Pastellist Diane Ringwood has a new series of 10 pastel paintings on the feature wall at the Benicia Plein Air Gallery for her latest exhibit, “California in Full Color.”

Why so few? Ringwood’s work is larger this time around than the gallery’s space limitations normally allow.

“Mostly I can’t do anything above 24 by 28 (inches) in the gallery because there is no room for them,” she said of the gallery at 307 First St. However, three of Ringwood’s new paintings are 33 by 22 inches, and she will bring more of her work — “as many as I can fit into the gallery” — Saturday to a reception for the show.

All of the paintings are scenes of California: hills and mountains, natural places like Mount Diablo and Yosemite. And all are in the bright colors that Ringwood is known for.

Most of the time plein air artists work from real life, but Ringwood has found that photo references come in handy.

“I didn’t used to, I always was a plein air painter, but I always took photos when I was outside,” she said. “Sometimes like doing clouds, you just can’t capture them, they are moving and changing all the time.”

Working from a photograph is something fairly new to Ringwood. “I enjoy it, but you have to put the photograph away. You have to get the idea and put it away, otherwise I’m struggling to do exactly what is in the photograph and that is not what I want to do.”

What she wants to do is be interpretive, and put in “a lot of color,” especially those colors that are not often seen in a particular setting.

“I did have somebody ask me one time… I had a yellow hillside with a big blue oak tree, and she said, ‘Was that tree really blue?’

“I am not that fond of green personally, but when you go outside and you paint what’s there you end up with gobs and gobs of green. I go overboard with other colors, I don’t tend to use that much green.”

Another twist: Like many artists, Ringwood does not like to paint on a white surface. She always starts her paintings on a piece of paper colored with ink or watercolor.

“Oftentimes I use pink or purple to start on, or orange, then I put the pastels on top of them. I like the contrast that it gives me, and it gives me a start on the painting,” she said.

She likes that the colored paper “shines through” her paintings. “I don’t cover all of the paper. I try to let it shine through. If I start on orange paper, it really makes a purple or blue pop. I like that,” she said.

“It really gives a glow to the colors that I use.”

Though painting seems like a solitary pursuit, Ringwood finds that she works better in the company of other artists. “I am not a loner,” she said. “I just don’t motivate myself to go out there, sit down and be all by myself.

“I find that I’ve always done that. I really thought I used to paint by myself, but years ago I used to go to a plein air outdoor painting class and just paint with everybody, then take another painting class and take that outdoor painting inside and work on it then. But it was always with other artists.”

If You Go
An opening reception for Diane Ringwood’s “California in Full Color” is Saturday from 2-4 p.m. at Benicia Plein Air Gallery, 307 First St.