Going From Small Plein Air Painting to Large Canvas Blog No. 1



working on my third reference painting

 Back in early July, I traveled to Faith Valley, Alpine County, California to paint a 8"x 10" plein air painting in the early evening. A few days later I started thinking about doing a larger painting of the scene, so I went back and took a bunch of photos and I did a larger plein air 12"x 24" which didn't turn out as well as I expected. So I ended up going back a third time to detail out the trees and meadow.

When deciding to do a larger painting, there are many decisions that need to be worked out before you have a chance to succeed. The most important is determining a correct color scheme. I had doubts if my colors were correct but when I did the third plein air painting I realized that my color perception was correct because when I got back to the home I lined up all the paintings and compared each for color decisions. Next blog I'll discuss the development of the large canvas.