Fall Still Life

oil 9x12 inches Click for purchase info and magnifier I love the colors of Fall. For this painting I grabbed a pumpkin off our front porch, and some leaves from our neighbor's yard. The 1920's silver water pitcher was a great find at a flea market. I left it tarnished, cause that's the way I like it! This is actually the second painting I did from the subject. On the first go-around I did not take my own advice that design is the most important thing, and if the design drawn on your canvas doesn't look good, no amount of excellent painting will improve it. Lesson learned (again!) The more I paint, the more need to learn...and re-learn.

Fall Bouquet -SOLD

oil 12x9 inches click for more accurate color and magnify feature Another painting from the same grocery store bunch. I loved working with all the subtle variations of greens. Greens can be tricky. I don't use any tube greens. I mix all my greens with combinations of ultramarine blue, cad yellow medium, and cad yellow light. For a brighter green I use thalo blue instead. But I almost always add cad red light. Somebody told me once, "Every good green has some red in it." I think it's true. Of course sometimes a careful touch of T white is needed.

Sunflower

oil 12x6x1 1/2 inches click for purchase info and magnifier I prepped this canvas with oil ground. Then for the painting, I toned with burnt umber and wiped it down. The texture and color gave it a stained look that I liked so much, I decided to paint only the objects and no background. The image wraps around the sides. I really like the rustic look of this, and I LOVE the eucalyptus. The blue-greens are so yummy! After this, I went driving around looking for eucalyptus trees I could cut from for future paintings. I found some gigantic unattended ones in dairyland. Woo hoo!!! Here's the painting leaning on our fence so you can see how it wraps around the sides.

Armstrong's Fountain

oil 16x12 inches (painting), framed. click for purchase information and zoom feature I loved this fountain the minute I found it in the courtyard at Armstrong's Nursery. The lion heads got me first, and then the sound of the water. The dappled light was appealing and challenging too. This is one of those pieces that invites your eye to wander rather than making a simple bold statement. Though I think it's well painted, it received no recognition in the plein air competition. Ah well...there's always next year. I'll just keep on painting.

The frame is wood, 2 1/4 inches wide, dark cherry.

Pismo Sands

oil 9x12 not for sale Of the paintings I did at the Fair, this is one of my favorites. I plan to paint a larger version, which is why it's not for sale. Tomorrow is the Tustin Art Walk and I'm all packed and ready. Armstrong's Nursery there in Old Town Tustin gave me permission to set up in their patio area and paint their beautiful fountain. So for the past three mornings I painted in the shade listening to the fountains nearby. Not a bad deal! Hope to get a good shot of the finished painting tomorrow morning before I take it to the judging area. Thinking about coming out for the Art Walk? There'll be 60 artist booths, live music and wine tasting too! I'll be near the corner of Prospect and Main. Come say hi and hang out a while!

The Camp Store

oil 9x12 inches click for purchase information and zoom Every evening while camping in Big Sur the sun seemed to go down so quickly behind the big redwoods. The little camp store would glow in the shadows, inviting campers inside. They had a little bit of anything you might need. Today I painted in Old Town Tustin. I hope to get a good painting by Friday for the Plein Air Competition on Saturday. If you're local, I hope you'll come out and enjoy the day. The weather will be cooperating this year. Come enjoy the art and live music. For more info, click here.

Redwood Shadows -sold

oil 16x12 inches click for purchase information and zoom In August we took our little RV up the coast to Pismo Beach, then Big Sur. Our favorite was a quiet spot near the Big Sur River surrounded by huge redwoods. One day we rode our mountain bikes on HWY 1 to Pfieffer Big Sur State Park where we then hiked to Pfieffer Falls. Not an easy hike for us, but beautiful. Never having painted a forest scene before, I figured it would be a challenge, and it was. But I loved how the light made the red bark glow, so I thought it would be fun to try it in paint. In the painting and in my photo file, the tree trunks are in rich dark shadow. I don't know why the whole painting is lighter when posted to Blogger. To see an accurate image click here: My gallery at Daily Paintworks.

Blue On Blue

oil 6x6 inches click for purchase information and zoom I always enjoy painting these tiny Dutch ceramics pieces. This time my friend, Elizabeth offered me a selection of her collage papers to place it on. While painting this at the fair, I got a great question from a field trip chaperone. Looking at my usual palette of colors she asked, "If what you're painting is all blue and white, then why do you have all those other colors (on your palette)?" I explained that almost nothing in real life is color straight out of the tube, and that also the color is different depending on whether it is in light or shadow, close to you or far away. I explained how I need the three primaries and white all the time to make subtle variations of color. I showed her quickly with little dabs of color. She was fascinated! This was my favorite question for the whole month of the fair. Basic color theory. It's really very simple. I wondered, why don't we all learn this in school like counting and the alphabet? There's an amazing world of color around us all the time, and the more you understand about color, the more amazing it is!!! UPCOMING EVENTS: Tustin Art Walk and Plein Air Competition Saturday, Oct 19. 10:00 am - 4:00 pm, Old Town Tustin.

Pottery And Poms

oil 8x16 inches click for purchase information and zoom Last of the pomegranate paintings for now. This is an old honey pot I still love though the lid broke years ago. I included the sticks for linear elements, otherwise everything would be curvy. UPCOMING EVENTS: Tustin Art Walk and Plein Air Competition, Saturday, October 19th. I'll paint on the streets of Old Town Tustin the 16 through the 18th. Then I'll bring lots of work for viewing and sale in my booth on the 19th. More later on my exact location. It's a fun day of art an music not to be missed! This painting is available at Vander Molen Fine Art, Arcadia, CA.

Pom With Sticks -SOLD

oil 6x6 inches click for purchase information and zoom Here's number two of three pomegranate paintings I did at the fair. We're back from a great little camping trip to the beach which included sunshine, biking and a nice dinner out to celebrate our 39th anniversary. One day I even pulled on my old wetsuit to romp in the surf 'till I decided the romp was a bit too rough for me, and no lifeguard either. Didn't want anybody to have to tell my six grandkids that Gramma drowned trying to body surf!! How humiliating! HA! One more pomegranate painting after this and then it's on to a variety of things I painted at the fair....25 paintings was my final total. Not that the number matters of course, but hey...I was just keepin' busy.