that I base on my plein air photos. I experience perhaps even more of the immediacy of a place when I'm taking photos, because I'm not distracted by the mess of the painting process. I take time to listen, feel, and smell the environment, and remember these things if I decide to paint in my studio. I've talked to many an artist who swears that plein air paintings are superior, and that they can tell the difference between something that has been painted plein air and something that was done in the studio. But I find that after spending the day out in the marshes and then come home to paint them, my mind is still there, and the result is even better than if I'd been standing at the scene. Placing my plein air and studio paintings side by side, no one has yet guessed correctly which one is plein air, and which is a studio painting.

St. Augustine Art

SOLD "Monarch"

The week before an art opening involves a whirlwind of activity, when I'm cataloging paintings, labeling them, framing, and packing them to go. My studio is in shambles as I grab for tape, drop the box of eye hooks, and wrangle with wire. But once a show is hung, the studio eventually makes its way back to its normal state of assortments of new paintings being developed.

SOLD "Pipers at Waters Edge"

These are a couple of the small paintings I showed in my last art opening. These "mini" paintings are 6" x 6" images of critters and landscapes around St. Augustine, Florida, and they always fly off the wall. They're popular. While the bigger paintings attract lots of lookers, these little paintings sell.

SOLD "Salt Water Marsh"

Why? Because people aren't investing too much money in large paintings right now. Instead, they look for less expensive alternatives. I see other artists selling lots of notecards and prints. I'm selling these mini's 6 x 6 paintings like crazy. The nice thing about them is that they are original paintings, but they're the same price as larger prints.

Illustrating Versus Fine Art

Pen & ink illustrations (c) by Mary Hubley

Illustration is a much different process than fine art. For me, fine art is a study of the heart of a subject and its fleeting light, color, and mood; while illustration requires careful up-front thought. With fine art, I seek out a subject that calls to me. I reference real places, either from sitting in front of a subject and painting it, or from photos that I've taken. I can't help but paint the magic of the moment. The subject dictates what it wants me to see and show the world. Painting a scene, I commune with my subject and it speaks to me.


With illustration, on the other hand, the application dictates what and how something should be painted. For instance, when illustrating a book, I first have to communicate the most powerful image that is happening within a set of pages. Rather than working directly from nature, I design my illustration around the story. Most of my illustrations don't use a photo or nature reference -- they are composed solely from my imagination. A painting is never done in one sitting. Rather, I develop a storyboard, go through review cycles with the customer, develop large sketches of each page, go through more review, and then finalize my art. Feelings and mood are not inspired by the painting, but rather by the story.


Thus, fine art is much different than illustration, even though the technical aspects of placing pen to paper are very much alike. I continue to do both, and I happily juggle between the two extremes of real-life inspiration and imagination.

Escaping the Computer

Help! My computer has taken me prisoner. My website screams for updates. My blog's getting old. New art articles demand to be read. Games must be played. My marketing plan tries to wrest control, but it, too, eventually succombs to jailing me by strong-arming me to doing even more more useless tasks.

It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't that I'm not getting paid to do all of this.

So... it's time to break away from my computer prison and become unfettered by its obsessive tyranny. I'll suck it up and do it. My new habit: start the day painting. Find great locations to paint. Talk to galleries. Freedom!