Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light and Color

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By Kevin MacPherson

Kevin produced a popular book that stressed plein air work with pochade boxes in 1997. That was about when the plein air revival started and it is still going strong. Kevin has some great advice as well as good instruction. He covers working with a limited palette in several examples of color mixing. There is also good instruction on the process of creating a painting. He includes a strong recommendation to create 100 picture “starts” as important method to growth. Still life gets its own section as well as useful advice on working in plein air.

MacPherson is an inspiring artist with interesting projects. His paintings are beautiful and rendered with only 4 colors. His book “Reflections on a Pond” is from a project and exhibition from painting a New Mexico alpine pond over several years and includes paintings done on every day of the year. I love this idea as I am a real sucker for reflections and I am a huge fan of series paintings "a la Monet".

Soon to be published is “Landscape Painting – Inside & Out” which I am eagerly awaiting. It must cover more on studio and plein air; I bet.