Quote of the Day

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Came accross this while looking at art magazines today, a lazy July 4th weekend: “People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it’s simply necessary to love”. – Claude Monet 

Ovanes-like still life

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I painted this small, 8×10 still life study Wed. night.  I only had a short time to paint, and since my goal is to paint every day, thought I’d better paint something.  Anything.  It was too late to go out, so I picked some flowers from our garden, found a vase, table cloth, and set … Read more

Hillside Light

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I worked on this paintings a couple of days, again trying to implement some of the ideas I learned in Ovanes Berberian’s workshop.  Had fun with this one. In the end, I liked the sense of light, but wonder if I should simplify it?  Is it too busy?   Hillside Light – Oil on Linen … Read more

Teaser: The “Best Spots” Painting Tour

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Fellow art blogger Katherine Tyrrel (“Making a Mark”) is planning a trip to California, and asked me about painting locations.  I started putting together a list (spots from San Mateo County to Los Angeles County) and realized what a great blog post it would make!  So, the project is snowballing a bit into something that … Read more

Central Coast National Fine Art Competition

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Great news! I’ve just learned that this competition has accepted two of my paintings for their show August 10 – September 17, 2006 at at the Morro Bay Art Association. I will not be able to make the reception, but it is Saturday, August 12, 7-10pm. Here are the paintings accepted: Last Light, Eucalyptus Oil … Read more

Being Subtle

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Today, I choose a subject where I could exercise some control, subtlety. In the water, I focused on slight shifts in warm/cool colors. “Simple Seascape”, Oil on Linen, 8×10 A good way to judge whether your values are correct, is to look at your painting in greyscale, as shown below. This “reads” well in black/white, … Read more

Ovanes Berberian: My Demo of His Technique.

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Since I was not allowed to photograph Ovanes Berberian’s demos, a few artists have asked me to show them the process using one of my own paintings. So here goes! REFERENCE. (ON LOCATION) First, here’s the reference photo. I have to get a body of work that represents the San Francisco Peninsula for the Peninsula … Read more

Ovanes Berberian Workshop, Day 5

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This has been an exhausting week, but I learned a lot. The painting on the left is my last effort, which I think is a big improvement over the week. Click the image on the left to see details/enlarge. I’m going to add a few things (eg, light reflected off the bottle), but it’s near … Read more

Ovanes Berberian Workshop, Day 4

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We were supposed to paint ouitside this morning, but it rained so Ovanes took us into his studio for a slide show. We then painted all afternoon at a small lake part of the Snake River. The slide show was great. In addition to showing us other masters the he admires (Sergi Bongard, J.Sorolla, etc), … Read more

Ovanes Berberian Workshop, Day 3

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Still making progress. I’m learning a lot from Ovanes, such a generous teacher. Today I focused on the area he asked me to work on: “raw color” (include more sophisticated grays, I need to build up to the color). I was able to create the strings of pure color and grays on my palette, but … Read more