Painting at Black Star Ranch

I found this location this past winter when I went hiking with my mom when she came out to visit.  The location is in the Cleveland National Forest.  The Black Star Ranch has been around since the early 20's.

 I set up on the lower part of the road which leads to the ranch.  The road was quite steep and the wind gusting up the canyon was very strong.  My set up and painting probably tipped over about 8 times and this is with me holding the painting as I painted.  Every time I stopped to take a picture it blew over.

 Here is the start of the painting.  I used water colors on Wallis sanded paper.  I used a big brush and tried to get the basic composition down.

 Here is the completed underpainting.

 I changed the lines of the hills on the left because I thought it made a better painting by doing it that way.

 In this shot I have started adding more detail to the composition.

   In this painting I edited a lot of details out because of the time constraints I put on myself.  This painting took about 2 and a half hours start to finish.

Painting at Pelican Point

 I went to Crystal Cove to paint because inland it was about ninety degrees and it was to supposed to be cooler at the beach.  This is one of the classic scenes in the area that has been painted since Laguna Beach was a in it's infancy as an artist colony.  This is the view to the north from a spot along the cliffs

This is the view to the south.  Just around the bluffs pictured here is the old artist colony.  Now it is a state park which is constantly being renovated to its former state.

 I took a couple of reference photos and used my camera as a view finder for the compostion of my painting.  The colors were a little more saturated because of the overcast skies.  As with all of my painting there was no thumbnail, no preliminary sketches, and no return visits.  A good painting means getting everything right the first time.  There is no going back.  I don't think about the color it just happens.  Sometimes I will step back and wonder if I made the right choices...but once I am started there is no going back.

 The color I chose to draw my subject set the tone for all of the color choices I made after that.

 One of the things I remember while doing this painting was working to not cover all of the initial drawing of the point. 

 This painting is on pastel board and measures 27"X35".  It is done with soft pastel.  I was running out of time so I did not take a picture of the progress of the second painting of the day.  By the time I started the view to the south, the clouds had started to break.

Smith Lake

Smith Lake is down south from where I live in wine country.  I ended up there after a couple hours of driving around.  I knew I wanted to be in this general area but I did not know where.  I had just started driving which is not what I normally do.

I settled down into a private campsite in the park.  It was pretty hot so I picked a spot in the shade after I had walked around and took some reference pictures.

I had been at this park once before when I had worked in the area but it was in the middle of summer and the plants had all burned out from the heat and lack of water.

I painted for about 2 hours and like always I knew it was time to be finished.  It is like some kind of internal alarm clock going off.  I started painting and didn't stop to take a sip of water until I was done.  Only then did I feel the sun burn and notice the sweat running down my arms.  So deep is my concentration when I am painting that I am not aware of anything but the subject and my process.

Pinterest

I joined Pinterest.  I am posting paintings there.  I have not spent much time on it yet but I like the format.  If you want to see my paintings there the link is https://pinterest.com/mikemajor  I will be posting different material on Pinterest. 

Montage

click on painting to enlarge

This painting is done on pastel board with soft pastels.  The painting measures 24"X35".  The day was very clear and everything appeared sharp and clean.  Montage is a resort in Laguna Beach.  It is a little difficult to get to if you do not live in the gated community, especially if you are carrying about 35 pounds in gear.  The area is beautiful.  There are many small sitting areas ideal for painting.  This is the most painted view but there are many others worth painting.  I was painting for about 3 hours.  In that time the rocks went from being totally in shadow to them being totally in sunlight.

Painting with Michael Situ

A week ago I went to Big Bend in Laguna Beach to plein air paint.  The park is part of the Laguna Wilderness area.  It is right across from lagunacanyonartists.com   This is also the home of Michael Situ http://www.michaelsitu.com/  Tomorrow I will be doing a paint out at the same park with Michael as part of LPAPA.org  There was a group of about 8 painters who showed up.   Jim Wodark also showed up and painted with the group http://www.jimwodark.com/
Michael set up and got right to work.  One of the thoughts Michael communicated was the need to keep the original feel of the atmosphere throughout the painting.  Another thought from Michael was that each corner of the painting should have a different degree of warmth or coolness.  He thinks each corner should be different from the others.  

Painting at Big Bend too

click image to enlarge

This pastel painting is on pastel board and measures 24"X35".  This painting took about 3 hours.  The focus for this painting was trying to get as complete a statement in the quickest time.  Although I was painting a little longer than some of the plein air painters I was with, the medium I use seems much quicker than oil painting.  Michael Situ said he liked the compostion but thought there should be more aerial perspective to separate the foreground from the background.  He also thought the foreground should be warmer to increase the aerial perspective.  One of his methods is to compare each corner of the picture.  When he compares them to each other he is looking for the corners in the background to be cooler than the foreground.  He also has different temperatures between the pairs of corners in the front and the back.

Sunset at Irvine Park

click painting to enlarge

This pastel painting is done on wallis paper with a watercolor underpainting.  This painting measures 25"X17".  This painting is from a visit to Irvine Park in January.  The late afternoon sun filtered through the leaves of the Sycamores.

Painting at Big Bend

This plein air painting was done in Laguna just off of Laguna Canyon road at the Big Bend open space.  It was an amazing day once the morning haze burned off.  After about 2 hours I was finished.  I packed up and took a hike up the hill.

click on the painting to enlarge

The painting is done on masonite with an gray acrylic and pumice ground.  The painting measures 24"X36". 

click on the painting to enlarge

My second painting of the day started at about 4pm.  I painted for about an hour and a half at Hiesler Park down at the main beach in Laguna.  This is one of my favorite views.  The rocks were changing colors quickly as the sun got lower on the horizon.  This painting is done on masonite with a pumice and acrylic ground.  This painting measures 16"X24".

Laguna Sycamore in Febuary

click painting to enlarge

This plein air painting was done in the Laguna Wilderness Park on Laguna Canyon.  This painting measures 19.5"X25".  This painting took about an hour and a half to two hours.  This subject was way too complicated for the amount of time I took to paint it.  I think it will serve well for a studio painting.  As an excercise to prepare for quick draw events, there are some obvious short comings for this subject.  The execution  of all the sharp edges would require more time than was available.  The foreground needs to be warmer.  The background should demonstrate the atmospheric perspective better.  There is not enough value difference between the branches and the background.  I should have selected the shape of the tree branches more carefully.

Santa Ana River Wash

click painting to enlarge it

This pastel painting was done en plein air.  The painting was done in the middle of the day along the bike path next to the Santa Ana River in Yorba Linda.  This painting measures 18"x25" and is done on pastel mat with soft pastels.  This painting took about an hour and a half.  I really like the light that I captured in this painting.  The paper was a salmon color which you can see throughout the painting.  I will use this painting to do a more detailed studio effort.

Brilliant Afternoon Rocks at Divers Cove

click image to enlarge

This plein air painting was done in Laguna Beach at Divers Cove.  This painting was done on pastel mat with soft pastels.  The painting measures 18"x25".  This painting took about an hour and a half.  The quicker I paint the less second guessing there is.  I am also able to capture the light better.  The goal is to get a complete painting within the quickest time without sacrificing the quality of it.

Sycamore Shadows at Irvine Park

click painting to enlarge

This pastel painting was done en plein air.  It was done in Irvine Park.  This park has a long history of plein air painting.  The park has been around since 1909.  William Wendt painted the sycamore trees here.  The trees in the park have been there before the park was there.  The sycamore trees are huge.  This plein air painting (sketch) was done in December as the trees were hanging onto the last of their leaves.  The scale of the trees were hard to depict in this hour and a half painting.  The painting was done on pastel mat and measures 18"X25".

Laguna Canyon Atmosphere

click painting to enlarge

This pastel painting is done on Wallis sanded paper with a water color underpainting.  This painting is from a hike I took in October.  I was in the Laguna Beach Wilderness Park. This painting measures 18"X25".

Santa Ana Canyon

click painting to enlarge

This plein air painting was done on pastel mat.  It measures 19"x25".  It was done with soft pastel.  As with all of my recent plein air paintings this one was done in under 2 hours.  My goal is to work as quickly as I can to get a complete painting within a short period of time.  There are several reasons.  I have never entered a plein air contest and I want to.  By painting quickly I have to sharpen my ability to see the subject and put it down is such a way that I am saying what I want to.  I believe this will also sharpen my compostition skills.  I want to get to the point where I see the best subject and to be able to touch each area once and step away.  There will be time later for the paintings where I go back to the same spot over a period of time.  I think pastels have a distinct advantage for quick draw contests.  Most of the contestants are painting on a rather small scale.  I want to paint larger and better.  Right now I am painting larger.  I want to get up to some really large plein air paintings.  I also think that the more paintings I can crank out over the course of a week the better chance I have of creating something worthwhile.  When I finally enter a contest I will have some stupid goal for the number of paintings I will want to crank out.  If I have 8 hours of painting in a day I could go about it in a couple of ways.  I could work on a large number of paintings on a daily basis for a short period of time or try to complete 2-3 paintings per day.  I will have to build up to that level of skill and concentration.  So for now I am working on speed.

Clouds From Mount San Antonio

click painting to enlarge

This plein air painting is done with soft pastel on pastel mat.  The painting measures 19"x25".  This painting is from a horse trail in Yorba Linda.  The clouds were amazing as they rolled across the sky.  The wind was strong and they were changing very quickly.  I would have been better served at painting them from memory once I saw a pattern I liked.  I felt like I was chasing shapes.  The beauty of pastel is that you can go after transitory light and shapes.

Sunlight Through The Eucalyptus Santiago Canyon

click painting to enlarge

This pastel painting is done on Wallis paper.  There is a water color underpainting with soft pastels over it.  The painting measures 25"X17".  This painting was done from a late afternoon hike.  There was a strong atmospheric effect that afternoon.  The color of the light filtering through the trees onto the dry grass was beautiful.

Amongst The Sycamore Shadows In Laguna Canyon

click painting to enlarge

This oil painting is based on a trip to Laguna Canyon in early October.  The trees must be over a hundred years old.  They are twisted into unbelieveable shapes.  This painting is on canvas and measures 36"X20".  

Chino Hills Backlit Sycamore and Oaks

click painting to enlarge

This painting was done from a hike I took in the Chino Hills State Park during December.  This painting measures 28"X35".  It is done on Wallis paper.  There is a water color underpainting with soft pastel over it.  There were several challenges for this painting.  Getting the values of the shadows while still showing the color within them in contrast to the bright colors in the sunlight was difficult.  Another challenge was taking these very bright greens and making them seem realistic.

Dusk From San Antonio Road

click on painting to enlarge

This pastel painting is done on La Carte Pastel Card.  The painting is done with soft pastels.  This painting measures 23"X29".As I prepare to become a serious plein air painter I have decided to develop my skills in quickly rendering my subject.  I am tempted to call this a sketch rather than a painting based on the amount of time I am putting into the painting.  I started this painting at 5:30 pm and finished at 6:50pm.  I have the ability to chase the light with pastels because of their amazing abiltiy to cover the surface quickly.  At the end of this painting I gave final touches all over the surface to reflect the quickly fading light.  To develop this skill I am putting myself on some kind of internal timer.  I am not timing the painting but I know when to stop.  Most quick draw competitions seem to run from 1.5 to 3 hours long.  I have decided to not sacrafice the size of my paintings in these practices; instead I am looking to increase the quality of my paintings within this time limit.  I find myself intentionally going out to paint when there is only a little amount of time left in the day.  Once I feel I have accomplished this goal I will start my next focus.  The next focus will be painting even larger plein air paintings with several return visits.  That will present a whole new series of challenges.

Corona Hills

click image to enlarge

This pastel painting was a plein air piece I did a couple of days ago in the hills in Corona at the edge of the Cleveland National Forest.  This was the first time I painted on this surface.  The surface kind of reminded me of velour with a little more resistance to the pasel as I stroked it across the surface.  The name of the surface is called Pastel Mat http://www.pastelmat.com/ I like it enough to continue to use it.  I did think that it did not hold as many layers of pastel as velour.  I did like the feel of the texture of the surface.  I did like the ability of the surface to be covered quickly.  It did hold the pastel better than velour.  This study took about an hour and a half.  The painting measures 18"X25".  I am gearing up for a my first plein air competition coming up in January.