By
Armand Cabrera
After my trip out west to the San Juan Mountains in October and lots of time in the field during November I’ve spent the last few weeks painting in the studio for my galleries in Vail CO and Pasadena, CA. These paintings are some of the studio work I’ve finished from my reference of those trips.
For me outdoor time is all about getting the mood and feeling of the place I’m in. Because I finish my sketches in one sitting my goals are different than studio work. Outdoors I don’t design too much on the fly while I paint. Instead I work to absorb as much of the experience as I can. Of course I’m also subject to weather changes and time constraints that may interrupt the process and prevent me from finishing the painting.
I don’t mix outdoor and indoor work if I need more time for an outdoor piece I bring it back to the studio and get out a new canvas and paint it from scratch. For me this preserves the integrity of the painting process and my mood at the time I paint.
In the studio I can be more contemplative and think about how to make the sketches into a more focused statement. I’m free to redesign elements or edit them more than I would outdoors. When I get a complete statement onsite I pass it on to my galleries otherwise they are the basis for studio work.
