Plein air pastel landscape painting of the bay near Harbor Springs, Michigan.

Pastel painting 8 inches x 11 inches

Hmmm…..I think I may change my mind. I think THIS may be my favorite pastel painting from our trip to Northern Michigan.

I’ve really been trying to simplify my plein air attempts lately. I want to capture the very essence of a scene but not overload it with endless, useless details. It may sound simple but it is really very difficult to do. When you are on location there are so many items and sounds and smells vying for your attention. And everything you see seems worthy of portraying in your artwork. I find that if I focus on what drew me to the scene in the first place, I have a better chance of eliminating all of the extra “foo-foo” that seems to creep in. It seems that they way overused acronym “KISS” (Keep it simple, stupid) really does apply in some instances–especially pastel landscape painting.

Plein air watercolor painting of colorful sailboats on the beach

Watercolor painting 6 inches x 9 inches 100

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

I saw these colorful sailboats on the beach every day and finally one morning, I braved the sand and wind to do several  watercolor paintings of them. The vibrant primary colors really shimmered in the bright sunshine.