Painting En Plein Air at Mawgan Porth, Cornwall
Such fun teaching Andrew at Mawgan Porth, Cornwall today.
This was only his second painting lesson on the beach, and after just over three hours painting en plein air, he did an exceptional job.
The colours in the sky were beautiful, the beach and water had a lovely sense of movement, and he really enjoyed developing the headlands. I think the clouds may have been his favourite part.
Discovering Skills You Did Not Know You Had
One of the things I love most about teaching art is watching somebody discover skills and abilities they did not realise were there.
Painting is not simply about copying what is in front of you. When you begin to understand light, colour, shape, perspective, depth and atmosphere, you start to see the landscape differently. You begin to understand why something looks the way it does, rather than simply trying to reproduce it.
That understanding gives you far more freedom as an artist because you are no longer dependent on copying every detail. You can begin to make your own decisions about what matters, what can be simplified and where you want the viewer to look.
Why Painting En Plein Air Is So Valuable
Painting en plein air at Mawgan Porth gives you something a photograph cannot completely provide.
The light changes. Clouds move. The colour of the water shifts. Headlands become softer in the distance and shadows alter as the sun moves across the sky.
All of this encourages you to observe, make decisions and respond to what is actually happening in front of you.
For an artist, that direct experience of the landscape can be incredibly valuable. It sharpens observation and helps develop a much stronger understanding of colour, atmosphere and distance.
Time Is One of the Best Gifts
There is another side to painting outside which is perhaps equally important.
Time is one of the most valuable gifts we can give ourselves.
Spending just over three hours on the beach, painting, looking properly at the landscape and enjoying beautiful Cornwall gives you permission to slow down and become absorbed in what you are doing.
Art can create that unusual space where you are concentrating deeply, but at the same time stepping away from everything else competing for your attention.
That is one of the reasons I enjoy teaching art at Mawgan Porth so much. The lesson is about developing artistic understanding, but it is also about experiencing the place itself.
Learning to See Rather Than Learning to Copy
My art lessons are built around understanding the fundamentals of art rather than teaching people to copy my paintings.
We explore how light behaves, how perspective creates distance, how colour changes across a landscape, how atmosphere affects what we see and how these principles can be translated into your own style.
Once those foundations begin to make sense, they can be applied to acrylic, watercolour, oils, pastel, pencil and many other media.
Andrew's painting is a lovely example of what can happen when somebody begins to trust their observation and understand what they are seeing.
For a second painting lesson, he has certainly set the bar rather high.
At this rate, Andrew and I may have to swap jobs soon!
Photographs shared with permission.
