Plein Air Painting and Fishing

Last week, I combined two of my favorite things—painting and fishing. I launched the kayak out from Tingalpa Creek in Queensland, Australia with a single rod, a few lures, and a backpack filled with my plein air painting supplies. I’ve been feeling a little lacking in terms of inspiration lately, and I felt this was a good way to mix things up and break out of the rut. And it certainly did the trick!

I would paddle around, casting here and there at promising spots. And when I found an interesting subject to paint, I would anchor up and swap over to painting.

There was something so raw and honest about painting there in the water, no one else in sight. I can see why so many of the top artists prefer to paint outdoors rather than from the comforts of the studio.

It wasn’t as much of a logistical nightmare as it might seem. Though I’m sure it wouldn’t take much for it all to turn bad on the water, say if the wind were to pick up or if I dropped my palette knife in the water. The main challenge, apart from the usual plein air challenges, was timing my strokes to the ebbs and flows of the water. If I went against the water, my hand would jolt and make errors. This almost added an interesting lyrical quality to the painting process.

It certainly made me appreciate how much better it is to see and experience the subject in life versus through a camera lens. Painting from life in the kayak, I could almost pick any old spot, narrow in on the details, and find an interesting subject out of it. But through the camera lens, the colors and perspective appeared flat and static. The camera couldn’t pick up the deep blues and purples in the shadows under the mangrove trees or the subtle color shifts in the cloudy sky. It just flattened it all into near-enough colors.

You can see a few photos below. I wasn’t successful with the fish, but I did end up with two small studies (and two sunburnt legs).