Changing Colors

Changing Colors oil on canvas 12 x 12"

This is the time of year that our green hills start to fade to gold as the rains become less frequent here in CA. The poppies are still in full bloom as is the lupine. Crisp days, nice to get out and capture the wonderful area that surrounds me. Trying to select what to paint is hard as there is so much to choose from. Another day, another scene. That's what you have to tell yourself. There is always tomorrow, to come back and paint what you didn't paint today.

I don't own a tube of green paint. All my greens are mixed. That keeps it from becoming monotonous and boring. My canvas is primed with a mixture of red, yellow, and white acrylic so that I am not painting on a stark white canvas. This gives a warm tone to the skys, and the hills. You don't have to go in a touch up any bare spots either as the warm color shows through and looks nice. It also helps to keep you from getting blinded by the bright light on the white canvas when painting out of doors. Try it, one part yellow, one part red, to three parts white.

Green Diablo Foothills

Winter Colors 10X 20" oil Plein Aire Piece

It is still winter here in Northern, California. Spring will start officially tomorrow. Everything is so very green right now. I do not own a tube of green paint. I mix all my own greens, and if you do, it will give you much more variety than any tube will give you. I use primarily Cad Yellow Medium, mixed with what ever blue I am using that day. Usually Cobalt or Prussian. If you need extreme bright greens, use a Cad Yellow Light. Remember you can tone down, or cool your green with the opposite color, red. I will add Burnt Sienna for this (it acts as a red) or Alizarin Crimson.

After all the rain, it is nice to get out in the glorious sun and paint!

Yosemite Falls

Lower Yoemite Falls  20x16"  oil on canvas  studio piece

This painting was done using a plein aire sketch that I did earlier in the summer last June.  I literally finished it and then delivered it to a gallery and then realized that it was now hanging in the gallery and I didn't have a single photograph of it!

I pulled it off the wall last weekend and took a shot of it. I'd hate to see it sell and not have a photograph of it.  Be sure to always keep good records of all your work and photos of it.

In this painting I tried to show the power and energy of the falls and the calmness of the mist and haze in the atmosphere.  Balancing it all out.  I  love Yosemite.  Paint what you love and it will show in your work.

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, CA

El Capitan, oil on canvas, 40x30"  Studio piece painted from field studies

I just finished this painting this morning.  It was done from sketches that I did in Yosemite National Park this past summer.  I did several plein aire sketches and many small pen and ink and watercolor sketches in my mole skiene book.

When I got home most of my photographs are of El Capitan as viewed from El Capitan Meadow.  It is an enormous view but encompasses so much with all the trees, vegetation, sky, clouds, and the huge El Capitan itself.  The largest single piece of granite in the world.  Remember what I said about being overwhelmed with the scene?  Too much to capture?  I simplified this painting by zeroing in on the enormous face of this rock, showing the pine trees that are dwarfed by its presence. I had zeroed my camera in on a close up scene of the rock face as well as doing a quick sketch of the view I knew I would later want to paint back in the studio.

Get yourself to Yosemite if you haven't been there yet.  There is an entire world in that 7 mile long valley just waiting to be captured on canvas!

Danville Plein Aire

8x10" oil on canvas  "Waterfront St. Cottage"

This little cottage is located at 212 Front St. in Danville, CA.  It is currently a massage business.  This little cottage sits there with the creek behind it in a row of other old cottages.  They are original dating back to the 1800's.  Sitting there on the water front, the street was named Waterfront St. and the community of Danville was later built up around these cottages.  Years later the name of the street was shortened to Front St.

This piece was painted for the historic Danville Building show celebrating the 150th birthday of Danville.  It is currently being exhibited in the Pioneer Gallery on Hartz. Blvd. in Danville, CA.  I sold this piece before I even had a chance to deliver it to the gallery along with the eucalyptus painting done at Wood Ranch, posted earlier.  The collector was nice enough to allow me to exhibit the 2 works in the show and then deliver them to her after the show closes in about 6 weeks.

I started this piece at the location, and finished it later sitting outdoors at the Pacific Fine Arts Festival last weekend.  The time of day was later afternoon and the warm golden sun was brilliant as it dappled across the roof and kissed the tips of the lavender plant out front.

Quick Plein Aire

Everything is so gold and dry right now.  September Gold I like to call it.  This is a small 8x8" plein aire piece of the local area near Livermore.  So fortunate to know the ranch owner and have access to his acres of property! The painting is still wet, so it had a little glare when I photographed it this morning.

Yosemite!

Sketching in my moleskine book in Yosemite National Park.

I just returned from a trip to Yosemite with my daughter and my paint. I did a lot of hiking, bike riding, and plenty of sketching. In oil, and in my moleskine sketch book with a small watercolor kit.  It is a tiny book that fits ever so nicely in the front pocket of my backpack.  Many of the tiny sketches will be later turned into studio oil paintings. Stay tuned for images, as paintings are drying.

The Road Less Traveled

What a month!  Trying to work up a lot of paintings for my up coming Walnut Creek Art show.  It is usually my biggest show of the year sales wise.  I like to have a lot to offer.  Walnut Creek is always my first outdoor show of the year.  

I just completed this small 11x14" plein aire piece, "The Road Less Traveled."  Not a car in sight that day reminding me that I was very much alone as I was out painting.  Haven't decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Seemed great at the time, and yet it weebs me out later as I think of all the "what ifs"

Today I am in my studio putting the finishing touches on a 24x30"studio piece.  I kept putting it aside all month to work on smaller paintings.  I want to have a large inventory of small works for my show as I think those just may be the big sellers this year with people having less disposable income as in the past.

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 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.