Find potential outdoors. This video shows simple tips for making the most of a scene, and what to pay attention to outdoors.
Seeing in person is always better than photos, but why? Photos offer a false sense of order. Most students have loads of photos but don't find them inspiring. Photos seem handy for capturing a scene, but they distort color and dictate a focal area, so it's hard to break away from this. Photos also have problems because they don't shown how a human experiences the outdoors (shifting focus, elements of interest). Photos instead show everything with the same focus and intensity of detail. Many students find outdoor painting overwhelming due to distractions, or 'what to do first.' In this video learn ways to frame your vision outdoors and create very simple studies. Getting outside to start seeing without the filter of a photo is the best way to develop artistic vision (value, shape, form, color relationships, etc)
This is optional before our class, but invaluable for developing your art vision. Get outside and create some studies. Try 2 big elements first, such as sky/water. Then add the shoreline. Next try to mix in texture: try shore/ water, then add texture. Finally try some blue/brown fade examples such as shown in this video of water depths. Even if you can't find time to travel to a local park, or can't find a body of water to paint at least try some simple studies in your yard of what is interesting.