09/16/2026
‘Field Notes are exactly that — Notes made while out in the open field feeling… the wind and temperature, listening to the sounds of the area while writing or sketching notes, creating a good composition or painting and capturing the actual colors of your focus. All while racing the sun and shadows constantly ticking by with every second, every cloud shadow, critter visit and every bug stopping by out of hunger or curiosity…the draw for that field note is calling…
Or a field note is taking a photo marking the time and place for a future visit to capture and share the moment and the light - or creatively portray the feel and wonder of the moment in a medium/an expression of your choice. Field notes are moments of inspiration an artist wants to portray, recall and share. Sometimes they remain a simple note sometimes they explode into a true impulse! And those expressions are usually found in the gallery!
Field notes teach artists to truly see. To see like an artist opens up a new world of curiosities. It’s true, artists see the world - shapes, colors, light sounds, smells - differently than the average person. Artists are sharing their incredible, curious world hoping to inspire others to know and feel the beauty of it all - to see what they see, feel what they feel.
Field notes are also part of the “exercise” of staying creative, spontaneous and fresh. Like anything we love - the more we practice it the more we learn and hopefully the better we get. So, field notes can be like the “training” for a marathon - a plein air painting marathon! And any plein air painter will tell you that an event like that is quite a “marathon” ‘ - Quote from artists, Susie Jackson, about the September show, Field Notes.’
