I had the pleasure yesterday of attending a demo by California plein air painter Ray Roberts, who I initially wrote about in 2010.

The demo was part of the schedule of the Wayne Plein Air Festival, the major such event here in the Philadelphia area, for which Roberts was this year’s juror.

Roberts set up the demo in a small courtyard at the art center’s facilities. At first I assumed he would be doing a landscape, but he instead worked from a model and still life arrangement within the garden-like setting. He captured the essence of scene in a lively sketch in less than two hours, while talking through his process (images above, bottom two).

Roberts studied with John Asaro, among others, and his influences from Hanson Puthuff and other pioneers of California Impressionism shine through in his portrayals of the Arizona desert and the California coastline.

In addition to the workshop Roberts is currently conducting in this area, you can find a schedule of other workshops on his website.

The image galleries on his site area slightly awkward to navigate; they are divided into current and archives, within which are sections for landscape, seascape and figures.

His figures, similar in spirit to yesterday’s demo, are often in the context of landscape.

Roberts and his wife, artist Peggi Kroll-Roberts, offer a variety of teaching materials on their joint website.