I’M LUCKY ENOUGH to have grown up in New Zealand and now live in California, where the sweeping coastal vistas stretch for endless miles and offer amazing material for artists. In the following painting, I use a series of steps to complete a small landscape painting, starting with the sky and background mountains, before moving forward to the cliffs, water, and flowers. This can be scaled larger and the steps applied to any landscape scene. Start with your background and move forward, applying another layer as you go and ending with the most texture in the foreground. Another good rule to follow is to keep your brightest, most saturated colours in the foreground. This will add depth and really make
