PLEIN AIR

The weather in Santa Fe New Mexico is starting to warm up and spring is in the air.  However this area is well know for its ability to get snow into and through the month of April.  Being a person who loves the warm weather, I need to wait until the end of May before heading out for some Plein Air work.  I love to go up into the Sangre de Christo mountains up to about 9,000 feet above sea level and paint the aspens.  The mountain has 10's of thousands and they are beautiful in all seasons.

I also venture up to Llano de San Juan off the high road to Taos, which is pretty much a desserted town with perhaps 10 or so families living there.  It is an old farming town with some farming still going on but those who have left have left behind their homes which are falling victim to time and neglect.  A wonderful area for all types of artists with many artistic creating opportunities.

Further up the high road to Taos there are many other artistic opportunities with little hamlets and old churches and pretty much 100's of other sights to catch the artistic eye.

Just  beyond Taos is the little town of Arroyo Secco and from the name you can just imagine the artistic opportunities awaiting the artistic eye.

Well,..............the end of May is not far off.

2 Guilty - 2 Innocent - 1 Undecided

I have not painted for over a month as we were on vacation in La Paz Mexico.  When I do not paint for this long of a time, I seem to become timid with my application of paint and the spontaneous freedom of motion is lacking.  This is a quick painting to un-due the timid application and get back into my normal painting mode.

My wife has been selected for jury duty and that prompted the vision of this painting:

12 x 24 Chroma Interactive Acrylics on heavy linen canvas paper wet into wet alla prima.

"2 GUILTY - 2 INNOCENT - 1 UNDECIDED"

First I draw the approximate shapes of the pears:

Next I apply some dark paint in order to eliminate the bright white of the linen paper

The next step is to apply some color wet into wet - all aprima with a large brush as an underpainting to provide a "road map" for the progression of the piece,

I let this dry overnight and then apply color with a palette knife wet into wet alla prima.  I also put in the background and foreground and touch up the pears if needed.

FINI 

DETAIL

ARTICLES ON ACRYLIC PAINTING I AUTHORED

Following is a link to articles I've written about acrylic painting.  My choice of paint is Professional Chroma Interactive Acrylic and these articles reflect the use of this paint.  For all you acrylic painters out there I can recommend this site as a source of some very good information, ideas and a valuable source of painting tips.

http://acrylicpaintreview.com/tag/j-richard-secor/

Check it out and I hope you find it a valuable source of information.