Rainy Monday

Spring Blooms 9x12" oil on canvas (sold) plein aire piece

Today we are getting dumped on in the SF Bay Area. It is really raining here. A good day to stay in the studio! The above painting is what our local landscape will look like in about another 2 months. It is very green right now, but the wildflowers are not in bloom yet. Spring Blooms is a view of Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, CA. from the Walnut Creek area.

I am going to sort through my brushes today. I never throw a brush away. When it gets worn, it just gets delegated to a new container to be used for a different purpose, (ie blending, scraping, etc). Well, at the moment I am counting 11 containers of brushes on my paint table that sits to the left of my easel. And as I reached for one, a moth flew out of it! When moths take up residence in your brush container, you know they haven't been used in a while..... Like I said, maybe it's time to get rid of a few.

Then I will move on to priming some canvases and cutting some boards. I want to glue canvas on to board to use for outdoor plein aire painting.

Winter days like this is a wonderful time to do all these tasks and get some studio painting done. Time to put the coffee on, I have some work to do......

Diablo's North Gate

9x12"  Plein Aire oil

This is actually an "indoor" plein aire painting.  I have a request from a client to paint a painting similar to one she purchased from me last spring.  The request was to use the same colors, size, frame and possibly something from the North Gate side, since she lives near there.  Well, every thing is so gold right now that I luckily have this wonderful photo in my files that I took last February when I was painting in that area.

I was sitting at the Pioneer Gallery in Danville last Sat. and I like to paint while I am there, so I started this piece from the photo there in the gallery. You can see the start of it on my easel when I photographed my newly made pochade box.

Clouds Over Diablo

Clouds Over Diablo      10x20" oil on canvas

I finished this piece this week so that it could be in the preview show for the Open Studio Tour. I had my Diablo Summer in the brochure but it was too large to be in the preview exhibit. I tried to remember where I was when I painted Diablo Summer.  I will never paint the exact same thing twice, but this was on purpose.  I felt the public looking at the brochure might want to see something very similar at the exhibit.  Just being at a different place in your life, and a different mood, and a different day and temperature will of course make the painting different. Nature itself changes.  Going back to a location, the mountain is still there, but vegetation changes, or was I at the exact same location?  I hike all over, and my field notes get scribbly the more excited I get.  I will forget to write what trail I was on, but I will remember to note the temperature, the color of the grass, the color of the sky, cobalt, or prussian blue?

Now the trick is to get this painting dry enough to exhibit it on Friday!  I have set the painting out in the warm sun everyday this week to accelerate the drying time.  Having unseasonably cool weather has not helped.  It is just dry enough to the touch today, just still wet on the edges.  Darn titanium white takes the longest to dry, and that is what I mixed with blue for the sky.

Contact me if you want to see me at the Open Studios Tour in Alamo.  Or go to ADAS4art.org and click on events and them on Open Studios and look at the map.  I am on it!  There is close to 90 artists participating this year.

Until my next post, enjoy the art!

Mother's Day!

Diablo's Black Hills  30x40"  oil on canvas 

Today I went to visit some friends of mine in a local art show.  I have no desire to do a show on Mother's day weekend.  I prefer to be pampered.  I went to lunch with my family and walked around the show visiting all the artists I knew.  It was a sleepy little show.  Some admitted that they thought it sounded like a good show, billed as a Fine Art Show.

A good piece of advice for anyone entering a show is to go see the show first hand if you can.  I spent 2 years going from show to show before I ever started doing shows.  I looked at crowd size, parking availability, quality of art.  I also looked to see if the crowd was buying.  Were people carrying packages or brats and wine?  I looked at booth styles, what held up well in windy situations, what didn't.

Any promoter can make a show look and sound good on paper.  The actual proof is in the pudding.  If you can't go in person, send someone, or try to talk to people who have done the show.  Go to a current show and ask around, ask if someone has done a particular show and get their opinion on it. Now take into consideration what they sell and the quality of their art.  If they didn't do well, and they don't really have a good product, well that may explain their experience and you need to ask other's.  Today's "fine art show" had booths spaced very far apart in a strip mall.  I don't know if the promoter felt the walk was too narrow or maybe particular shops asked not to have booths in front of their place.  But some booths seemed very disconnected from the show.  That is also something to consider.  That may be you next year in that far off booth in Timbuktu!  So like I said, do your homework before entering a show.

California Spring

Here is a small 10x10" plein aire oil that I just finished.  It is still wet.  I hope to sell it this weekend in Walnut Creek!  With the way the economy is at the moment, I have tried to concentrate on having smaller more affordable pieces for sale.

Poppies!  There are everywhere right now.  I always have a lot of requests for poppies.  I have included them in many new works this spring to if you like poppies, come on down and see these new paintings.

I will be in the Pacific Fine Arts Festival in Walnut Creek, corner of Cypress and Locust St, Friday through Sunday, 10:00AM to 6:00PM  and 5:00Pm on Sunday.  My booth is outside Sherman Clay Piano Store on the corner and I have been there in that spot for 10 years now.

Mention this blog and receive 10% off the purchase of a painting.