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Earlier this month, I had the good fortune to participate in this year's Laguna Plein Air Painting Invitational in Laguna Beach California. As you may know, this is one of the top-tier plein air painting events and it is an honor to be invited to be one of thirty artists coming together to paint the magnificent coastline, the sunny beaches, and the vibrant town life of Laguna Beach.

 

There is a long history of California Impressionist painting in Laguna Beach, going back more than a hundred years and it includes such plein air dignitaries as William Wendt, Edgar Payne, and Hanson Puthuff. In recent years we have seen a renewed interest and enthusiasm in painting outdoors. One of the driving forces of this renaissance is the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association, which has been hosting this annual Invitational event for the last 20+ years. 

 

It turned out to be a fantastic event! It's always fun to paint with my tribe, but to be in a beautiful place and be blessed by perfect weather and no logistical headaches, it's hard not have a great time. I want to share my efforts from the Invitational with you in this post. I hope you enjoy!

 

 

Contemplation, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen sold

 

This is my first painting. My ramp-up piece, if you will. Although I lived not too far from here in college, I really had no sense of where to go to find the views. I just headed over to the beach, and decided to paint these rocks jutting out to the sea, beautifully backlit.

 

The surfer wasn't there initially, and only appeared when I was nearly done with my sketch. He stood still for a few minutes, looking at the surf conditions. Well I had to put him in my painting, didn't I? 

 

Sunday in Sunshine, 9 x 12 inches, oil on linen sold

 

On Day 2, we had the Quickdraw - a timed event at a specific location. We do this so that the world a large can watch us do what we do. The timed aspect is not really a big deal because we only have a couple of hours to do a plein air painting anyway. You can't go much longer than that because the sun moves, and shadow shapes move, and colors change. If you start chasing them, you never finish a painting.

 

These two ladies were actually sitting about 50 yards away. I just painted them as though they were right in front of me. After the painting was sold at the silent auction, I found out that it was purchased by these two ladies. I didn't even know they knew I was painting them. It turns out I had unknowingly captured something of a significant moment in their relationship, and they just had to have the painting to commemorate it. Can you think of a better reason to buy a painting? I got a little emotional talking to them afterward, too.

 

 

Blue Corona, 8 x 16 inches, oil on linen

This painting is available. Please contact me for more info.

 

This spot is about 10 minutes north of Laguna Beach; a pretty little community of Corona Del Mar. I scoped it out the day before, and I thought I'd be able to see it beautifully back lit in the morning hours. I was not disappointed. The cool morning light and moist sea air made for a very special mood, and I tried to capture that sense of time and place by pushing the effects of atmosphere and not putting in too much detail.

 

The color scheme is pretty much blue monochromatic structure. Everything in it is blue, or variation thereof, even the little bit of color in the foreground is mixed as a variation of the blue puddle I already had going on my palette. In this way, a very tight harmony is achieved, and the tonal unity contributes to a certain moodiness.

 

 

U-Drive, 16 x 8 inches, oil on linen

This painting is available. Please contact me for more info.

 

I drove up the Pacific Coast Highway to the Balboa Peninsula, specifically to paint the ferris wheel at the Balboa Fun Zone, one of the oldest coastal amusement areas in Southern California. It's small and quaint, and being there feels a little bit like time stopped. 

 

Unfortunately, as I arrived and started to set up my easel, a team of burly men appeared and started to dismantle the ferris wheel.

"Better paint quick!", they shouted. I may have tried if it were something easier to draw, but a ferris wheel would be a pain in the Asphaltum to draw even if you had all day, so I gave up and painted this view instead. U-Drive is the ferry that runs between the peninsula and Balboa Island.

 

 

Laguna Nights, 12 x 16 inches, oil on linen

This painting is available. Please contact me for more info

 

 

 One of the schedule paint outs during the week was a nocturne in town. Now, I do plenty of mock-turnes, where I use reference photos taken during the day and convert them to night scenes, but I really don't do many of these en plein air. These types of events can be so intense, that by the end of the day I'm exhausted and all I want is a nice cold beer. And after that, I don't want to go back out there. 

 

But! I do like a challenge. My pals Carl Bretzke and Michele Usibelli were with me so I thought if my painting weren't working out, I could just stand behind them watch them instead.  It's good to have a plan B, right?

 

We were at an intersection where the streets came together at odd angles, and I was actually able to set up my easel on the curb and still look straight down one of the streets - a fast-angle one-point perspective set up which is well within my comfort zone. 

 

A painting like this is actually easier than painting the same scene in the day, because you really can't see any detail in the dark. You can't paint detail if you can't see it, can you. The trick is to get those artificial lights - car headlights, brake lights, stores and street lightsâ€" in the right places. Plus, define a few hard edges of important elements and voila!  You've got a very strong foundation for an urban nocturne!

 

I thought may be I ought to do a workshop on this subject. If you're interested, please shoot me an email so I can be sure to let you know when I schedule such a workshop!

 

 

Into the Light, 12 x 24 inches, oil on linen

 

 

One of the two larger paintings I did in Laguna Invitational. For this one I went back out to the Peninsula. It looks like I was set up in the middle of the street doesn't it? How did I do that? Is it really plein air? Why, yes. Yes, it is. I did employ a little plein air tweakage, but it is indeed painted en plein air.

 

The secret (not really because I told everyone who asked how I did it) is that the left lane is actually a parking lane. I just painted it as if it were a regular driving lane. I was actually set up in front of my parked car. 

 

While I was at it, a couple of police officers came by to make sure I wasn't doing anything bad. A pastor from the church across the street came over to make sure I wasn't doing anything bad. And a homeless person came to preach the Gospel to me at length, while I painted. He said he was Jesus reborn. Never a dull moment.

 

This being a little bit larger painting, I did it over two sessions. I came back the second day, early in the morning to secure the same parking spot. Fortunately the weather conditions were identical.

 

I still have this painting, but it's not for sale. Yet. I've decided to work on it a little more - I'm thinking I can make this better by manipulating edges and paint application a bit. We'll see.

 

 

 

FindingFreedom, 12 x 24 inches, oil on linen sold 

 

Much of Orange County has changed since I lived here 35 years ago, but Laguna Canyon Road still looks the same. There's not many places to pull over and set up though.  With cars whipping by, it's a little dangerous.  

 

I pulled into the parking lot of a nature preserve, and hauled my gear out to the shoulder of the main road, and started the painting - just the drawing and a very rough value block in. Then I went back to the safety of the parking lot, where I can still see all the elements (obviously their placements are completely different) and proceeded to paint my composition, using the color information from observation. 

 

The Airstream drove by while I was doing the initial sketch, and I thought,  how perfect! Of course it's not sitting still, so I painted that from memory. Not really a big deal since it is a very simple shape from the back, and I've painted Airstreams a bunch of times before. I wish I had one of those!

 

This was another two-session painting. I wanted to have plenty of variety in my greens, and lots of atmospherics. I love this piece. And someone else agreed, too, as it received the Director's Choice Award at the gala openingâ€"an icing on the cake!

 

 

***

 

These are the paintings that I actually finished during the week. I have one more coastal painting that I still have to finish, and there were about three that I scraped because they weren't up to snuff. 

 

All in all, I had a wonderful experience at this event, and would very much like to come back in the future and do it again. Painting en plein air is always challenging, and sometimes frustrating, and other times very rewarding. But to spend a week in a beautiful place like Laguna Beach, doing what we do best, with some of the best painters working today, is something special. And those painters are among my favorite people. They are my tribe. I feel so fortunate to be a part of it.

 

 

 

 

Judd Mercer, Jane Hunt, Suzie Baker, Aaron Schuerr, and Aimee Erickson