About Us

Welcome to Paintings of Nature, a collection of my original paintings and print reproductions. I am an artist, author, and educator. I haver worked professionally as  a science and art educator for more than 35 years at the High School and College levels. I have also worked as a studio artist for more than forty years. When I am not teaching or painting in my studio, I love to write. I have published six books, including four novels under the pen name of Michael L. Rea. My books are available through Amazon.com in both print and as a kindlebook.

I owe most of my training in art to Lillian Reed, an illustrator for Harry and David gourmet foods of Medford, Oregon.  Reed was also the owner and director of Higher Grounds Art Gallery in historic Jacksonville, OR.

Although I prefer to work in oils, I have had a breadth of training and experience working in a variety of different media including watercolors, gauche, pastels, charcoal, ink and scratch board.

With my wife Janet at my side, I have traveled extensively to National Parks across the United States and Canada and as a result many of his subjects can be attributed to these travel experiences. Although I enjoy painting on location, a la plen aire, I generally only have the time to do quick sketches on location that I later refine and finish in the studio where I lives in Mather, CA. I am a member of the Gold Country Artists Gallery in Placerville, CA where you can see my art up close and personal and where our on occasion you might find me sharing my love of art with the patrons of the gallery.

How much time does it take to complete an oil painting?

The most common question I am asked about my work is “how long does it take to create a painting?” The answer of this, of course, has changed over time. Every artist goes through periods of experimenting with different styles and different approaches. The process for any artist is a journey of growth and hopefully improvement of the craft. It is rare when an artist creates a painting in which every part of the painting met the expectations of the artist when completed. Generally, when I begin a painting I work very fast and loose, but there are times, depending on the subject, that I get bogged down in the details which slows the process down. The truth is every painting is different. I might take 60 hours to complete a typical 18×24 painting on canvas, when on another occasion it might only take 20 hours. Of course, it can take much less time if the painting is done Plen Aire.

Plen Aire is french for in the open air and simply refers to when an artist works in the field and paints a subject from life in the outdoors. For most nature artists this is the preferred manner of painting, however time and the elements sometimes interfere with the artist’s intent.

Claude Monet is certainly the most popular artist who would take advantage of working Plen Aire. He was part of a movement called Impressionism which placed a strong emphasis on the nature and effects of light. Monet was known for taking several canvases into the field and painting the same location five or six times at different times of the day, capturing the different lighting effects of the morning, noon, afternoon and setting sun.

Unfortunately the changing light and the elements require an artist to work very quickly when working on location. I typically carry smaller canvases for Plen Aire and I like to time each attempt. Typically, it takes me about 45 minutes in the field to do an 11″x14″ painting and another 30-45 minutes in the studio to do a little clean-up. My record time is the completion of a 12″x16″ painting is 20 minutes. You can see an image of this painting in the store, “Zion Valley Study”. What may be even more surprising is that I only used three colors from my palette to create this painting. Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Lemon Yellow (and of course Titanium White, I guess that is actually four).

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