Mike Major's blog/daily paintings: January 2014

Thursday, January 23, 2014

As a plein air painter there are endless possibilities. The most important thing is the scene and everything else is secondary to it. This spot at the north end of Heisler Park has the view and so much more. The parking is right next to where I set up my. I can get started painting very quickly. The take down at the end of the day is quick and easy. If you need inspiration there are a hundred different spots all within a quick walk from here. When the painting is done you are in the middle of this amazing art town. Great restaurants all around you. But in the end it is still the beauty of the view.

Painters Painting

Whenever I go to Laguna to paint, I am always looking for others to paint with. Although painting is a solitary endeavor, I really like seeing what everyone is doing with their art.

The woman in the foreground is the teacher for this group of 5 women. Her name is Jullian. They had already been there for an hour or so by the time I was setting up so I did not really get to spend much time with them.

After about thirty minutes the weather had completely changed and the fog had rolled in.

Changing Light

This is what the beach looked like when I started the painting.

This is what the beach looked like about forty minutes later.

Changing Conditions

The board I brought was the wrong size for the composition of this painting. I had to make adjustments through my sketch to insure I could make this work.

Just as I had gotten down the large masses the fog rolled in and changed everything. I had made mistakes in the past when the light had changed down here. In order to keep the painting on track I had to think about what I would do to.

I have been here when the fog came in hard and left later in the afternoon. I evaluated the fog and decided that it would burn off. At that point I stopped looking at the scene and worked from memory. I used what I had already put down as a reference for what I was going to do until the fog lifted. I made sure my color choices remained consistent with what I had already done.

Make Your Bed and Lie in it

Because the light had changed so dramatically during the course of the painting I was forced to take a different tact. Because I had painted here so often in the past; I felt like the light would come back later as the fog burned off later in the afternoon. Instead of changing the light in the painting I worked on developing what I had already put down. Because I have a tendency to not develop the masses fully and jump to the highlights too quickly, this forced me to work from memory until the fog lifted. When it did I was ready to capture the moment and finish the painting.

Here and Gone

You are only as good as your last painting. In the short time I have been painting plein air, I feel like I have grown faster than any other time. This painting has moved me one step closer to my vision of what I am trying to do.