Quick hand study.
Painted on the 4th of July. The tree in the foreground on the right is something I would normally avoid, but that's why I wanted to try it. I figured it would another level of depth/distance to the space of the painting. The composition is a bit awkward though.
Made this for a gallery show with the theme of birds. I went to the beach at Bodega Bay, just to have the ocean in the background. This was one of the most uncomfortable positions I have had to paint in. I was sitting, but on an angle, body twisted, and lowered to get a low angle view on the bird sculpture. On top of that it was windy and cold, as it usually is at the Northern California coast.
I was happy with the way it came out though, so it was certainly worth it. This also happened to be the first time painting on linen. I can't say it was enormously better than regular canvas, but it was nice.
The yellow part of this land/seascape was water covered with yellow algae. A person who lived in one of the houses seen in the painting told me that the day I was painting was the first time the water ever had that yellow look to it. When I saw it, it was too cool/unique to pass up.
This was an attempt to push the entire color scheme in one direction (more "red" in this case than the scene actually appeared to the naked eye), yet still remain harmonious. It was mostly a failure, as I did not commit fully to one color direction. However, it did result in a more unique set of colors than the rest of my plein air paintings.
I have done this color exercise with more success in this painting, done many years ago - where I pushed everything towards orange.
Once again, should have made the trees that are located in the background recede more into the distance. The weather this day was rather difficult to deal with. As the location was near the coast, the day started out sunny but ended up becoming foggy/cloudy.
Not sure about the composition on this one, and once again, the colors are not quite exciting enough. Also, the palm tree in the center-ish section needs to recede more into the background space. It was really quite dark in value when I was looking at the scene in real life, but I realize now that I should have ignored that for the betterment of the painting.
This was one of the windiest conditions I have painted in. Although some parts are unfinished (parts of the canvas left blank/white), I'm rather happy with the way it came out though.
Because this was a cloudy day, I was able to work on it for a long time with very little change in lighting. I was able to work on this for over 6 hours. Probably shouldn't have taken that long, but the factory details required more time from me.
Completed this painting in the same day as the one below. Was the first time I did 2 paintings in one day. I was happy with the lighting in this one, and also how details of the weeds/flowers in the foreground feel closer to the viewer. The colors feel rather limited in this one though.
So, I should have started this blog a long time ago, but I'm starting now. This was one of the first paintings I completed upon returning to plein air painting.
Normally I don't start paintings when there is a possibility of rain, but I did on this one. Lo and behold, about an hour into painting it began to rain and I had to close up shop. Returned to the same spot the next day and completed it in nice weather. The composition is the weakest part of this one for me.
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