The three paintings above are done by a local artist here in the San Luis Valley, his name is Randy Pijoan. He is a master at color and achieving realism through paint. The three above are done with oil or gouache. His use of complimentary colors to show light absorption can bring the greyest of nights alive bursting with bright streams of color. Use of the perfect combination of warm and cool colors on the flesh of the face and body bring his characters to life. Although not evident through these pictures Randy uses texture to his advantage as well. Take the third lower painting above, the girl stares right out of the canvas as her hair is textured so precisely you want to run your fingers through it. Shadows in Randy's work are not boring greys but true first hand representations of what is seen with his eye as he renders himself to the natural behavior of wavelengths and frequency. It seems so intensely difficult to grasp this way of thinking about what colors to put where, but the way he describes his tactics is rather simple. I had a chance to have him come into a class and guest speak while doing a presentation. Randy instructed us to not paint what we think the subject should look like but rather what it truly looks like. For example when painting an apple the light reflects off of it and when you look into its shadow’s there is faint traces of green and magenta. It is these observations and subtleties that make the piece make sense and seem so real.
