The California Landscape in Retrospect

The California Landscape in Retrospect - Methods and Approach

The California Landscape in Retrospect - Methods and Approach.

Acrylic on Panel

The California landscape was a part of my life for decades. Those moments stuck in traffic feeling those everyday feelings you have in life, then the late afternoon sun would angle just right and light up a hillside along the 210 freeway. And you would get a glimpse of magic, between the buildings and overpasses. It would fill you with the now. A reassurance that you had a place in time.

These paintings are an endeavor to capture those transcendent moments of nature. Those small gaps in time between the consuming daily grinds of modern life. Every bit of these paintings is an honest attempt to put onto canvas those moments. All the scenes are something I experienced in real places, filtered through thought, time, mood, and retrospection.


Oil on Panel

Reference material is dishonest.

These aren't literal translations of the location. I intentionally avoided working from photos or other reference material as that would sabotage the truth that was captured in my mind.

Painting plein air allows one to being over-reliant on technique and being trapped by a school of thought and style.

What I was attempting was diametrically opposed to the methods and goals of plein air painting. It wasn't about the fleeting moment. It wasn't about color, technique, or even composition.

I was about expressing a moment processed through the subconscious as it was allowed to sit and become part of one's personal identity and history. Often times I let something brew in my head for years before I finally painted it. From a technical standpoint I could have painted clouds more realistically, or colors more accurately. I could have been more dramatic with light or flashier with composition. But that was not the goal. The goal was to get that transfigured mental impression that I had lived with for years out onto canvas.

Beyond - Acrylic on Canvas

Brush techniques destroy the sincere.

I avoided brush techniques to paint trees, grass, or bushes. I used finer brushes and treated each leaf and blade of grass as individually as I could(when appropriate towards describing depth and detail).

Sometimes I would treat bushes and trees as vague shapes if that what was in my mind. In general , there's no way a brush pattern, shape, or canned painting method could describe what was in my head. It takes effort to be truly sincere as there are no shortcuts in this method.

Moving on.

I no longer live in California, so the chapter has ended. I may come back but for now I'm being tugged in a different direction, with different approaches. I don't know where my CA landscapes stand in the tradition of CA landscape painting. I've always felt that these paintings never really fit anywhere. I never liked the idea of galleries specializing in the CA landscape. I never approached representation because the idea of being pigeon holed into a tradition or style never sat well with me(a reason I avoided painting eucalyptus and palm trees). Rather I sold through personal sales or group shows not relating to landscape painting. Maybe that's just the pretentiousness in me, or to be honest, not having to rely on sales for a living.