Picnic Beach

Picnic Beach is a pastel painting on board.  The board is 3/8" good 2 side plywood treated with pumice gel and acrylic paint.  The size of this board is 24"X 36".  The pumice gel creates tooth for the pastel to grab onto and the acrylic paint acts as an underpainting.  I choose the color of the underpainting based on the subject I am painting.  

This location is really nice for painting.  You can park right next to the painting location so it easy to pack and unpack.  There is a little alcove with a bench so you are out of the way while being in the middle of everything.

My approach to plein air painting.  I paint on the larger side.  Most plein air painters tend to paint 5x7, 8x10, or 12x16 inches in size.  To me that is just too small to work on the abstraction of detail that I crave.  I feel like I can get a better resolution by giving myself enough room to explore shapes and color more fully.

In the 3 hours that I am painting, I am seeking to get the most complete painting I am able to.  I realize that a highly polished painting is a difficult outcome to achieve.  My plein air painting is intended to increase my skill as a painter.  I do not work on the painting in the studio after I have completed on site.  I have not gone back to paint on location a second time on the same painting. I have not used a plein air painting as a study for a studio painting yet. These paintings are an end in themselves at this point.  That may all change.  I do not feel that I have imposed a false or arbitrary restriction.  All of those things are attractive options that I may explore in the future.  The goal is to get the best painting I can within a single sitting.  I am trying to increase my skill to the point where I can get a finished painting in that window of time.

I believe that one of my keys for a successful painting is the no fear attitude.  When the painting flows it is because the decision making becomes subminimal.  Once the big problems of composition and drawing have been worked out, I fall into a trance like state while painting.  This trance is a super focused Zen like awareness.  The freedom to act in this mode speeds up the painting process.  Worrying, over analysis, and insecurity lead to second guessing.  Second guessing will kill a painting quicker than anything I know.  Trust in yourself.  Believe in your practice and training.  Understand that it is just one painting in a series of paintings in the course of your life.  No one painting is that important.  Each represents a step in your journey towards mastery.

Abstraction is the minds shorthand to mark making.  The marks within this detail photo of the painting represent water, rocks, sand, tree trunks, shadows, and plant material.  When I am painting and responding to the scene, I am trying to represent all of this detail with a series of marks.  I am not focused on the detail but the parts of the whole working together to create my impression of the scene.

 The sum of the parts are greater than the whole.  This section of the painting may not closely represent what I am seeing but when it is paired up with the rest of the pieces it comes together.  If you get caught up to minute accuracy you may lose the whole.

Daily Abstraction

 In the midst of a long day at work.I  found this abstract sculpture sitting in front of me.  It seems I am eternally surrounded by beauty.   A water bottle.

In Bloom

 This pastel painting was painted in Laguna.  The painting measures 29x43 inches.  I started with a quick water color under painting.  The light was amazing.  A lot of plein air painters lock in their shadow and light patterns in the beginning so they capture that specific time of day.  They are essentially referring by memory how a scene looked when they started the painting.  To me this does not make sense.  Painting from life is painting what is in front of you; not painting what was there.  When I am painting, I add the highlights at the end.  Once I have established the overall design of the painting, I slowly build the painting from dark to light.  I know where the shadows are going and what it is going to do to the landscape.  This knowledge allows me to paint everywhere building the painting to a crescendo .  It is not chasing the light it is knowing where the light will be and planning for a big ending.  This photo was taken on site as the painting was completed.  That is why you can see the tape around the perimeter of the painting.

Picnic Beach Plein Air Series

 

Lillies at Dusk

 

Morning Heat

This painting had been sitting on the wall for years.  I had reached a point in the painting where I was unable to take the painting where I wanted it to go.  There were problems that I was not ready to solve.  Instead of pushing through, I decided to wait till my skill improved enough to complete the painting.

I reset the foreground in shape and tone.  I then proceeded to the middle ground and ultimately the hills in the background.

Although the hills in the background were a big improvement from what they had been, I was not satisfied.  I was shooting for a deep feeling of atmospheric perspective.

I began building the value differences in the foreground and middle ground to set the stage for the background.

The atmospheric perspective in the hills improved and helped emphasize the foreground.  I think it would have been better if the shadows in the hills were more purply.  

The finished painting 12x24

The value shot feels good.  

 The detail shot lets you see the painting's abstract nature and the relationships within the painting.

Blaze of Glory

The sunset was a blaze of neon like colors shifting behind the San Gabriel's in their final moments before they surrendered.  I did a quick underpainting in watercolor to accentuate the pure pigment of the pastels that I would lay down.

The challenge was to match the intensity of the color, to represent the cloud shapes, and to get the contrast right.

Done?

The signature is on the painting but I was not quite done.  I reworked the shapes of the clouds in the middle right hand side of the painting.

The parts of the puzzle.  The following pieces of the painting are included to show mark making, color relationships within the painting and to show the abstract nature within the painting.

  

The final result.  Mixed media watercolor and pastel measuring.19x27 

The value shot reveals the dramatic range of the contrast within the painting.  It feels fairly close to what I observed that evening.

 

Light Pepper 2

An amazing sunset filtered through my neighbors Pepper tree.  The beautiful backdrop of the sky at dusk contrasted with the interesting shape of the Pepper tree was what inspired me.

  

The challenge for me in this painting was how to communicate the shape and the detail of the pepper tree foliage.  The strands of leaves and their movement was something I sketched out the bunches of foliage a couple of times before starting the painting,

 

The value shot showing the contrast of the tree against the sunset.  It feels right.

The detail shot showing the mark making, abstraction, and the texture created by the board,  This was a whirlwind of a painting.  When they are fast like this was they almost always turn out how I envisioned them.  This is one of those paintings.

Late Afternoon Drama