Painting in Santiago Canyon

 This pastel painting is done on masonite with a pumice and acrylic paint texture.  This is the second painting I have done on my surface.  I used Golden fine pumice gel with Paynes Gray acrylic paint.  I painted the mixture onto the masonite.  The tempered hardboard is 3/8th's thick and cut to size.  I bought a couple of sheets at home depot.

 The main focus of the painting is the oak so I established its shape and size relative to the rest of the painting.  The surface measures 24"X36".

 I defined the overall compostion and established some of the lights and dark parts of the painting to which everything else will be compared.

 I worked then to establish more detail in the background of the painting and worked to establish some distance in the painting through changing the color of the trees and the hills in the background.

 I then went back to the oak in the foreground and tried to establish the detail of the tree.

 I adjusted the sky a little to a lighter and greener blue.

 I then went to the hills and filled in the details and lightened them up.

 I then focused on the foreground and put down complementary colors as a underpainting to the detail of the dried grasses that I was about to add.

 I then added the detail to the foreground and some finishing touches to the oak tree.

 Finished...Santiago Canyon Oak in the Wash.

Painting is dreaming

Painting is like dreaming.  I said it without even thinking about it when my mom asked if I was still painting.  When I said it though I meant painting is dreaming.  I know that when I said that though it felt like some great truth for me.  Maybe it is because of the dream like state my mind is in when I am painting.  This feels especially true of my plein air painting experiences.  When I am plein air painting I usually don't even stop to get a drink.  It is only when I have completed my painting that I fully become aware of my surroundings again.  It is if my concentration is so focused on the subject of the painting that the other things don't really matter.

Painting at Crescent Bay Laguna

This is the beach that I went to the most when I first moved to California.  This is the view to the south.  I think the view to the north is even better.

I set up next to this stairway because the tide was still coming in and I did not want to move because of the waves.  The stairs also helped keep some of my stuff out of the sand.

I started with a water color underpainting.  The underpainting dictated the composition.  I left out the palm trees because I wanted to focus on the shadows and the rocks on the point.  I thought if I included them then I would have left out the water or the rocks would be too small for the size of the painting.

In this photo and the others it is hard to appreciate the shadows in the rocks.

I could have done better at driving the values deeper in the underpainting.  The darker the underpainting the better.  The pastels become so much more vibrant when they are set against a dark ground or underpainting.

The day was so warm that as soon as I was finished with the underpainting I could begin the application of pastel.

I used pastel to further define the shapes within the masses and to capture the color of the shadows before the sun moved and changed everything.

I found the biggest challenge for the painting was the rocks in the water.  Deciding how I was going to capture them was difficult.  I reworked them too many times.  The rocks in the foreground need to be defined more.

I will rework some of the elements of this painting in the studio.  The main reason being that as I was walking back to the car the blanket I was standing on rubbed against the painting and I lost too much of the detail of the rocks and the shadows.  When I have completed this work I will post the finished painting.

Painting at Black Star Ranch

I found this location this past winter when I went hiking with my mom when she came out to visit.  The location is in the Cleveland National Forest.  The Black Star Ranch has been around since the early 20's.

 I set up on the lower part of the road which leads to the ranch.  The road was quite steep and the wind gusting up the canyon was very strong.  My set up and painting probably tipped over about 8 times and this is with me holding the painting as I painted.  Every time I stopped to take a picture it blew over.

 Here is the start of the painting.  I used water colors on Wallis sanded paper.  I used a big brush and tried to get the basic composition down.

 Here is the completed underpainting.

 I changed the lines of the hills on the left because I thought it made a better painting by doing it that way.

 In this shot I have started adding more detail to the composition.

   In this painting I edited a lot of details out because of the time constraints I put on myself.  This painting took about 2 and a half hours start to finish.

Painting at Pelican Point

 I went to Crystal Cove to paint because inland it was about ninety degrees and it was to supposed to be cooler at the beach.  This is one of the classic scenes in the area that has been painted since Laguna Beach was a in it's infancy as an artist colony.  This is the view to the north from a spot along the cliffs

This is the view to the south.  Just around the bluffs pictured here is the old artist colony.  Now it is a state park which is constantly being renovated to its former state.

 I took a couple of reference photos and used my camera as a view finder for the compostion of my painting.  The colors were a little more saturated because of the overcast skies.  As with all of my painting there was no thumbnail, no preliminary sketches, and no return visits.  A good painting means getting everything right the first time.  There is no going back.  I don't think about the color it just happens.  Sometimes I will step back and wonder if I made the right choices...but once I am started there is no going back.

 The color I chose to draw my subject set the tone for all of the color choices I made after that.

 One of the things I remember while doing this painting was working to not cover all of the initial drawing of the point. 

 This painting is on pastel board and measures 27"X35".  It is done with soft pastel.  I was running out of time so I did not take a picture of the progress of the second painting of the day.  By the time I started the view to the south, the clouds had started to break.

Smith Lake

Smith Lake is down south from where I live in wine country.  I ended up there after a couple hours of driving around.  I knew I wanted to be in this general area but I did not know where.  I had just started driving which is not what I normally do.

I settled down into a private campsite in the park.  It was pretty hot so I picked a spot in the shade after I had walked around and took some reference pictures.

I had been at this park once before when I had worked in the area but it was in the middle of summer and the plants had all burned out from the heat and lack of water.

I painted for about 2 hours and like always I knew it was time to be finished.  It is like some kind of internal alarm clock going off.  I started painting and didn't stop to take a sip of water until I was done.  Only then did I feel the sun burn and notice the sweat running down my arms.  So deep is my concentration when I am painting that I am not aware of anything but the subject and my process.

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

click on painting to enlarge

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.