Pre Hong Kong Plein Air

Here are a few paintings I did before moving to Hong Kong. These have been sitting on my hard drive for a while and I had forgotten that I had them. They are all oil on amber shellacked paper.

The first was done with Richard Hull's landscape painting group shortly before leaving Utah for Hong Kong.

This was done on the side of the road on the way back from viewing the annular eclipse, which...started in Hong Kong. I went down to southern Utah on a painting trip to view it.

 

This was part of that same trip. The location is called Grosvenor's Arch. It's a little out of the way, but worth the trip.

 

People in my plein air group like to make fun of me for painting the weeds (see the one at top for more weeds). There are at least a couple different approaches to going landscape painting on location outside. One is to paint and simplify the big scene. This is very valuable as a tool for developing a compositional, lighting and general atmospheric sense of the big landscape. It allows you to develop space and abstract your visual perception. If you haven't done it before, the beginning landscape painter is often overwhelmed by the wealth of detail available and quite literally indescribable. Another is to paint the smaller intimate details, like weeds or branches or other small and medium flora. This is, to paraphrase Durand, to familiarize yourself with the alphabet of the landscape. These are the bits and pieces that make up the larger more dynamic space. It's something that I've grown fond of after participating in two Hudson River Fellowships.

Recent Studies

Moving to Hong Kong, getting oriented, and setting up here has taken up a lot of my time over the last 6 months or so. Here are some small studies I've done recently. More to follow. I painted these from my imagination and are on shellacked paper with sennelier walnut ink imprimaturas and oil painting on top.

See my instagram account there on the side for shots of other works in progress and sights seen.

The San Rafael Swell and Etsy

The San Rafael Swell of Utah is a large desert region south of Price, east of Castle Dale, and north of Moab. It is a sandy open area, spotted with wind-carved canyons. There are no amenities there. And that remoteness is part of what it makes the region so attractive. I went down there last weekend to do some studies and these were some of the results.

I have also decided to make these small works on paper available through Etsy. Payment is accepted via PayPal. Though these plein air works are different than my regular studio practice, they are an important part of the work I do. Working from life and on location feeds my imagination. The paper is sealed with shellac, which is a delightful surface to work on. When the paintings are purchased, they will be appended to foam core board to give them a firm foundation. Other works will be gradually listed as time and interest allow.

Head Drawing Demo

A little in class demo on bristol board that has been lightly coated with shellac. The shellac creates a nice surface and allows for easier erasing. The drawing is in graphite and stabilo pencil.