California Plein Air Landscape: Nine of Forty

I painted this 9"x12" oil painting over the course of three hours this morning. I started with a varnish wash underpainting, then continued with thicker layers, alternating with the transparent underpainting. I was particularly interested in warm versus cool colors, transparency versus opacity, and lost and found edges. I was drawn to the tree and it's reflection in the water.

California Landscape: Impressionism, Continued

I painted again this morning! This is a variation on the theme of the "Country Road" painting I did yesterday. This, too, is a 6"x8" oil painting on mahogany luan panel. I used a varnish wash as the underpainting. Colors used were: ultramarine blue, carbazone violet, transparent red oxide, cadmium orange, hansa yellow orange, cadmium yellow orange, and titanium white.

California Landscape: Impressionism

I enjoyed painting this plein air California landscape alla prima in my studio yesterday. I particularly like to paint landscapes that have water scenes. I enjoy the reflection of the trees in the water.
This painting is called : "Reflecting Pool" and was purchased by a collector of mine as soon as it was posted at Facebook yesterday!
The colors used are: ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, carbazole violet, prussian blue, cadmium green, cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium yellow orange, hansa yellow orange, cadmium orange, transparent red oxide, and titanium white.

Baylands: Late June

"Baylands: Late June" is a painting I painted today in my studio. This is a 9"x12" oil painting on mahogany luan panel. I referenced an earlier work from late May that was on a 9"x11.5" panel.
Colors used were: ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, carbazole violet, transparent red oxide, hansa yellow orange, cadmium orange, cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow orange, cadmium green, and titanium white.

Baylands: Three Cubed

This painting was painted on May 27, 2009. I painted this 'alla prima' in two hours. I used a transparent varnish wash underpainting, which has watercolor-like properties. Thicker paint was applied on top of the underpainting. Colors used were: transparent red oxide, hansa yellow orange, carbazole violet, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium green, cadmium yellow orange, quinacridone red, and titanium white.

Painting On A Pier At The Baylands

It was another spectacular apring day at the Baylands. The group (California Academy of Painters) painted on a pier today and it felt like being on a sailboat! It was exhilirating and it showed in everyone's paintings! This particular painting is a study in foreground and the multicolored hues and variations in temperature of the spring marshland ground. Being there was a meditation on the wonders of nature!

Big Sky Cumulus Clouds in Aptos

I was inspired yesterday and today by the gigantic cumulus clouds in the Santa Cruz sky. On my drive home from Palo Alto yesterday, the sky was roiling with puffy clouds. I decided to capture some of this feeling in this painting, a further exploration of my "Big Sky" paintings.

"Blustery Baylands" Chosen For 79th Annual Statewide Landscape Exhibition

This painting: "Blustery Baylands" was chosen by juror and nationally known landscape painter, Kevin McPherson, to be in the 79th Annual Statewide Landscape Exhibition at the Santa Cruz Art League May 30-June 29, 2009 (Reception: June 6, 2009, 3-5 pm). The title for the exhibition is: "Irreplaceable Places: The California Landscape".

I feel that the Baylands in Palo Alto is one of those "irreplaceable places", untouched by development, where nature and the human spirit soars!

Lyrical Landscape

It was another windswept day at the Palo Alto Baylands. I noticed a significant increase in wildflowers and variations in the colors of the landscape, including more yellows, yellow greens, russets, and violets. In this painting, I left more translucent passages than I have previously; in particular, the sky is all translucent and the water is mostly varnish wash!

Windswept Day At The Palo Alto Baylands

It was another cold, blustery day at the baylands.
The clouds were moving, as were the trees, grasses, and water. It still feels like winter, these last few days.
In this painting, I started with a varnish wash which is very fluid and drippy. After it dries, I add the next layer with thicker paint and allow some of the thin, translucent varnish layer to show through. In the sky, mountain, and water I used quinacridone red, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, and carbazole violet. The lighter clouds have titanium white with a touch of cadmium orange. The trees are mixtures including: payne's gray, carbazole violet, and green mixtures. The foreground includes: carbazole violet, russet (mix of carbazole violet and cadmium orange and white), various oranges (hansa yellow orange, cadmium yellow orange), and greens mixed with yellow/oranges.

Translucency With Oil/Varnish Washes

This painting started out as a very fluid oil/varnish wash of various colors. Much of the foreground is the original varnish wash! I am painting on mahogany luan panels that I've prepared with three coats of acrylic gesso. The size of this painting is 9"x12". The wash for the sky was rather light, so I painted over this with cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, carbazole violet for the sky and transparent red oxide/titanium white mixture for the clouds. Carbazole violet was brought into the foreground as a wash in some of the dark areas, in order to harmonize with the sky and darks of the trees.

En Plein Air: Further Refinements

This is the other 'blustery day' painting I refined in the studio. I intensified the sky with cobalt blue and brought this color into the distant foreground, along with carbazole violet mixtures and cool greens. I warmed the violets and greens as I came forward in the foreground and added oranges and yellows, as well. I left a great deal of transparency in the trees.

Painting Like There's No Tomorrow!

I painted for hours today in my solarium. There's something about getting into the rhythm of painting where there is no sense of time. I love when this happens.
I finished up a painting I started a few days ago at the Palo Alto Baylands. I was interested in the very dramatic, darker sky of that day. In particular, I'm drawn to the raspberry and blue violet colors in this sky.

Blustery Day At The Baylands In Palo Alto

It was a wild, blustery day at the Baylands today. There were about twenty of us out there, painting away while the wind blew. Several easels blew over, as well as palettes and paintings!
It was exhilirating! I felt so alive! I was interested in capturing the big sky, dramatic clouds, windswept look and the beautiful greens, violets, and oranges of the foreground with impasto strokes.