We're in between rain storms so I figured I should "make hay while the sun shines". So, I headed out to paint with the San Diego Plein Air Group in Santee - in East San Diego County.
Incredible weather. And, it's a great bonus that the early rains this year have started to green things up. So nice!
8 x 10 oil on canvas panel
To purchase this painting please contact: Randall Smith
Spent a fabulous 3-day weekend painting at a workshop by John Budicin. John’s a great painter and teacher and we all had a wonderful time painting in the bright November sunshine. The weekend was hosted by Highland Valley Studio in Ramona CA.
I decided to work small so most of my efforts were 6 x 8 with a couple of 8 x 10’s. I need to go back into many of these studies and make some corrections in the studio. Until then, here are a few “in the rough”
6 x 8 oil on canvas panel
6 x 12 oil on linen panel
6 x 8 oil on canvas panel
To purchase one of these paintings contact: Randall Smith
It’s been a while since I’ve worked with pastels so I thought I would shake things up a bit and bring out the chalk.
This is from a small 6 x 8 oil study that I did in Zion a couple of months ago. I’ve been there painting several times now and I still find it a very challenging place to figure out. Guess I’ll just have to go back again!
9 x 12 pastel on sanded paper
To purchase this painting please contact: Randall Smith
Sometimes I don’t get outside to paint because I don’t have several hours to lug out my gear and work through a study. But I can’t discount the value of being outdoors to sketch and study the light. So, what I need is a way to do some quick color studies along with pencil sketches.
I’ve been watching some very talented artists like Deborah Secor, Larry Seiler and Ralph Parker produce some wonderful little sketches using gouache which is really just opaque watercolors. I tried watercolors and missed the ability to mix colors that same way I can with oils or acrylics. So, I picked up a few basic colors and started playing around with this.
I don’t know a lot about this yet but I can already tell that gouache looks like just the ticket for doing quick outdoor studies. And it travels light too!
Here are a couple of my first attempts:
3 x 5 gouache on hot pressed watercolor paper
I found this photo the other day that I took on a weekend trip to Borrego Springs (local desert) last winter. I put in on my computer and it's been calling to me all week.
9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
To purchase this painting please contact: Randall Smith
