After a hiatus of many years, I am an artist who has returned to a first love called painting. I have a B.F.A in Illustration from CSULB and worked in a corporate art department before “retiring” to raise a family, and am now wrestling with the challenges and pleasures of painting on location (aka “en plein air”) and in my studio.
Plein air painting is the most difficult genre I have ever attempted. The challenges are numerous: shifting light conditions, inconvenient weather, assorted “critters,” distilling and simplifying massive amounts of visual information into a focused personal statement, and the greatest opponent of all: time. Most plein air painters have an approximate two-hour window before light conditions morph their subject matter into a completely altered vista. The rewards, however, are manifold: direct connection with the natural world, jubilation when I know that I’ve caught the vision I attempted to paint, and personal growth as an artist.
