Detail of the brushwork in White cliffs on the French coast

Before the light moves on

A sense
of being there.

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White cliffs on the French coast · Fécamp, 2019 · Detail

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Painting outdoors

Looking, mostly.

I paint outdoors, in front of the thing. Not because it is romantic — mostly it is wind, insects, and light that will not hold still — but because everything I need is there and nowhere else. Most of the work is finding the motif. The rest takes as long as it takes, and the light does not wait for it.

That is why I simplify. I hold on to the relationship between the colours, the shape of things, whatever the light was doing that day, and let the rest go. What should survive is not only the landscape as I saw it, but the feeling of being there.

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Andrei Tchernoukha standing at his easel in a meadow above Bärstadt
Above Bärstadt · June 2019

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a.chern@gmx.de

Write to me if you recognise one of the places, or want to know how a picture came about. Questions about painting outdoors are welcome too — the equipment, the weather, how long a small panel takes.