Monument Point

Since I have been focusing on my plein air painting in oils, I have been revisiting many of the iconic places in Orange County that I have painted before in pastel. It is interesting to see the difference between the mediums.  In particular, I am interested to compare and contrast the color outcomes and the mark making within the painting.

This idea of working with a "limited" pallet is new to me.  The challenge for me is developing a thorough understanding of color mixing.  It does me no good to see the colors and not be able to put them down on my surface. 

Here you can see my compositional drawing and my color wash representing the water within this painting.  I continue to work at getting to the painting quicker.  I am working to balance the detail in the composition that I get with drawing versus the speed of blocking in the large shapes and adjusting them from there.

Here is the blocked in stage of my painting.  I am trying to work from dark to light values.  I am also working at getting to the point where I am adding highlights quicker.  I feel like establishing the darkest values in the painting is taking much too long.

Because my paintings take so long to complete, I have been working on building my painting to a crescendo.  I am not committing to the highlights until the very end.

Now my thoughts are focused on finishing parts of the painting.  By being more accurate in my painting from the start my paintings can get done quicker.

The whitewater parts of the painting were done very quickly.  The key is a deep and complete observation of all of the parts of the water at the same time.  The rhythm and repetition of the water lends itself to analyzing all of the different parts of the waters movement and then putting them together.  The level of understanding allows the impression to be down quickly.  Over thinking leads to over working.

Here is my current set up.  I think I need to find a better answer for my brush pot.  It would be better to have the space for mixing.  As my painting is constantly evolving, I am finding things that I need to change so that I can improve my painting.  One of the things I want to work on in the later stages of my painting is really getting the detail in value and color.  To do this I plan to mix some pools of key colors and have them ready for the big finish.

I am still chasing the light.  As the sun began to set, there was much more beauty in the colors.  I am still taking way too long to finish my paintings.  As I continue to grow, one of my hopes is that I am able to put it down at the very start and not have to go back into the painting repeatedly at the end.

Finished with very little time left to clean up.

As I started to clean up I took an inventory of the scenery around me.  It is always so refreshing to see the amazing beauty all around me.  The possible number of painting that I saw were endless.  In the distance Shaw's Cove.

The setting sun lingers a couple of more moments.  As every minute passed the landscape changed dramatically.

I don't know how you can take this kind of beauty for granted.  Beauty this deep transcends cliche.

The big light show before lights out.

And then it is all over.

 The finished painting "Monument Point".  24X32 plein air oil on board.

The value shot tells the truth.  Did I get the light right?

The detail shot.  This is a good way to analyze my brush work.