Plein Air stuff

[JeffX99]

Here are a few of my plein air pieces. These are generally small (8x10 - 16x20) painted on location as demos for my class and take an hour or so. Just thought I'd share!

[Nobie]

Great work, thanks for posting your plein airs. The last one really works nicely great sense of light.

[JeffX99]

Hey thanks! I checked out your website - nice work - I really like "Cherry St. Plant" (vertical). You'd probably dig Joe Paquet's stuff: http://www.joepaquet.com/

[Dahami]

As "finished works" I don't like them... But that's the thing about plein air. As "on site speed paints" they are really good, and capture light color and shape really well. One could take these back to the studio and use them as reference to create "finished paintings" with greater realism, that might evoke (in me, at least) a greater emotional response and sense of recognition.

btw, I just checked out that Joe Paquet site and I like the landscapes. I think the ones I saw there do a better job looking "finished" enough to evoke the emotion/recognition response from me than the speedies you have here. It's maybe just a personal preference of mine. I dig Thomas Kinkade's cities and cottages, but I never liked his plein air stuff at all. I see that as merely practice/data acquisition to do the more finished pieces later on.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

These are gorgeous, Jeff, especially the second one! Do you have a website or something where I could see more of your work? Couldn't find anything on your profile.

[Gumpshmee]

Beautiful! I'm a big fan of number 4. Number 3 looks like it lost out on a bit of contrast.

[JeffX99]

Hey thanks Sidharth! Nice to get the positive feedback - not many people around here even bother looking at this stuff. I just transitioned my website over to my contemporary aluminum work this last summer so I don't have a good venue for my plein air work any longer. I have a bunch up on my facebook though - here's a link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...&id=1545679150 I think you can check it out without being on fb.

Thanks again man! Check out my buddy dpaint's stuff as well - we're both from the Bay Area originally.

[JeffX99]

Thanks Gumpshmee! Number four is one of my favorite places on earth - a little mountain meadow valley called Humbug Valley - that's Yellow Creek in the scene.
Hey you're from one of my favorite cities! I love Vancouver.

[Gumpshmee]

I can tell that you live in a beautiful area. We're having a warm winter here in Vancouver So there's still plenty of green without a snowflake in sight.

[JeffX99]

Yeah - there's a lot of variety around me which I like. I'm in far Northern California - most of those paintings are right around my neighborhood.

[Danilo]

Hey, great work. Im wondering what would happend if you use less white and more diluted color for brighter areas, like watercolor principle. I found that white reducing color intesity.

Sure you will ahve less impasto, wich I like on your works, but maybe you can do both

[JeffX99]

Thanks for the comment. Yeah - using too much white is often an amateur problem as they try to raise the value of the lights by adding white - which definitely kills the color and makes things look "chalky". The key is to adjust the rest of your values down so that you can still maintain rich color in the lights. The .jpg shots are hard to balance out exactly and monitors are all pretty different so it can be hard to say if it is accurate on your monitor. But yes, always best to keep white very much under control.

[krel]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing those. Especially like the 4th!

[jeremygordon89]

These are really good man, and I especially like the fifth one. Keep up the good work.

[JeffX99]

Thanks krel - I'll try to post a few more soon - I used to do a few hundred a year but have been slacking lately!

Thanks also Jeremy - I appreciate the comment. I'll try to get some new stuff posted!

[Line]

Jeff my man, my hat is off for you. Great stuff!!!

[JeffX99]

Thanks Line! Everybody's digging these so much lately I guess I better get some more posted!

Variety pack:
6) Quiet Moment - 4x12 - Fields and orchards nearby
7) Spring Thunder - 8x10 - The same little stream as #2 in previous post (Dye Creek) - thunder was rumbling in the distance
8 ) A shot of the location and my setup.
9) Antelope Canyon - 8x12 if memory serves - this creek runs right along my folks property - Mt. Lassen in distance
10) Rust Never Sleeps - 9x12 - an abandoned Ford tow truck along the tracks in town. I always meant to paint it again and waited too long - it's long gone.

Thanks again for the comments everyone!

[Line]

I love the two first ones from the new batch. The last two are lacking something, I can't place it. I am thinking that the canyon one doesn't give a sense of depth, maybe because the strokes are all the same width and type both in the foreground and back ground, dunno. The truck scene deserved more yes, too bad it's not there for you to redo it. Maybe there's something equally interesting in the area?

[Msegal]

What is this stuff doing on concept art.org !??


Ha Just kidding, no criticism I think you've captured the fleeting moment.


I'd hang one up in my house .

[JeffX99]

Thanks Line - yeah, some work for some people and others don't. Personally the truck is one of my own favorites. A poet in our area wrote and published a really nice nice poem about the canyon piece which was very cool. Both those sold before I even had a chance to live with them very long!

[JeffX99]

Ha! Thanks Msegal! Which one do you want?

[squidmonk3j]

These are very nice...beautiful little moments captured in pigment

[Msegal]

Ha! Thanks Msegal! Which one do you want?

hehe I'm not interested in buying art. Especially since I don't have the luxury.

Good work though.

[Rybakow_com]

Excellent painting!!!

Colours of the nature are very truthfully transferred!

[Dahami]

I stand by my previous comments, but I still think this stuff is cool. I like the idea of capturing the values of sunlight versus shade to reproduce some aspect of what the eye sees, even if it has a painterly appearance and not as much detail as the image the eye/brain creates when actually looking at a scene like this.

[JeffX99]

A few more pieces....various times and places...bottom two were the same morning - looking east first and it was a bit foggy - then west and the fog had cleared.

[JeffX99]

Here are a few "favorite" pieces for one reason or another - sometimes it is how accurate you get a passage - sometimes how quickly you capture the light - sometimes a breakthrough you make or sometimes just interesting things that happen while you're out there. They all have interesting stories!

First one is Lassen Peakacross Child's Meadows - end of the day - 30 minutes - felt good!
Next is Lido Channel - a session with my students.
Ediza Outlet in the High Sierras - classic mountain painting country.
Muir Woods - a great day with the family in the California Redwoods.
The Grand Teton - spectacular Wyoming scenery.

Thanks for looking!

[Deadlyhazard]

Man I love how I can really sense distance in your paintings....please keep uploading these, I really do learn a great deal by looking at how you handle things. You seem to be simplifying things more than I am now that I've started traditionally plein air painting. Bah, it's just so hard thinking about what to do when you get something like bare trees clumped with fully leafed trees. It's just a screwfest of twigs and leaves and I'm going, 'wat.'

And the Grand Teton painting is beautiful (and so is the mountain and the rest of the park in real life). I remember my dad taking me to that national park a looong time ago before he passed away. Brings back some good memories . 5 stars!

You should post a video of your process!

Also I started in acrylics....they're okay for plein air right? It seems like everyone uses oils . But my teacher is forcing us to use acrylics.

[JeffX99]

Thanks for the nice comments Deadly. I'm really glad it brought back some nice memories for you. Also glad they help a bit with your own process - that is the main reason I share them here.

It is all a bit "wtf" at the start - believe me, I know. Just have to stick with it, read the right books, helps to study with the right guys - a lot! But yeah - just keep at it - read "Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting" over and over...literally. Check out Carl Rungius - Edgar Payne - Isaac Levitan...there's tons of great painters you can learn from.

Check out Armand Cabrera's work - he has a great process video on his website (I think?). I have a set of process stills here: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=204861

[Dahami]

Keep 'em coming.