Painting outdoors is challenging. The light changes rapidly, equipment can blow over. You need to be organised to easily set up and clean up and pack up in the event of sudden bad weather. This means you are forced to work quickly. Therein lies a hidden advantage--to work fast is often difficult to achieve in the studio and fast work often exhibits a fascinating and attractive loose arty quality.

So here is a compromise. In this work, I spent a limited time working in the field, then finished it in the studio entirely from imagination. The loose nature of the work was carried forward into the studio, probably this is an after effect of working first at speed on the same painting.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the result.

Paint is expensive but you don't want to limit your creativity by worrying about the cost of materials. People like reasonably sized paintings though and galleries like huge ones. To jot down ideas it is great to use a sketch book and even better to add colour pencils into the mix. But I've found a great way to take it one step further into full colour mini prototypes.

Using high gloss ink jet printer paper in typical photo size, you can apply acrylics neat or as a wash to great affect. It takes the colour well and has a curious ability to permit you to slide the paint and scratch through it at various stages of dryness.

I have has good luck using a toothpick to apply and push paint about.

Since the size is so small, you don't use a lot of paint but it is in full colour and makes a great practice sketch. Use this to find ideas then later make a full size picture.

Update. This small painting sold at the twitter art exhibit in Orlando 2014.