Well it’s Spring in Delray

Beach, which means it is starting to get hot.  But the weather was great for the opening event for Delray Marketplace: Le Cirque Delray.

I decided it might be a good place to paint-out so I organized an outing for my plein air group.  Although several signed up, only two of us found each other amid the chaos of marching bands and costumed superheroes.

Even before I realized it was going to get hot and muggy, I had staked out spot in the shade by the bounce house.  This turned to be a good idea as my fellow artist succumbed to heat exhaustion and had to be taken to the hospital by the paramedics.  I gathered up all her art supplies, and she came by later in the evening to pick them up.

Many of the people attending the event thought I was part of the entertainment and asked if I were doing caricatures or face painting.  My husband came by and we had lunch at Terra Fiamma.  It was fantastic, and you can see his review of it on TripAdvisor.

I decided to paint some of the architecture.  This is great way to force yourself, as an artist, to get the correct perspective as you can hear the comments of those passing by.  It’s always better to hear “Oh, I see she is painting the building”  rather than “What is the World is that?”

All painting is a very intimate encounter, but painting plein air is even more so. I do find it challenging to work in this manner and often have to do a lot more work on the painting back in the studio, but I love painting outside, even in a mall.

It is like being all by yourself with your subject while at the same time being in the middle of a crowd.  The major difference is once you set up the crowd has to walk around you.

This proved to be a serious problem when our the group was painting at Delray Beach Play House at Lake Ida Park East .  We were having our critique session, and suddenly, three busloads of school kids were having a picnic around us.  The kids were very good but it was still too much for us, so we had to call it quits that day.

Plein Air Artists are often looking toward the past, in that they document the structures of a town before they are torn down; at Delray Marketplace, we were at the opening.

Can’t wait to see the bougainvillea next year on the archways!  It will give us some nice shade to paint under./