Chalk Hill

"Clouds Over Chalk Hill"

6" X 8" Oil on panel

I painted this scene in a larger 12" X 16" back in early summer or maybe Spring. This view is actually looking over at my neighbors field. I wanted to paint another small 6" X 8" today so this one was done, again, alla prima. Maybe a couple of hours work but a very fun couple of hours. I've got that Featured Artist show coming up and need some smaller 6"x8" paintings to offer. I'm trying to have a mix of large,mid and smaller pieces to offer. I've done 3 of these in the last 3 days. In between I've been updating my website, blog duties, ordering more frames, running errands and fixing plumbing problems around here.


I really should be cranking out these little guys but I think I get stalled in the picking the next subject phase of it. I decided on this one because I loved how the first and larger one came out. This is actually a somewhat cropped version of the original which was a slightly wider scene. I thought it would be cool to see how hard it would be to do the clouds in this smaller size....it was tough! Luckily I had the brains to buy some smaller Filberts just for the purpose of doing some smaller paintings and they came in really handy.



Hey, for those of you that do plein air work and have a spare $20 and an ever lasting desire to puchase anything that is affordable and is geared towards your art education I would recommend buying a book that I ordered today. Sacramento artist TerryMiura has what looks to be a very cool book that he wrote for his Plein Air students. It walks you through the various stages of one of his paintings. He does his art talk in it as well as explaining his painting process. Why would I recommend a book I haven't even seen yet? Because Terry is a killer artist and whose work I admire very much. Any insight to Terry's painting method would be worth it and worth much more than this book costs....at this price you'd be a dork to walk away from this. Check out Terry's website and you be the judge....while you're there check out his Blog, Studio Notes...lots of good reading there.
No, I don't get a cut from Terry on recommending his book. I'm just pointing you to what I know is going to be a good deal...and it's learning. People think you need to invest major bucks and major time to learn. I bought the small book "Plein Air Painting In Oil", a Walter Foster book, by Frank Serrano years ago. I learned a great deal from that book. I read it in a couple of hours...due to the pictures, hahaha. You could read it in 10 minutes but you need to study the images. I've gone back to that book a couple of dozen times over the years...it taught me a great deal. You read the book in a few hours and then paint your butt off the next few years. The learning is in the painting. Thats an education, not the standard one but one that has been working for me so far...I'm still very much learning everyday.