Painting Alla Prima

Wanting to build up speed in painting on location, Plein Air, I decided to work from a reference photo and do an Alla Prima piece. Alla Prima means to start and finish a painting in one sitting...which I did. Took about 1 hour and 25 minutes to do this small 6"x12" Birch panel. Not bad I think. Used to take me 3-4 hours to do a plein air painting. Getting faster....hopefully I'll get better painting-wise as I go along.

Here is my reference photo I worked from....This is Lake Carneros along the coast in Goleta north of Santa Barbara.

Here is what I came up with....

Not a bad little painting. Plus, it gave me practice on doing water which I need more of. A fun little painting. I'm a member of the California Art Club and will be going to their painting day, or Paint Out as they call it, right here at the lake. This will be my first time painting with the club so I'm trying to get in as much practice as possible before looking like a fool out there this Saturday. So far, things look like they will be ok.