The Terror and Thrill of Painting en Plein Air

You may be thinking the title of this post is a little dramatic… and perhaps you’re right. But for many, especially with an audience or under time constraints, doing creative work can be terror-inducing.

How we cope with this depends on our life experiences. Do we stop breathing, freeze like stunned mullets or run a mile? Do we revert to tested, familiar patterns to avoid the risk of failure? Do we admonish and chastise ourselves, becoming caught in an internal argument?

It takes courage and determination to settle in - to find space and opportunity in the uncertainty. It takes faith, self-trust and composure to calm one’s anxieties and embrace the path of creativity.

As you may have read in some of my other posts, I experienced some of this terror when I first started painting in the landscape near Alice Springs. Despite years of painting outdoors and in the studio, I still needed to regulate my nervous system to get into creative flow.

When people ask about my practice, they often assume I only work sporadically - when I’m in the right mood. They say things like, I guess you can only paint “when the mood strikes you” as though I’m waiting for some hit-and-miss feeling to mysteriously take hold of me before I put brushes to canvas. This belief that the conditions for creative work are outside the artist’s control is both true and false. Like many myths, there is a kernel of truth combined with a generous dose of embellishment.

All of us, whether doing creative work or not, can learn to regulate our nervous systems, creating the optimal state for flow. With breathing and centering exercises, we can foster curiosity, confidence, courage, calm and connectedness. By becoming mindful and physically present, we can hold compassion and harness clarity, persistence, perspective, playfulness and patience. Then, as long as the challenge of the task is just within our level of skill, (not too easy nor too difficult), creative flow is possible - even under pressure.

When faced with the difficulty of painting in scorching heat, wind, changing light and shifting shadows while in the MacDonnell Ranges, I needed to slow down and breathe. Rather than listening to the critical and frustrated voices in my head, I needed to console and encourage myself and then, commit.

The kernel of truth in the myth of requiring ‘the right mood’ to paint, is that one’s state of mind does influence one’s ability to be creative. While many circumstances remain beyond our control, especially when painting outdoors, we can still choose our state of mind.

Painting is a skill and creativity is like a muscle that can be developed, a state of being and way of showing up in the world that can be mastered with practice.

If your curiosity is piqued - and you’re wondering how you’d go painting outdoors, I invite you to come to my next painting retreat in Capertee in March. I will be teaching how to access creative flow, as well as painting techniques. There are just 2 places left, as most who came last time, have re-booked. You can check out the details here. Email me now to enquire or book on my website.

I’d also love you to come along to see the paintings I made in the MacDonnell Ranges in April, at Stella Downer Fine Art, in Sydney. The exhibition, ‘Into the Desert’ runs from 19 November until 21 December. I will do an artist’s talk in conversation with Ian Grant, the former head of Painting at UNSW at the opening function on Saturday 23 November, from 3 - 5 pm. So, if you have any questions or comments, please bring them along!

Hope to see you on Saturday or another time soon.

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Capertee Painting Retreat 2025

from A$260.00