Picking Colors

Two days ago I opened my pastel box for the first time in a couple of months.  It needs some serious reorganization.  When I am in painting, the last thing I am thinking about is putting the pastels back where I found them in my box.  I have been painting out of my cardboard boxes of additional colors.  I have been grabbing groups of similar colors and working them into the painting.  I will then grab a different group of colors to add to the painting.

Because I have been painting so much, I have been burning through the pastels.  As a result, I have gone through a lot of my favorite colors and a lot of dark colors because I use them to start the painting.  Color choices have changed.  Because I am not able to rely on the old reliable colors my paintings have changed to a degree.  Building relationships between these new color choices within the painting has made me grow as an artist.

As I go to clean and organize my pastel box, I will again get colors grouped together.  All of the reds together etc.  I wonder if that will change my color choices while I am painting.  I have had no difficulty in choosing the right color when they were all mixed up. In fact, I think having different colors sitting next to each other has helped me evaluate the color better.

These are some new colors that I was going to add to my box. These were the colors I purchased in a recent sale by Terry Ludwig pastels called "crazy eights".  For $18 you get a box of 8 randomly selected pastels.  My thought was that I would get to the location, paint, and then organize my paint box.  What happened was I got to the location, painted with the new pastels, and never cracked open my pallet or the extra boxes I have been using.  I would rather paint than organize.

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.

My Artistic Influences

Hills into Mountains

This oil painting measures 24"X48".  This painting has so much impasto paint that it was impossible to not have the glare come off of the painting.  This location is right across from Tom's Farm.  The atmospheric conditions going back into the hills and mountains is amazing in that no two days seem the same.

Everyone coming out to paint

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The Wash

Little Corona Del Mar in the Fog