Rasar Park No. 3
3x4 foot Acrylic and Spray Paint on Canvas
A large-scale plein air study captured on location at Rasar State Park in the Skagit Valley, Washington. This 3x4' work explores the dense, atmospheric textures of the Pacific Northwest through a layered process of acrylic and spray paint on canvas, pushing the boundary between recognizable landscape and immersive abstraction.
My gosh, this piece is finally done. Almost 2 months and I think 10 individual trips out to the location, but completely worth the effort. I am capturing a unique passage of time in a beautiful region that was just decimated by the floods a few months back. Unfortunately, camping wouldn’t have worked for this piece; we never really got more than 1 day of solid weather at a time, and earlier, the sun was dipping behind the mountains at like 2. Now, the sun remains visible until its sunset at nearly 8. Capturing the winter-to-spring transition is completely new to me and presented many of the mentioned problems: short, undesirable working times that only paid off in the last few sessions where I got complete sun and shadow. I ended up working here for so long I could see and capture the literal change of season, something no other media can capture in this honest of a way. Finally getting a piece focused on the ferns, plant texture, and complication—almost abstracted but grounded by the sky. This is one of my more favorite pieces and is a great representation of where my work will continue to evolve: somewhere on the fringe of detailed realism and romantic abstraction.
Update 4.
Update 3.
The returning daylight is making a massive difference on this piece. The shadow work is slowly uniting the detailed elements, adding a sense of direction the work desperately needed. I’ve been on-location for so long now that new flowers are blooming, highlighting the unique perspective this kind of long-term plein air painting offers.
I’d really like the next piece to be fully on-site while camping, but the forecast isn’t cooperating at all; as it stands, I’ve got to wait almost a week before I can finish this current one. Entering spring, the painting has to be the priority. I’m becoming extremely interested in producing even larger work—3×4 feet is starting to feel small, despite the scale.
I see this as the beginning of my career, my technique, and my subject. While I’ve put in immense work to arrive where I’m at, I know I’m just getting started. I love what I’m creating and feel I’ve found a space where I want to exist for a while. The densely packed vegetation highlights my ability to handle complex subjects and continues to push both my technique and my choice of medium.
Update: 2
After a solid ten days of unrelenting weather, we finally had a break that allowed me to push this piece forward. With daylight savings behind us and 7 p.m. sunsets, I’ve gained nearly twice the working time since I first started this project. For the first time, the sun is tracking high enough above the mountains to create a real interaction between the shadows and the landscape's geometry.
I’m delighted with the progress, but there are still a solid day or two of work left on the canvas. Between the weather and the scale, this painting has taken nearly a month—a timeline that only highlights the intense effort required for work of this caliber.
Being out here constantly reminds me that working at this scale, miles from home, and putting over 40 hours into a single session is far from "normal" for plein air painting. It’s a standard that justifies the value of these pieces as I move into the next stage of my career.
When something works, you don’t change it. The struggle of the previous piece paid off by allowing me to turn around from that painting and find the inspiration I was searching for. I decided to return to a larger format at 3 x 4 feet. The density and complexity of the environment demanded it — and honestly, I’d like to go even bigger.
This setting almost perfectly encapsulates the visual language I’m chasing: an established color palette, layered and complex, with a strong push and pull between the recognizable and the abstract. It’s the kind of imagery that makes your eyes flutter because there’s no obvious place to rest.
Although I’m only about halfway finished, the structure of the piece has me excited. It sits somewhere between graphic and natural. I’ll continue pushing and reinforcing color and texture across multiple layers, deepening the sense of space and complexity — driving home the feeling that you’re somewhere lost in nature with me