SCPAPA at Sea and Sage

In The Reeds, a pastel painting on paper.

The Southern California Plein Air Painters Association had a paint out at the Sea and Sage chapter of the Audubon Society in Irvine.  It was tucked away by the Irvine University campus.

I was drawn to the ponds.  There were some great clouds that I had hoped to add to my painting until I saw the reeds at the edge of the pond.  The best I could do was to show the reflection of the clouds in the water.  

Placing the large shapes onto the surface and building the composition.  I was interested in showing the silhouette of the reeds, the water reflecting the clouds with the motion of the surface of the water, and the changes in the color of the water  

Once I had gotten the overall concept of the shapes in place, I went to work on the water.  Clouds do not wait for anyone and although I did not get my clouds directly into the painting their reflections were interesting.  One of the things I tried to work on in this painting was not over working the surface.  I was trying to get it right once and move on.  Although most pastel surfaces offer plenty of tooth, the consequence of over loading an area of the painting are not worth it.  What you end up with is an area of the painting that loses its freshness; it looks worn out.

The horizontal shapes in the water were an interesting counterpoint to the silhouette.  In order to make that part of the painting work I had to establish the movement in the water completely before defining the shapes of the reeds.  I did have to work back and forth between the two areas of the painting but I did my best to minimize it.  I did not want to create choppy shapes within the water.

A blessing in disguise.  When I am plein air painting I frequently work as long as I can to get the most complete expression as possible.  I have never gone back to the same location to complete a painting yet...However, I did have a time constraint which kept me moving along.

The detail shot is all about the small areas of the painting and the abstract nature of the mark making.  The under the microscope review is always interesting.  There are a lot of painters who emphasize the process of simplification to help them deliver a coherent composition.  To me it is more about how well I describe the detail and how well it fits in to describe the whole painting and the ideas I am trying to explore.  

The black and white version of the painting helps me understand how well the composition turned out and how well I represented the values within the painting.  I like this end result.  It is a little different for me.  Overall the painting is darker on the value scale than I normally paint.