Thanks Katherine Tyrrell for her “Making a Mark” award for my blog! The award was given for “continued strong focus on sharing information on his blog as well as his commitment to plein air painting”. She also noted my Plein Air Tour of California as a great resource. I’m thinking of using geo-tagging or other … Read more

I took another shot at the painting below. It was sitting in my studio for a while, and I felt something just wasn’t quite right. I lightened the ground, separated the hills a bit from the trees and added some highlights to the clouds. I think it’s an improvement over the previous version…what do you … Read more

I didn’t make it to Blackwood Canyon this year, so I’m relying on old digital photos for this painting of an Aspen grove there. Aspens – Oil on Linen – 12×9″ I’m off to the Russian River area for New Years, and hope to have some paintings of the coast there later in the week.

I know there are many fans of Ovanes Berberian that visit my blog. I’ve just heard from Ray Morrison that his workshop schedule for 2007 is now available. If you’re interested, sign up now as these classes fill up quickly. They are in June at his studio in Idaho. Click here for the Registration Form. … Read more

This is the second painting I did Saturday (here’s the first). I’m really happy with with it, although I’m not sure it “reads” as it should. Of course they’re bluffs, with the sea and a sandy beach just behind. Somehow it feels a bit titled…but I painted it as it was. One thing to note … Read more

I had a great weekend this week! Three good paintings, no scrapes. Everything went so well. Sure, I wish it was a bit warmer, but the light was perfect. I wish I had the time paint a dozen more. Hopefully more of the same as I take a couple of weeks to paint in Sourthern … Read more

It’s a cloudy, cold day today, so I stayed in my “studio” to paint. Looking through my digital photo library, I came across of photo of a rock formation taken at the “golden hour“, ie the time of day when the sun is low on the horizon, creating warm, golden light. My favorite. Here’s my … Read more

It was a rainy, windy, gray day today; but I felt I really needed to get out and paint. So paint I did. Twice. Once interupted by a rainstorm, so waited it out and did another. This is Crystal Springs, a beautiful reservour near our home. Crystal Springs Study 1 – Oil on Linen – … Read more

The other day I wrote about “Sight Painting“, a technique I use similar to a musian’s sight reading that allows me to quickly interpret and paint a scene. I guess the reality is not much interpretation occurs as I’m simply capturing the scene as quickly and accurately (value, color) as possible. Here’re the 4 random … Read more

As you can imagine, this was done from a photograph (digital projected on a TV) given Yosemite is probably covered in snow right now.  I started with transparent washes of oil and built up the painting. Too bad the photo below doesn’t capture much of that…best to see it in person.   Yosemite Valley – … Read more