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

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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

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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

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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.

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

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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".