Spiritual Experiences

When Randy Van Beek sees a landscape that he wants to paint, he grabs his camera and his outdoor painting kit. He then alternates between painting a small study that captures the light, colors, and emotions of the place and looking through the lens of his camera to compose the scene.

“The adrenaline just starts rushing through me when I look through the camera lens,” he says. “With your eyes, you’re taking too much in, and there’s no way to communicate all of it. But with the camera, I find the little slices that are the most interesting. It’s all about composition with the camera.”

Van Beek’s plein air studies in oil are all about emotion and accuracy. He absorbs everything about the location—the sound of the wind in the aspen leaves, the smell of the grass, and the feeling of the cool air on his face. All of that becomes part of the study. “I’m trying to record something for the larger painting that I’ll do back in my studio,” he says. “I’m trying to express my emotions from that particular time and place and my gratefulness for that experience.”

Read the full article in the March/April 2025 issue.