Search

rocks are hard! Kidding aside, drawing and painting pebbles, rocks and boulders can be surprisingly difficult for--and extremely important to--the landscape painter. My theory is that rocks are challenging to [...]

Whether you paint indoors or out, it's important to translate the scene before you to large, simple shapes rather than try to duplicate all the details. Seeing the big picture [...]

COLOR! DAZZLING, delicious, seductive color! We artists do love color, don't we? And yet, using brilliant color successfully can be quite tricky. Here's the most important thing to remember: While [...]

Oak Creek Canyon in Northern Arizona is described as a magical and beautiful place, with towering red-rock walls and a mountain stream running through it. The author has spent many hours sketching and painting en plein air, as well as hiking the trails and simply enjoying the sights and sounds of the water. The author uses photographs taken from the creek as reference material for painting in the studio, although they admit that they never quite capture the true beauty of the water. The article also mentions that the author, Julie Gilbert Pollard, is an artist, instructor, and author of several books. [Extracted from the article]

For occasions when time is short, keep in mind that watercolor sketches can be a goal in and of themselves, or they can be used as a resource for larger studio paintings. AN EXCERPT FROM IAIN STEWART'S NEW BOOK, EN PLEIN AIR: LIGHT & COLOR (WALTER FOSTER, 2021). Iain Stewart encourages artists to pack lighter than the painter depicted in his lighthearted sketch, The Pain Air Painter (watercolor on paper, 6x4) by Iain Stewart When I'm plein air painting, I try to find a subject with a few strong shapes and a nice sense of light. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers step-by-step instructions for establishing light values in watercolor paintings.

In this article, authors, who are also artists. talk about their favorite painting spots in the Western U.S. Painting spots include Black Canyon that is narrow canyon of dark, uplifted metamorphic rock; beautiful scenery in Bosque del Apache, New Mexico; and White Tank Mountain Regional Park in Arizona. Also mentioned is Mockingbird Gallery, Oregon and Denver Art Museum, Colorado.