My Daily Paintings #PleinApril

Hi friends,

I hope you are finding time to be creative this month. I decided to try the #PleinAirApril challenge after chatting with the artist Sarah Burns about it on the podcast a couple of weeks ago. I also got the chance to chat with the remarkable James Gurney on the podcast and how could you not want to go outside and paint after talking with him? I thought I would share my first 9 pieces in this newsletter. I aimed to paint every day, either outside or from my photos. It’s still cold and sometimes snowy in April here, so I knew painting outside daily would be unrealistic. I am also working on another big project that is taking up most of my time, but that is for the next newsletter.

Day 1: I wanted to capture the pussy-willows before they went buy and I thought they looked pretty backlit from the sun.

Day 2: I took a photo of this pile of rocks while walking the dog. I sketched it back home with an Elegant Writer pen and blended it with a water brush.

Day 3: Baseball season is a sure sign of spring so I sketched the contents of the local school’s baseball dugout on location and painted it in gouache back in the studio. This is my favorite sketch so far! I made the cute mini palette with a plastic container I found on the side of the road. Tutorial here!

Day 4: It Snowed and I took another photo of the pile of rocks and painted it back in the studio with Brusho. I have a step-by-step tutorial on my YouTube channel if you want to try it!

Day 5: Still snowing and these trees in a neighbor’s yard caught my eye.

Day 6: I wanted to test a new watercolor easel because I am using it during a live demo at my library this week. I set it up in my bedroom and painted the bottles on my windowsill. By the way, if you want the easel or anything else from Meeden, I have a 10% off coupon code: Lindsay10, and the easel is on sale 22% off today! *affiliate link

Day 7: I went to dinner with friends and snapped a picture of our drinks. This was fun to paint with watercolor markers! I need color after all the snow and the drab real color in the landscapes!

Day 8: I used a mixing set of gouache to paint this rocky scene. I liked the light a lot in this! If you're interested, I have a timelapse painting of this on YouTube and a real-time lesson in Critique Club.

Day 9: I set up a still life in my studio and painted directly. I will have a video on YouTube next week on this!

Are you doing any art challenges this month? I decided in honor of #PleinApril I would put my Watercolor Landscape Workshop on sale for 40% off so if you are a beginner watercolor painter who wants some step-by-step guidance this course is for you! You get lifetime access so you can return to the lessons whenever you like and everything is broken down into manageable chunks to make learning fun and easy. click this discount link to learn more and enroll! Use Coupon code PLEINAIR at checkout if the discount doesn’t appear automatically. The offer ends 5/1/24.

That’s all for now. Have a creative day and as always happy crafting!

Lindsay Weirich

*Affiliate links used in this post.