When artist Robin Weiss travels abroad, he always packs a watercolor set in his carry on, so if anything were to happen to the checked bag carrying his oil paints, he would have something to make art with.
Weiss spent many years as a watercolorist, beginning in high school, when his art teacher Lou Penfield, taking note of Weiss’ serious interest in painting, introduced him to the medium. Penfield also exposed Weiss to the practice and pleasures of painting from life in plein air.
La Conner Boats, 2024, oil, 6 x 12 in.
Afternoon Walk, 2023, oil, 12 x 9 in.In 2005, when Weiss decided to pursue painting more earnestly, he joined the Daily Painter movement, which artist Duane Keiser had started the year prior when he challenged himself to make a painting a day and sell them online. “The discipline of painting a little painting every day can really help an artist get better at the craft,” explains Weiss. “In 2008 my wife encouraged me go full time as an artist…
I was working in construction and [because of the crash] there wasn’t much work. Everyone was trying to hold onto their job, and I decided to quit and be an artist.”
Spring Barn, 2025, oil, 8 x 10 in.
Weiss, now 70, has been painting full time ever since, and while he transitioned to oils during his daily painting practice, he never lost his love of painting in plein air. Today, Weiss lives in Poulsbo, Washington, a waterfront town on Liberty Bay on the Kitsap Peninsula, a region with no shortage of inspiring subject matter for a plein air painter.
Morning Hike and Winter Driftwood depict the coastal scenery of the area, and one of Weiss’ favorite subjects, the colossal driftwood found on the beaches of the Pacific Northwest, which he uses as a design element to draw the viewer in and lead the eye to the focal point.
Under the Cypress, 2026, oil, 11 x 14 in.
One of the delights of Weiss’ work is his frequent inclusion of figures. In the case of Morning Hike, he took photos of the couple walking along the shoreline and painted them into the scene on the spot. When the figures are in motion, as in the street scene in Afternoon Walk, Weiss has to rely on some photo reference but occasionally, figures wander into the frame and rest long enough for him to paint them from life in real time, as was the case of the couple sitting on a bench in Under the Cypress.
Winter Driftwood, 2026, oil, 8 x 16 in.
“I have always been awestruck by the beauty of creation, and I just like to be outside,” says Weiss. “When you’re outside, you’re engaging all of your senses, you have the smell and the feel of the place, and the weather…it’s so much more inspiring to do a painting when you’re outside, when you can feel the air and hear the birds and see how the light changes. Your eye sees differently on location; you can see the light inside the shadows so much better than in a photo, which doesn’t really let you feel and see the whole spectrum of light.”
The property in Spring Barn is a farm in his neighborhood and shows off the artist’s lively approach to color and light. “I tend to push the color that I see because…in the natural landscape there are a lot of gray tones, and those little flecks of color, they’re like the little jewels in the painting that make it pop,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll put a streak of cadmium red right out of the tube in a shadow area to make it pop out.”
Morning Hike, 2025, oil, 9 x 12 in.
This bold use of paint and brushstroke can also be seen in the puddle-filled ruts and thickly painted flowers in April Showers, which Weiss painted on site during the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, a popular event for plein air painters.
As a member of Plein Air Washington Artists, a society with 300 members that organizes half a dozen paints-outs each month, Weiss has an active plein air practice locally and regionally, as well as nationally. The artist travels to participate in prestigious plein air festivals around the country in locales like Carmel, California; Douglas and Sarpy County, Nebraska; Sedona, Arizona; and Telluride, Colorado.
Mount Shuksan, 2023, oil, 9 x 12 in.
April Showers, 2024, oil, 8 x 10 in.
“My wife comes with me and we always enjoy a good road trip,” says Weiss. “The plein air painting events are usually in the most beautiful places in the country…you get to go there and enjoy the beautiful scenery and paint; and you get to see all of your artist friends and that’s always a blast.”
With all the joys of plein air painting, come a fair share of challenges. “You’re oftentimes chasing the sun as it moves, you encounter all kinds of different weather conditions, and the bugs and other stuff out there getting stuck in your wet paint...and the wind can come up and blow your easel over,” Weiss says.
The Walnut Café, 2023, oil, 8 x 10 in.
He recounts how, while painting on the beach during the Carmel Art Festival, the wind did just that, landing his just-completed painting face down in the sand. “I really liked it so I tried to wash it off, as someone suggested, which didn’t work,” he says. “The next day I brought it back to that park and scraped it off...the original image remained, so I painted it again. It still had sand in it, but somehow it won the artist’s choice award that year.”
The Helo Pad, 2026, oil, 9 x 12 in.
Earth Embrace, 2024, oil, 12 x 9 in.
This November Weiss’ work will be featured in a group show at Alki Arts gallery in Seattle titled Elevated Moods. Weiss will also be displaying his work during the North Kitsap Studio Tour Arts in the Woods from November 13 through 15 at the Knowles Studio in Poulsbo.
Undercover, oil, 20 x 20 in.
“For me it’s all about portraying beauty,” says Weiss. “There’s so much beauty in the world, and you want to be a part of disseminating that beauty in the culture. I believe that beauty comes from God, it’s in creation, and as an artist, you’re called to spread it around.” —
Powered by Froala Editor
