You can learn a lot about color . All of these little paintings were created outside with oil paint using a palette knife on gessoed masonite. The sizes are all 8x10. The average time was anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours.  The sun moves fairly rapidly, and the shadows change quickly. You learn a lot about color painting under the sun outside!

Also check this site out http://ncpap.wordpress.com/about/sandy-lindblad/.  I have plein air artwork in this site. There are also other plein air artists in this too!

Local Nevada County images. 

Basically I am trying to get the essence of the scene, and my main objective is to catch the light, and to catch the correct colors! These pictures are close to the area where I live! When painting this small and with a pallete knife, you can't worry about being perfect, or having edges crisp.. but catch the moment: "the infamous light!"

Impressionism

Years ago, I learned a lot from an old impressionistic painter Henri Henchi. The class I took lasted 1 full week. Its amazing, I still remember what he was trying to teach us!

Contact me for more information.