Iam often asked how to work up a studio piece from plein-air notes, on-the-spot paintings and/or photos. My answer to this is ‘don’t’. In my view, something painted or drawn on the spot contains the essence of that moment and there is an immediacy that is, to me, like the first introduction to a new acquaintance. You have an initial impression.
However, if you subsequently return to paint the same subject in the same or different media on subsequent occasions, you hone your reaction to the subject and you approach it differently. It also starts to answer questions about the order in which you lay the paint and compile the image.
So, in order to have something new to paint in the studio, inspired by those drawings, studies, paintings and photos requires, for me, the added element of having something more to say that cannot be achieved on the spot. This may be due to time constraints, weather variants, difficulty of location or the need to draw elements from different sites together to make an image that says more about the way I feel about a place. Working away from the subject also frees you to reconstruct the world without the onus of feeling obliged to tell the story how it is. One of the bonuses of working in the studio, so long as you have a strong plan for where the painting is heading, is that there is more time to manipulate paint while holding on to the essence of your thoughts about the place.