McMichael Plein Air Painting Competition

I always want to paint at McMichael and didn't think that the first time I painted here was in a competition. We were about 50-60 artists painting on location during the weekend. We had a sunny but not very warm day, unless you stayed under the sun without shades.

The arrangement was simple and easy to follow. McMichael staff and volunteers provided the artists fruits, coffee and water twice a day, one by one! We scattered around McMichael and Kleinburg area, it was not easy for them to find us. Thank you!

The first day I painted the gallery building because I wanted to paint this building. I loved the sunlight behind the cloud and put more trees behind the gallery. I had not enough sleep the night before and planned to work faster so that I could go home and sleep. However, I was very tired and worked very very slowly. When I got home around 4 pm, I threw myself on the couch and slept right away.

On Sunday, I went to Kleinburg, a beautiful town, to paint one of the beautiful houses made of logs and this painting was selected to be the 3rd place in the group 11" x 14"

Some of my artist friends won too. Congratulations to Hasibush Shaheed and Dougal Haggart from our group, and Karin from my art club, amazing works. I met many talented artists there and saw their wonderful works, same locations, different styles, definitely very inspiring. It is always amazing to see different approaches, styles while everyone is painting at the same places and similar scenes.

My Sketching Buddies

I bought a box of Rembrandt watercolour metal basic set pans when I first started my plein air sketching. I love it very much. Then I bought a larger one after I finished some colours.

After a while, I wanted to make my own one which can carry more colours. I bought a cosmetic box and stuck more colours. I love this box very much, very light. For cleaning water, I use the bill plastic bottle. It won't leak.

Later, I used more and more colours so I bought a larger watercolour palette and put those pans in it.

After some years, I went back to a smaller size. I put some pans into a pill box which I bought from the drug store. You can put a short brush or more colours in another size.

For the easel, I made my own one with a camera tripod. These things are very light-weighted. The stool was available from an outdoor camping equipment store.