Congratulations go out to Marc Dalessio, who was the winner of the Judsons Art Outfitters $200 Gift Certificate in PleinAir Magazine’s bi-monthly Salon competition. The winning painting, shown here, is entitled “Barn at Turbach (Switzerland)”.

Marc grew up in Los Angeles and the Fiji Islands, where his father was a regional director of the Peace Corps. He studied both art and biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. While spending his senior year abroad, he discovered Charles Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California, he returned to Italy to earn degrees in printmaking and portraiture. He taught painting for many years at the Florence Academy of Art and also traveled widely to paint exotic landscapes. Locations have included Greece and Albania, Morocco, Rajasthan, Sicily, Kenya, the Caribbean and Myanmar. He is currently traveling in Croatia. Shown below is a 14″x10″ sketch of the cathedral and marketplace of Zagreb.

His website includes many resources, including instructional videos, the Studio Handbook from Charles Cecil Studios, and his interview with Larry Groff who writes the informative blog Painting Perceptions.

Juliana Gamble is an urban planner, and some of those analytical skills help when she turns 3-D reality into a two-dimensional painting. We know that we need to look for the basic shapes when we begin a composition, but it’s also true that they can make up most of the painting, allowing room for the viewer’s imagination to engage. Sometimes details would only interfere.

“I fell in love with painting immediately. Not because it was easy. Indeed, I soon realized that the quality of my creations did not drive my efforts. It was the very act of painting, its insistence to teach me new ways to see the world, that caught my imagination. Practice sharpened my sense of sight. It made yellows, pinks and green more vibrant and interesting. The simple sight of laundry dancing in the sun was suddenly arresting. It made every day more beautiful and luminous.

“It is only natural that my interest in painting has never strayed from an intense interest in portraying color and light. I work almost exclusively from observation- in which there is a whole world to learn from. I paint with oils because I enjoy the intensity of color in the medium, as well as freedom to correct mistakes. Finally, I focus on simplicity of form – often trying to reduce an object to just a few notes – an abstraction, but one that is true to the source.”

Juliana uses oil on archival paper and Cartón Board as well as canvas.

 East coast painter Denise Dumont has a knack for imparting depth and drama into small plein air sketches. The ones shown here are all 6″x8″ but contain enough accurate information to make them read much bigger than they really are.

She will be offering a 3-day workshop entitled “Mastering Value and Composition”
in September at the Rehoboth Art League, in the seaside resort town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Denise received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design in New York City. She studied further at the School of Visual Arts and frequented the studios of the Art Students League. Her work has been largely influenced by Edward Hopper, Edouard Vuillard and Fairfield Porter.

In addition to the seashore scenes shown here, she also paints cityscapes, townscapes and rural landscapes up and down the mid-Atlantic coast.

Artist, teacher and Daily Painter Laurel Daniel paints full-time at the Austin Museum of Art and is a member (and past president) of Plein Air Austin. The paintings shown here are plein air works which are 12″x12″ and 16″x12″.

“Plein air painting is a huge part of my process – it feeds, motivates, and is the source for studio work. It is an excuse to be outside, experiencing nature firsthand. The whole process is irresistible to me.”

Her blog contains helpful commentary,  demos and also  tips about using refined linseed oil as both a medium and brush cleaner. We like what she says about small studies being like “postcards to yourself,” an aid to memory, especially when traveling.

Unless you already live in the sun belt, this is the time of year when plein air painters think about flying south. One of the best places to go is the Scottsdale Artists’ School, where they offer classes with world-class instructors.

It’s still possible to sign up for some of their plein air classes, including these:
The Really Useful Oil Painting Class with Bill Lundquist
Outdoor Painting in Gold Canyon, Arizona with Dan Young
Landscape Painting: Using Color Creatively with Ron Rencher
Oil Painting: Quick Sketch with Kim English
Plein Air Painting in Tucson, Arizona with Phil Starke

There are also many other workshops that focus on still lifes, figures and various media. They also have an Open Studios program with models.