Great news today! I found out (thanks to painting buddy Walter Porter) that my painting “Secluded Cove” has been selected by Don Demers as a Finalist in the Raymar Art Competition! You may recall that I painted it for my solo show last month in Pacific Grove, and even have a home-made video of the … Read more
I’ve been “tagged” by fellow artist Katerine Tyrrell with “Seven Things”, a sort of blogosphere chain letter. Here are 7 things you probably don’t know about me, and some fellow bloggers I’ve tagged: I met my partner, Mike, on a blind date! Our good friends Ellen and Neil set us up. They both know us … Read more
This is the second study of views from the area around Buena Vista Park. This is actually from the “Scent Garden” of the Park Hill condos across the street from the park, looking South-East. The distant hill is Corona Heights. In this painting, I concentrated on contrasting the natural elements in the top third with … Read more
I’ve startred a series of paintings of views from Buena Vista Park, in San Francisco. This was my first attempt. I’m having fun figuring out a new subject, as I traditionally don’t paint architecture. I’ve found painting it a chore–the perspective, scale, etc, all has to work or it will detract from the painting. It … Read more
One of the ongoing challenges I am working on is a balance between colorism (pushing local color) and tonalism (photographic accurate value and color). A technique I have been using to mix very accurate color I call “brush in front”, which relies on accurate color spot mixing promoted by Charles Hawthorne and Henry Henche (see … Read more
Gold Country Plein Air was the kick-off event for what will be at least five plein air paint-outs I’m scheduled for this year, including: Telluride Plein Air (June 28th-July 4th), Jewel by the Bay (July 17-20), Valona Plein Air (July 28-August 5th), Estes Park Plein Air confirmed yesterday! (August 25), and San Luis Obispo Plein … Read more
Today’s event was a public paint-out on the grounds around Mountain Springs Gold Course. It seemed a bit out of the way to me, but ended up being surprisingly well attended. My guess is there were between 60-100 people there. Most were collector/ameture artists, which was great, because they asked very good questions (not the … Read more
It’s still raining here this morning (supposed to clear, keep your fingers crossed), so I spent the morning fixing the pond in “Mountain Springs Sunset”, and also framed the first three to deliver. Kris (the gallery owner) called this morning. Since it’s raining, she’s setting up still lifes in the gallery, so unless it clears, … Read more
Great morning! Clear, wonderful. Headed up to Pinecrest to paint the late. A bit of a drive (30 miles, and I needed to be back in Sonora for the artist’s lunch), but well worth it. Why? SNOW! At that elevation, yesterday’s rain that produced pain brought today’s gain. I love painting snow…the color of shadows, … Read more
Well, the day started out sweet, with Dottie’s special “Peaches & Cream” French toast. Nice. It was good I ate a nice big breakfast, because I slept much of the day! It rained all morning, so I stayed in, read a book in bed and napped. I love naps 🙂 It did clear up later … Read more