Pacheco Pass

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Materials:

8"x10" Stretched Canvas ~3/4 depth

Paints: Most Oil paint sets will do. Some individual colors used here: Titanium White, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red light, Veridian, Mars Black. In terms of brands, I use and like Winsor & Newton.

Synthetic Brushes:

I've been happy with the Princeton SNAP series - affordable and feel nice. 

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Painted in oils

In the past, I've always been drawn to subjects that have a clear front and center, typically a person or a still life arrangement. However, after countless drives between the Bay Area and Los Angeles, I was inspired to capture the beauty of the Pacheco Pass hills in a landscape painting. This 8"x10" piece is the first landscape I've ever made and truly enjoyed.

In creating this piece, I experimented with abstraction and playing with multiple grounds, which was a new experience for me. During a painting class, I received a helpful tip for painting the distant bushes in the hills. Instead of just using a dark green color and adding bush-shaped splotches, it's effective to add a little bit of the background color on top of it. This technique mimics the way humans perceive the world, where distant objects are less defined due to limited resolution.

As I reflect on this piece, I realize that it marks a transition for me as an artist. I'm interested in exploring landscape painting further and am eager to take a plein air class to learn more techniques and approaches to capturing the beauty of the natural world. If you have any recommendations for good landscape or plein air classes in the Bay Area or online, I would love to hear about them.

If you want to start your painting journey, I've put together a list of all my go to supplies to get you started.