Palm trees were made to paint–the palms a perfect brush stroke. I’m on my way to Palm Springs for a workshop with Mark Kerckhoff, stopping to paint where it strikes me. This morning I stopped at Refugio State Beach, between Buelton and Santa Barbara. I wanted to paint there all morning, but needed to time my driving carefully to get through LA between traffic jams.
Here’s today’s setup. This is a 12×16″ OpenBoxM lightweight box, with lots of paint. I’ve started experimenting with a couple of variations of violet, including Mauve Blue Shade (Windsor Newton) and Magenta.

In this study, I applied what I learned in Camille Przewodek’s workshop last week. I should have taken a photo of the underpainting! I used rich, strong color for both the lights and darks, then worked in color on top to get closer to the true color. For example, for the sky reflection in the water, I started with Permanent Rose and White, then added Manganese Blue and white.

Clear Morning Palm – Oil on Linen – 10×8″

5 thoughts on “More palms

  1. You wrote: wrote last year about the importance of working in abstractions – where can I find this article? I am very much interested in your technqiue and if you do not mind I would like to learn from you. I am just a very simple hobby painter. Your work fascinates me tremendously, the flamboyance of your colors, it is all so beautiful.
    Enid Goyers
    40822 Mettmann, Germany

  2. Hi Enid, thank you, glad to hear you are enjoying this blog and my work. Here’s my main blog post on abstraction:
    https://edterpening.com/blog/2007/01/17/observation-2-work-in-abstractions/

    And this link will take you to a list of other posts where I cover abstraction:
    https://edterpening.com/blog/?s=abstraction

    Another option is to read through the monthly archives, or click on categories that interest you (eg, like “Technique”) in the right-hand side bar. Thanks, enjoy!

  3. Hi Ed, Flew out to Camille’s workshop after reading your blog…it was GREAT. Am back in Minnesota, cruising your blog, and stopped dead at this palm, just knowing it was influenced by her workshop. This painting grabs me and and I want to look longer, I guess that is what I feel about Camille’s work. This is great!

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