Californian Plein Air Paintings (2017)

Plein air landscape painting of wild turkeys in Carmel Valley.

Wild Turkeys, Carmel Valley. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting in California is always a joy and I’ve said before that I believe I became a landscape painter because of the beauty of California’s Central Coast. Here are images of my recent paintings of the area. As always, I spent a lot of time scouting by car as I needed to find picturesque motifs to enlarge into larger pieces in the studio this winter.

Plein air painting of a farm near Soledad, CA.

Farm near Soledad. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of chaparral at Garapata State Beach, Big Sur, CA.

Chaparral at Garapata State Beach. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of Point Lobos State Reserve in Carmel, CA.

Point Lobos. 11 x 14 in., oil on linen.

In an attempt to lighten my travel kit, I tried just using a cellphone to photograph my work this trip. It didn’t really work out and I apologize for the quality of the images. I’ll go back to lugging around a DSLR.

Plein air oil painting of belladonna lilies.

Belladonna Lilies. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of a painter painting in Big Sur.

Tina Painting in Big Sur. 44 x 11 in., oil on linen.

I taught a couple of workshops for Carmel Visual Arts and we painted in two of the Monterey Regional Parks District‘s parks. They’ve done a great job of setting aside some of the more beautiful parts of the Monterey area for public use and preservation.

Plein air oil painting of Garland Park in Carmel Valley.

Garland Park #1. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of Garland Park.

Garland Park #2. 11 x 14 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of Garland Park.

Garland Park #3. 11 x 14 in., oil on linen.

Plein air landscape painting of Palo Corona Regional Park, Carmel, CA.

The Barn at Palo Corona #1. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air landscape painting of Palo Corona Regional Park, Carmel, CA.

The Barn at Palo Corona #2. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air landscape painting of Palo Corona Regional Park, Carmel, CA.

The Barn at Palo Corona #3. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

The last three are from around my parent’s house in Carmel Valley. I’m always really interested in the views of neighborhoods as I love art which is focused on local scenes, which people might not notices as they pass by in their daily lives.

Plein air painting of horses next to Garzas Road in Carmel Valley, CA.

Horses on Garzas Road. 8 x 12 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of a one lane bridge.

The One Lane Bridge. 12 x 8 in., oil on linen.

Plein air painting of Garzas Road, Carmel Valley, CA.

Garzas. 11 x 14 in., oil on linen.

Before heading to the East Coast we painted around Lake Tahoe and near Sacramento and I’ll try to post those images in a future update. It’s always hard keeping up with the online stuff in the summers as there is so much painting to be done.

7 comments

  1. You should look into getting a mirrorless camera. Pretty powerful and as small and light as a point-and-shoot. You do a great job of capturing the light of that particular area of California.

    • Thank you for posting these beautiful plein air studies. Do you show either your studies and/or your studio pieces anywhere in California?

  2. Plein air studies are always helpful to relax and get a new ideas. The gift of artworks clarifies the process and reasons the process happened in the first place. It becomes those things in the beauty of quality Plein air’s paintings and remains fully real.
    Thank you, Marc.
    Valeri

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