CALIFORNIA IMPRESSIONIST PLEIN AIR STUDY by TOM BROWN

CLICK HERE for this painting
This was never intended to be a finished work of art it was only intended to be a quick study I might use for a larger studio painting at some future point. But I loved the way it came out, and decided to share it in an eBay auction. The link above will take you there.

When I painted it I wasn't really interested in details like the makes of specific cars and things like that. What I wanted to capture was the FEELING of that moment in time; the overall patterns of light and color that expressed what I saw.

From top to bottom of the composition, I was looking at the patterns of color for the sky, the mountain range, the trees and buildings, and finally the shadowy parking lot filled with cars. Each of these areas was almost like a horizontal band of color that linked each plane of the picture together.

I worked in a very loose Impressionistic style, leaving much of the border area untouched. I merely wanted to capture this moment at sunset from the edge of a shopping center in Southern California.

I was inspired by the color and light in this scene as I exited a store, and immediately grabbed my pochade box from the car to capture it in oils. I am also showing a photo of the scene I took while painting. I thought it would be interesting to show you this photo for comparison with my interpretation of the subject. Enjoy the moment!

Questions? Email me here:

tombrownstudio@cox.net