Toro Canyon, Santa Barbara

The late afternoon sun in California creates a very special kind of light. It is warm and golden. In this painting of Toro Canyon, I wanted to show that bright glow hitting the side of the hills. The secret to making light look bright is to have dark shadows next to it. I used a lot of Ultramarine Blue and a little Burnt Sienna to make the deep tones in the trees. This contrast makes the sunlit grass seem much warmer. It is all about how colours sit next to each other on the paper.

Many artists ask me how to keep their colours from looking muddy when painting landscapes. The trick is to use a large brush and work quickly. For the soft sky, I used a weak mix of Cerulean Blue. I let the sky dry just a little bit before adding the distant hills. If the paper is too wet, the paint runs everywhere. If it is too dry, the edges look hard. You have to find that middle point where the paint softy blends.

I really enjoy using the natural white of the paper to show highlights. You can see small bits of white paper on the road and near the buildings. This gives the painting a sense of sparkle. For the warm tones on the hillside, Yellow Ochre is my favourite choice. It is a very reliable colour that looks very natural for dry grass. I also added a tiny bit of Alizarin Crimson in the shadows to give them some heat. Shadows are rarely just grey or black.

The perspective in this scene is very important because the road leads your eye into the picture. I made sure the shadows from the trees stretched right across the path. These long shadows help to show the shape of the ground. I used a dark mix of Neutral Tint for the very darkest parts under the trees. This helps the viewer understand where the light is coming from. It is a simple scene but the long shadows make it very dramatic.