LANDSCAPES

My greatest joy of doing landscapes is on site or plein aire. I have back-packed in the highlands of Scotland and England, as well as in other travels in Canada, Mexico, and United states. While in the UK I carried a pad of Yupo paper (plastic paper for watercolor) and water color paints and brushes. Painting on plastic, on site, was a challenge because the painting had to be done flat. Fortunately I had a stool on my Grumbacher backpack and a drawing board for a flat surface, On one occasion in the highlands of Scotland I sat on a large flat rock in a river and was well supplied with fresh water for my brushes. Yupo paper allows the artist to wet a brush and lift the color off if the application falls short of expectations. Because it was quite hot on that occasion  in the highlands the paint dried quickly.

In choosing subject matter, I prefer diagonals and look for hills or mountains that 'knit' themselves one into the other. I find the diagonals provide energy to my piece and being a high energy person, it's always a challenge to achieve a bucholic scene that is still pulsiing with energy. Water never fails to fascinate me and liviing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains I'm never short of subject matter. A small waterfall outside my studio is often a subject for painting for me and my students. Again, it is the energy that attracts me and I desire to paint, if possible, the sound of the falling water.  Surging rivers that flow out of control are also fun. In taking reference  photos on sight I must be careful I don't get swept away with the rocks and debris as well.

Observers will notice that in choosing colors for the landscapes I paint, there is often a lot of hot sun ray colors. such as displayed on the top of this web site. Again, the energy emitted by all those reds, oranges, yellows, against the backdrop of blues and purples, always draws me into the orbit of the subject matter. I paint in water color, acrylic, and oil, but it is currently colored paper that I use as paint. The above hot colors are achieved through the applications of colored tissue gift wrap paper