Mike Bagdonas - Portfolio of Works

This collection contains paintings or small studies painted outdoors on site in an alla prima (wet into wet paint) manner without the use of photography.

This collection contains studio paintings created from photographs largely due to the moving nature of the people or livestock depicted in the scenes.  Many of them, however, were done using plein air studies as the landscape for the visual representation.

This collection containsd paintings or studies that were completed in the studio using posing models.  These paintings or studies are also painted in an alla prima ( wet into wet paint) manner without the use opf photography.

This is a plein air painting demonstration in one of my favorite painting locations in Hope Valley in the Sierra Nevada mountains south of Lake Tahoe, California.  I've chosen this for my demonstration because of the back lit nature of most of the larger masses.  I usually paint "en plein air" facing the sun with a large brim hat to shade my face and keeping my palette and painting surface in the shade.  I've gone in this direction due to numerous mishaps using an umbrella to shade the canvas and palette.

This is a demonstration of a large Studio painting done from digital images, sketches and prior oil paintings by this artist.  This painting was undertaken to test the results of using transparent washes to create an abundance of bright color near and in the focal area of the painting.

NOTE: Make sure you use the larger images and not just view the thumbnails.  The larger images reveal my thought process with

              regard to each step.  Once in the larger images you can easily move on to the next step or go back to review a prior step.

CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION