Studio Sunday

It is very stormy today.  I have spent the entire day in the studio.  Working on a new piece of one of the local canyons and the oak trees and scrub oaks.  I spent a lot of my time last weekend driving and hiking around several of our local canyons.  The field work I gathered was enough to create many paintings.  My sketch book is filled with notes and sketches and I must have taken over 200 photos on both days that I was out!

I had a professor tell me once in art school that you have to paint your passion.  If you don't, and your heart is not in it, it will show in your work.  I certainly have a passion for the beautiful land around me, the mountain, the foothills and canyons, and all the wildflowers.  I love the green our hills turn in the winter and my favorite time is when the green is starting to change to gold.  The palatte of colors, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and greens.  California Gold is the color I call our golden hills in the summer time. Definitely  an inspiration.

Today I am posting a recent plein aire piece of a study of oak trees entitled "Oak Tree Study." It is an 8x10" oil on canvas.

Rainy Days = Green Hills

Winter's Green Splendor     studio piece  24x36"

Just sitting down to paint after a morning full of errands.  Very stormy today.  Not exactly a plein aire sort of day.  Really cool lunar eclipse last night.  I am posting a studio piece I finished a few weeks ago for a gallery show I had.  "Winter's Green Splendor" is a scene from the Franklin Canyon area not far from me.  It is a 24 x 36" oil on canvas.  Everything is so green right now.  All the surrounding hills.  I like capturing the atmosphere and distant hills.  I'd better get back to the easel. 

Rainy Tuesday

Poppies and Lupine 18x 24" oil  studio piece

 

Crow Canyon February  8x10" oil on canvas  plein aire 

It has felt like Monday all day long due to yesterday's holiday.  I painted at home in my studio yesterday so that I could be around for my daughter who saved all of her homework up for the last day of the 3-day weekend.

I am posting my current studio piece titled "Poppies and Lupine."  I went out in the field on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I found myself in Niles Canyon on my way to a memorial service.  I packed my sketchbook and camera and set out early to take the opportunity to sketch and photograph along the way.  There is no real place to put your car on that winding canyon road.  I squeezed as close to the side as I could and climbed out for some quick photos.  I did find and old road to venture off on and got some good sketches done.  They may very well become paintings.

I note on my pencil sketches what the weather was like, the temperature, the wind and what kind of sky it was.  A Prussian sky or a Cobalt sky.  These are colors I use when I paint and these notes are very helpful when I get back in to my studio. I may put that the clouds had a hint of cad red light in them, or possibly an alizarin hue to them.

On Sunday I took off and traveled down Crow Canyon Rd.  With no map in hand I rambled along and stopped many many times to innumerable to count.  I climbed over guardrails and fences.  Again I snapped more photos and did lots of sketches.  I was in territory that I had not really been in before.  Not while I was driving.  When I am driving, I will stop to sketch a rock, a post, a cloud, a cool looking bush ....... you get the idea.

When I finally set up to paint I knew that the light was going fast.  I quickly blocked in my light and shadows before I lost them.  It was a hazy day, the air was stagnant. The clouds were moving in, which explains today's rain.  I really rushed this painting as I was worried about my van precariously parked on the side of the narrow road.  "Crow Canyon February" is an 8x10" oil on canvas.

I know when I paint en plein aire, that I am quite often painting history as many time places I have painted have been bulldozed over for new developments.  Some other places thankfully have been preserved as public open space.  I feel honored to capture this precious land around me on canvas.  To help preserve and document its history.  We need to care for the land we live on so it will be here for the future generations to come.

Artistic Distractions

Off to a foggy start this morning.  I have to go to a funeral today.  It is about an hour away from my home.  I plotted my driving route and it will take me right through Niles, and Niles Canyon Rd.  Beautiful area.  I will have my camera and sketchbook with me.  No paints allowed.  I am trying to figure out what exactly I can wear to a funeral and look acceptable and still be comfortable enough to go out hiking and sketching along the way. I am leaving in plenty of time to lollygag along the way.  I am thinking black jeans, and bring a change of shoes and a nice sweater to put on when I arrive at the service.  Works for me. Can't miss an opportunity to capture some of that beautiful scenery I will encounter along the way.  I can't wait to get back home tonight and paint where I've been!  In the meantime I am posting an old oak tree I painted. Everything is so green this time of year.

February 15, 2008

I started this blog to help keep me on track with my goal as a painter.  I feel like a blog will be a way of being accountable.  I will feel like I need to continually create so that I will have something to post for you.

Today I am deciding what to paint.  I just finished a canvas yesterday and it is still too wet to handle to photograph and post for you.  I have a little voice calling me away from my easel.  In the form of a 30% off coupon that expires tomorrow from Dick Blick art supply store. I think I may have to take a slight detour from painting and run off and use it. I am in need of a new solvent can with a leak proof, air tight lid for out door painting.  This painting I posted is a recent one of mine painted at Lime Ridge in Walnut Creek, CA.