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Golden West College Group Show
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Recent Posts
Experiments in Paint
Painting is one of the most challenging endeavors. With every subject, and every painting there are new challenges and lessons learned. I think of each painting as a new experiment. This journal documents the journey.Archives
Author Archives: Daniel Aldana
Coastal Living
Last week Jim Wodark and I went south, to the La Jolla coast to find a place to paint. La Jolla is an affluent seaside community along the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, home of University of California, San Diego, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The sky had high clouds which caused the sun to [...]
Posted in painting progression, plein air, Seascape
Tagged La Jolla, painting process, Plein air
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Shimmering Sea
Even though it is January, here in Southern California, we just experienced a little heat wave. On Friday, I went to Laguna Beach on the north end of Heisler Park and set up to paint. I had worn several layers of clothing, but ended up painting barefoot and shirtless. Despite the warmth, it is still [...]
Warm Laguna
Painting in the late afternoon light is challenging because the scene in front of you changes so quickly. It also can be rewarding. Sometimes as I scan thumbnails of my paintings, I feel a “sameness” of color palate, a lot of yellows, blues and greens. Painting in the waning afternoon light, changes all that. Warm [...]
Posted in impressionism, Laguna Beach, plein air, Seascape
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Autumn in California
This week it was clear that the painting that I wanted to do involved sycamores. The America’s East Coast has the beautiful fall foliage of the maple trees. Here in California, we get the more subtle golden orange colors of the majestic sycamores. In the last few weeks, sycamores have started to turn. As you [...]
Laguna Beach Vista
This morning, I had a sudden change of plans which left me with an unexpected day to paint. At the recent art show I noticed several paintings of Laguna beach with some beautiful eucalyptus trees. My friend, artist Carolyn Hesse-Lowe, an artist from San Diego, told me about a path into the Laguna Wilderness area [...]
Posted in Laguna Beach, plein air, Seascape
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Path to the Beach
Although trying to photograph at night might not yield much color, when we are out at night, we do see color. The color, however, is affected by the cool light of the moon, and because of the decreased light, the color is desaturated. When painting a nocturne, I find that the lightest lights are lighter [...]
Boston Whaler
Sometimes fatigue or desperation work in your favor. Last Tuesday, during the invitational, the marine layer had kept the coast largely in fog. By the afternoon, it appeared as if the sun might be able to break through the haze, so I headed to the public dock areas on the Newport Peninsula. There I saw [...]
Posted in impressionism, plein air, Seascape, Sketch
Tagged Boston Whaler, Newport Peninsula
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Canyon Light
On Monday, the second day of the Laguna invitational, I decided to paint the fading light of the Laguna Canyon. I had mentioned in a previous post, that when the light changes rapidly, some artists will choose to do a small field study, and then work the painting into a larger size in the studio. [...]
Posted in Laguna Beach, Landscape, plein air, Sketch
Tagged Dusk, Laguna Canyon, Plein air
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Solitude
Thank you all for coming to the Gala event tonight, at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. It was a lot of fun to see the work of my artist friends. We had a whole week to paint anywhere in Orange County California, and 44 artists brought a lifetime of experience to interpret the landscape. Many [...]
The Backyard Shed
I have been painting this week in the 13th Annual Laguna Beach Invitational. Honestly, I feel like I had a rough start. On Sunday, I attempted a painting that felt very forced. Every brushstroke felt labored. On Monday, I was starting to feel a bit apprehensive when I drove to Silverado Canyon with my painting [...]
Golden West College Group Show
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