PAM in Laguna

Spent the morning with PAM in Laguna.  Thanks Bob for your public service to plein air painting.

It was a glorious morning.  The water was sparkling with the reflection of the sun.  Majestic clouds hovered above the land in the distance.

Although the conditions were changing fast, the impressions they would make would be remembered throughout my painting.

The familiar and ever changing seascape begins to light up as the sun swings out over the ocean.

The block in of the painting.  I am trying to keep the start simpler so that I can take the painting further.  Because my goal is to get the most complete expression in one sitting, I must find ways to make the best use of my time.  I want my plein air efforts to rival my studio efforts.  It boils down to the efficiency of my decisions and actions.

At this point in the painting, I am trying to get my drawing, composition, and under painting in alignment with my ideas about this seascape.   

One of the ideas I am developing within my paintings is defining something by what it isn't.  The rocks on the sand are what they are.  Painting the shape and the color of the rocks lets you know about them.  Painting the space around the rocks ends up defining what the rocks are by stating what they are not.

My under paintings are evolving.  I am gaining the speed necessary in my initial stages which is allowing me to spend more time developing a more complete representation of my ideas.

I recently had a really bad painting.  It was a challenging subject in the most transitory conditions.  I ended up repainting areas over and over again.  The result was a unfinished and unorganized mess.  I usually am able to stay true to some semblance of my vision for the painting in front of me.  So as I reflected on my effort, I committed to writing down my objectives and thoughts of what I wanted to achieve in the painting as a way to guide me through the painting.  It would be like a swing thought in golf.

Another idea that came to me when I was trying to evaluate what I could do to increase the efficiency of my painting, was to work through a gradual color progression out of the shadows.  

As I work through the process of moving my painting forward, I am trying to insure that all the areas of the painting are progressing at the same rate.  There may be some areas that I leave for a later moment because I want to end with a flourish.  

There is always a point in the painting when I have to decide to stay with the status quo or take it further.  At this point in the painting the sun had really lit up the cliffs and I had to figure out what I was going to do.  

Without taking risks within each painting, I risk stagnation.  I brought more color to the painting.  Time is the enemy of full expression when painting en plein air.  By committing to taking the painting further I put more time on the painting.  A lot of painters say that there is only a couple of hours to paint because of the changing light.  

The light has done a 180 since the beginning of my painting.  There is always a whim to chase the light while painting outdoors.  The longer I stare at a landscape, the more beauty seems to reveal itself.  

The tide has pulled out leaving the seascape in a much different place than when I started.

The shadows have changed and the quality of the light due to the time of day.

There is still more that can be elaborated upon.  There is only so much time that can be spent.  I have yet to go to a location and work on a painting for a second session.  I have to understand the amount of time it requires to take the painting further.  Understanding that each painting is just one step in my progression as a painter, puts everything in perspective and context.

What is done is done.

The finished painting measures 24x32.  

The value shot tells the story about the accuracy of the drawing, the values and the composition.

The detail shot lets me evaluate the quality of my brushwork and abstract elements within the painting.