Nocturne Painting

 Painting the Northern Hotel in Old Town Fort Collins

Plein Air painters are an unusual lot. In addition to painting outside of their studios, some challenge themselves to paint in all sorts of conditions: in rain...in snow...and, as I recently experienced, at night. They call this "Nocturne Painting", which is a fancy way of saying "painting at night". In practice, it's very much the same as painting during the day -- with a couple of exceptions. Most obviously, it's much DARKER, and therefore harder to see color (unless of course you're already color impaired like yours truly.) Secondly, since the sun is no longer the main light source, you have a decidedly longer time window to paint the scene before you. No more rushing to get preliminary sketches done! No more chasing shadows! However there is the interesting problem of lights being turned on and off in various shop windows, blinding headlights, and the (naturally) curious onlookers asking what in the world you are up to.