A picture-perfect day

Sixty artists, all provided with the same scene to depict, can produce dramatically different results.

Such was the outcome of Sunday’s Paint Out event at the Montage Resort & Spa, where participants in the Laguna Art Museum’s eighth annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational spread out across Treasure Island Beach to create their own representations of the picture-perfect day.

Some began their works with methodical, bisecting lines; others with wild brush strokes. But all created scenic works to be sold this weekend, to benefit the artists, the museum and the Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn.

“We expect it to be a banner year for painting,” Museum Director Bolton Colburn said.

The invitational was previously held at the height of the summer season.

“I think the big change this year is the change of timing for the event,” Colburn said. “The light has a wonderful quality this time of year.”

He said that the decision to move the event from summer to fall has also meant fewer crowds and traffic for the artists to negotiate through.

But crowds still played a part in the Paint Out. Each artist had several admirers watching, talking and photographing as they worked.

Lagunan Ken Auster decided to name the piece he created that day “Pressure.”

Many visitors to the Montage last Sunday had no prior knowledge of the event. To many, it seemed as though a large art seminar was setting up on the beach.

“It’s a big class,” one woman shrewdly said to her friend as they strolled by a cluster of artists, armed with rolling bags of supplies and matching invitational caps. Two of the artists giggled when they heard her.

With the entire site at their disposal, some artists chose cliff sites to occupy; others planted themselves right on the beach. One man sat on the rocks in the water, with waves lapping at his feet, at home on the edge of the world.

Armand Cabrera of San Francisco was one of the first painters to stake his claim. He chose a prime spot beside a bench overlooking the ocean.

Adding only four colors to his palette — light blue, white, yellow and brown — he began by painting a thin blue line across the top quarter of the canvas, separating water from sky.

With a roll of paper towels under his arm, he then outlined rocks and sand, which he filled in after working on all of the blue portions of his work.

Children watched, entranced, as Cabrera glanced quickly up and added a touch of white to the sky of his canvas.

He captured jagged cliff edges and deep indigo pools, all the while omitting the people and manmade structures that cluttered the true vista before him.

Laguna artist and invitational participant Peggy Kroll-Roberts typically paints highly impressionistic beachgoers. She set up on the beach early in the day, with her eyes on a woman surrounded by a beach umbrella and a giant inflated Mountain Dew can cooler.

“I don’t think I’ll add that,” she said of the cooler, smiling.

Three artists chose to paint portraits that day, clustering around a young lady in ethnic garb.

Joan LaRue of Arizona opted to focus on the many flowers profusely growing at the site, painting wide swaths of bougainvillea on her canvas.

The works produced by the painters will be sold at the Collectors Dinner and Preview Sale on Saturday and the public art sale and exhibition on Sunday.

And another Paint Out will be held on Saturday morning at Heisler Park, during which artists must complete works in two hours that will be sold immediately afterward at an 11:30 a.m. auction.

But at this initial Paint Out, a little coastal precipice became a popular setup area, with several artists working amid dozens of onlookers, including Arts Commissioner Mary Ferguson.

Pamela Simpson Lussier, of Connecticut, accompanied her husband, participant David Lussier, to the event and chose to paint as well.

Simpson Lussier said that after attending art school as a sculptor, she never knew what she wanted to do with her career until she painted outside for the first time.

“I knew it was a perfect fit,” she said, painting with delicate strokes in a full range of colors. Her husband sketched a subtle outline nearby on his canvas.

In contrast, Auster chose to outline his image in heavy black streaks, before economically filling in with wide brushes in his loose, impasto style.

Bay Area pastel artist Kim Lordier chose to begin in black as well, using a viewfinder to choose a small stretch of cliff to depict.

Richard Kent’s palette was as orderly as his paintings when he began, with neat lines of paint on a modern metal surface. He worked quietly, methodically thinking through his piece.

Laguna Plein Air Painters Assn. founder Saim Caglayan, now of Hawaii, painted vigorously on wood board, his brush making thudding sounds as it hit home, as though he was trying to capture the light and setting exactly as it was.

But Ronald Macedo of Hawaii ended up with the most scenic vista, although he was in the most unconventional position; set up beside the entry to the park’s underground parking structure, he had a commanding view of the winding walkway upon which many of the other painters stood.

He discovered the site when he parked in the structure the previous day, and was taken by the shadows cast by passersby.

“I like to include little figures in my painting; it adds color and scale,” he said. “I like that.”

Now back for his third invitational, Macedo said that the weather was different this year, as was the support from the community and local businesses.

“It just keeps getting better every time it happens,” he said.

For more information on upcoming invitational events, call (949) 494-8971, ext. 88, or visit www.lagunartmuseum.org.