I am a landscape painter juxtaposing color in pastel to create the illusion of light.
Edit for Success
Plein air painting is difficult. There is so much to paint, the light, the landscape, sky, shadows, etc. and that is where the problem lies. Too often we try to paint it all, because everything seems important, and what happens is a mish mash of a mess. To be a successful plein air painter you must severely edit out all the unimportant beauty and focus on one thing. Here are a few steps I take to ensure my time is well spent.
1. Ask “what is the reason I am here to paint?”, “what attracted me to this location?” What is my "Big Idea"!!!
In this example, my attention was first struck by the vivid blue sky behind the saturated yellow of the leaves. That became my reason for painting. The extra limbs and foliage had to be edited out to make room for the "Big Idea"
2. Use the Format that best highlights the "Big Idea" I typically paint horizontally when I am plein air painting, but with my idea of the blue sky and yellow leaves, I knew a vertical format would work best.
3. The “big Idea” is usually the focal point of the painting so plan to put your focal point in an appropriate area of the canvas. In my case I planned for the focal point to be in the upper right rule of thirds area.
4. Plan your color harmony and value structure to accentuate the big idea. In my painting I knew that the most saturated colors would be in and around the focal point, most of the other colors should be in various stages of saturation.
Photo of location to be painted
Finished plein air painting. 16x12 pastel
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