…in the public space is a very different experience than in a studio or painting from a photograph . A good studio setting can have fixed, flattering or dramatic lighting, and the light on the sitter doesn’t change. In a public space with daylight around the light constantly changes, is weak or strong or both if it’s a partly cloudy day, so it doesn’t matter how still the sitter sits because when the light shifts so do the shadows and highlights on the face causing everything to literally move - things look different depending on how the light hits it and because of this you’ve gotta paint fast.
The man who sat for me, Geoff, was excellent at sitting still. You can’t really talk while sitting still because everything moves when you talk which is something you just don’t notice untill you are painting someone or having to sit still. He had his own set of challenges in sitting still. He found a spot across the room to focus on and people kept walking in front of it trying to catch his eye. It wasn’t a warm day either and the chair wasn’t that comfortable and I kept interrupting him with questions.
My day began early, I had to be at the show by 10am and I planned to get there early to set up. There would be provisions to hang some work at the back of the stall we were allocated - two artists working each day in this stall right at the entrance of the Taste SA pavilion.
Painting outside of your own studio requires planning. What to take? Oils or acrylic paint? Canvas size? Will there be water to wash my gear? easel? (provided thank goodness!!) I’ll need to take my own water…How will I get there (train - they offered car parking with shuttle buss but that seemed harder than train)… could I manage a wet oil painting on a crowded train? No… The question really is “what can I manage to take and then bring home on chosen transport”. The weather forecast predicted rain.
Lucky for me I have this hardcore Mileaukee toolbox which is pretty sturdy so I carefully packed it with the minimum - paint, brushes, wet pallet, water for washing brushes, rags, a drink and snack, a sketchbook, some flyers, my tickets and food voucher and then onto that I strapped my canvas and some other suitable paintings to hang up in the stall which needed to be wrapped in plastic because of predicted rain.
When the train pulled up I noticed a big gap between the platform and the train. My gear being too heavy for me to lift I had a little panic - “oh how will get this on…?” As I stepped on backwards ready to heave it up in some kind of clean and jerk manoeuvre a nice young man in school uniform asked me if I “wanted help”?
“Yes please, Thankyou so much I really appreciate it.” He hoisted it up from the bottom handles while I pulled from the top and there I was on the train - now…something about a ticket and ticket machine…
Getting off was easier - I followed closely a family with kids as they made way to the exit through the crowd - there wasn’t a gap between door and platform either, because this Showgrounds platform was newly re-built, so it fitted the new electric trains perfectly.
Having been given an Exhibitors pass I went straight in before the gates even opened at 9am.
Making my way past the empty carnival part I thought this would be a good blog story so I took a pic 😊
After setting up I went for a bit of a wander to get my bearings.
Ready to start painting at 10am.
I asked Geoff a few questions before I started. I explained some of the ways I could compose this painting, took a few photos and cropped them to show him a few different compositions - like how much of him I could paint to fill the canvas and how much space for background I could have, and we agreed on the composition before I started.
We stopped for lunch after two hours of painting to resume again at 2pm.
Because I was going to finish this painting at home, I took some photos of Geoff where he was sitting that i could use as a reference to finish it at home, and after lunch I started working from the photo on my phone which helped me make some corrections, settle on an expression and better see some detail. After a further hour and a half Geoff had an early minute and I chatted to some people, and a friend who popped in and took a few more pics for me. Thanks Kathy 😊
I’ve got a few more hours to do at home but in my own space it’ll be a bit less stressful 😎
