Tag: alla prima painting

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Monday Morning Art School: use a bigger brush

Mather Point at dawn, oil on canvasboard, 9X12. $696 includes shipping and handling in continental US.

Artists should choose a bigger brush far more often than they think, especially when they want stronger compositions, clearer value statements, and more confident paint handling. I have few small brushes at allā€”a single #2 round for oils and a dagger brush with a fine point for watercolors.

Bigger brushes force us to think in big shapes

A painting succeeds or fails on its large value masses, not on its detail. When we work with a larger brush, we naturally block in shapes rather than fuss. This keeps our attention where it belongs: on composition, value relationships, and the overall movement of the piece.

Grand Canyon at sunset, oil on canvasboard, 9X12. $696 includes shipping and handling in continental United States.

Bigger brushes prevent overworking

Small brushes are perfect for poking, fussing, and destroying the freshness of a painting. Larger brushes wonā€™t let us over-refine areas. They help avoid the muddy, overworked look that happens when we keep adjusting the same small spot again and again.

Bigger brushes teach us to paint with a light hand

I can paint a better fine line with a #4 flat on its side than I can with a rigger. A bigger brush is more stable and holds more paint, meaning less jiggling and fewer stops to reload. Thereā€™s a world of tonality that comes from learning to control the pressure in a brush. Bigger brushes can go from bold to delicate, something small brushes just canā€™t do.

Grand Canyon, late morning, 8X16, oil on archival linenboard. $722 includes shipping and handling in continental United States.

Bigger tools make bolder decisions

When weā€™re holding a brush the size of a small spatula, weā€™re forced to paint with intention. We choose our strokes more carefully. We commit. When students tell me they want to learn ā€˜looser brushwork,ā€™ I start by picking out bigger brushes for them. They encourage broad, authoritative marks, which bring energy and confidence to our work.

Bigger brushes improve surface quality

More paint means juicier, cleaner and more expressive strokes. Instead of scrubbing thinly with a tiny brush, we can place full-bodied, deliberate marks that convey texture, light, and form with immediacy.

Bigger brushes speed up our process

Of course a bigger brush covers more area, faster. But beyond the square-inch question, covering the canvas quickly means we see the painting as a whole early on. This is essential for alla prima work. We get to the heart of the piece before the light changes. Iā€™ve included four paintings here that were done in rapidly-changing light. None of them would have been feasible had I messed around with a tiny brush.

Cowpath, 9X12, oil on Baltic birch, $696 includes shipping and handling in continental United States.

Bigger brushes help us learn faster

Students often think their problems come from a lack of detail control, when in reality theyā€™re struggling with proportion, value, or composition. A big brush forces us to address these essentials head-on. When the big shapes are right, the details practically paint themselves.

Are you a noodler?

Iā€™ve watched countless students hesitate at the exact moment when their painting needs a courageous reframing. Painting with confidence sometimes means accepting that our first idea may not be our best. We need to be willing to accept that and make corrections with authority.

ā€œBig shapes to small shapesā€ isnā€™t just a catchy phrase; itā€™s foundational to painting. When the big shapes are right, you can suggest detail with a few breezy, economical marks.

This approach is actually harder than futzing around with detail. Itā€™s the discipline of stepping back, really looking, and making corrective moves while the painting is still fresh and malleable.

If youā€™re ready to break the habit of overworking your paintings, I go into more detail about this in my workshops. Ā 

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What do you think plein air painting is?

Midsummer, 24X36, oil on canvas, $3,188 includes shipping and handling in continental US. This painting was completed on site over several days.

ā€œDo you have a good source for the definition of plein air painting?ā€ a reader asked. ā€œCan the painting be finished in the studio? Can it span a couple days in execution?ā€

More useless pontification has been done on this subject than almost any other. Iā€™ll start by pointing Tim to this essay by John Morra examining the nature of plein air painting. It stands alone, but let me add a few of my own thoughts.

Main Street, Owl’s Head, oil on archival canvasboard, $1623 includes shipping and handling in continental US. This was done on site on one long day.

Many of us have been in a competitive plein air event and seen something passed off as outdoor painting that was clearly not painted from life. How do we know this? Because we were there. The atmospherics were wrong, that person was never in that spot, orā€”mirabile dictuā€”the oil paint has already set up hours after completion.

But mostly, we know because thereā€™s a sort of studied perfection to a studio painting that is never there in plein air. A painting done on site is never quite as innovative as a studio landscape. Plein air can often seem labored or overworked because the artist is trying so hard. This is not necessarily a bad thing; itā€™s destructive when plein air events reward stylishness over content and design, as they so often do.

Lobster pound, 14X18, oil on canvas, $1594 framed includes shipping and handling within the continental US. I’ve occasionally thought about brightening this up in the studio, but I think that would ruin its genuine moodiness.

Plein air or alla prima?

Plein air means it was done outside. Alla prima means it was done ā€˜on the first strikeā€™. Plein air is a description of where a painting was done; alla prima is a technique. There is no such thing as plein air style, nor is something thatā€™s painterly more authentically plein air than something thatā€™s linear. Can we all stop apologizing for liking realism?

Vincent Van Gogh is the personification of painterliness. Rackstraw Downes is the personification of linearity. Theyā€™re both also definitive plein air painters, even though their work looks nothing alike.

Waiting to play (Boathouse), oil on archival canvasboard, 14X18, $1275 framed includes shipping and handling in continental US. This is a painting that’s experimental and observational rather than stylish.

Can the painting be finished in the studio?

This is where the arbitrary rules of plein air events start to influence the actual practice of plein air painting. To say that a painting should be ā€˜substantiallyā€™ finished in the field is meaningless; to say it should be done 90% in the field is just as meaningless. What are they measuring? Time? The volume of paint? The area of the canvas?

I almost never finish plein air work in the studio. I invariably end up overpainting what I most loved about being outdoors. But I have friends who touch up their plein air paintings at events. If they feel that gives them a better result, more power to them. As my buddy Brad Marshall once mused, ā€œThe clients donā€™t care how much of it was painted outdoors; why should I?ā€

Sketch or painting?

Composition is one of the hardest skills in painting. The rules of composition are the same whether the piece is done in studio or in the field, and the smart plein air painter puts as much effort into the set-up of a plein air painting as he or she would for a studio piece. Thatā€™s different from the plein air sketch, which is about capturing an impression.

How long can I work on it before it stops being plein air?

ā€œA plein air painting should be painted quickly,ā€ Morra wrote. This is one point on which I disagree. Fast, expressive brushwork is the trope of our age, but itā€™s by no means the only way to paint.

Iā€™ve done many events where weā€™re given two or three days to produce one work. Sometimes I paint two paintings, but more typically, I squander all my time on planning and just paint one. I inevitably like my work better than when I churn out fast sketch after fast sketch.

In fact, modernĀ plein airĀ paintingĀ is often so fast it sacrifices drawing. A badly drawn house or person is a rookie mistake. My own preference is for fast painting paired with meticulous drawing. Want a great contemporary example? Check outĀ Canadian painter Marc Grandbois.

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Four most useful types of paint brushes

Alla prima oil painters usually favor hog’s bristle brushes. These are far less expensive than softer hairs like sable. They are the only brushes that spread thick paint smoothly and evenly, making for the freshest alla prima technique. There are some good synthetic brushes on the market, but none of them are quite as stiff as a good natural bristle brush.

Bristle brushes tend to form a flag (a v-shaped split) at the end over time. However, if the brush is made properly, with good interlocking bristles, it will have a natural resistance to fraying. Because field painters often go long periods without being able to clean their brushes, durability is important.

Don’t use that as an excuse to not clean your brushes thoroughly. Rinse and wipe out all the solids and wrap them tightly until you can get to a sink. When you do wash them, use a good fatty soap and make sure all the paint is out of the ferrule (the metal part), or they’ll lose their shape. A brush that’s got paint clogging the ferrule is impossible to resurrect. (My daughter’s brush soap, which is very good, is available here, but she will not be shipping more soap for the next few weeks.)

Flats:  

Flat brushes make an immediate, energetic mark. They’re excellent for fast, powerful surface work, long sweeping strokes, and blocking in shapes.

Used on their sides they also make great lines, far more evenly than a small round can do.

I like an 8-10 flat, because I tend to paint with large brushstrokes, but what size you use will depend to some degree on your painting style.

A bright is a just a stubbier, less-flexible version of a flat. It’s great for short, powerful strokes or situations where you want a lot of control. Your painting, your choice.

Rounds:

A round is a more lyrical brush than a flat, and is a classic tool for painterly surface marks. It can be used to make lines that vary from thin to thick. You’ll need a big one (perhaps an 8 or 10) for big, bold brushwork, and a wee pointed one (such as a 2) for fine detail.

My uncle used to say, “be true to your teeth or they’ll be false to you.” The same is true of small bristle rounds. They lose their points very quickly if you don’t clean them carefully.

Filberts:

If I was stranded on a desert island with just one brush, it would probably be a size 8 filbert. Its great advantage is the variety of brushstrokes it makes. It’s can make single strokes that taper, such as in water reflections. Its rounded edges are good for blending. Set on its side, it makes nearly as good a line as a flat.

Double filbert or Egbert:

This is a ‘novelty’ brush like a dagger or fan brush, but it’s one I use all the time. It’s a lyrical brush that has a lot of expressive quality. Hold it at the butt end and swing it like a baton, and suddenly your painting will sing.

However, if you don’t clean it carefully it will splay and develop a split at the end, which renders it useless. I speak from sad experience here.

A bonus: I’ve been painting walls for the last week, and my favorite new brush is the Wooster Shortcut. Better control than a long-handled brush, easier to clean than China bristles, and with modern latex paint the coverage is just as good.

Registration is now open for workshops in 2026! Reserve your spot: