A Bright New Day - Karen Winters Daily Painting
“A Bright New Day” (Chevy Chase Golf Course, Glendale CA) 11 x 14 oil on canvas
This is the last of the paintings for the Chevy Chase show - started plein air, final touches in studio.
This painting, along with the others, was delivered yesterday. Reception is this Friday, March 14, 4:30 - 6:30
I had the pleasure of watching Elio Camacho demonstrate a still life oil painting this past weekend at the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association meeting. In addition to doing a terrific painting, he offered some very valuable suggestions about plein air painting. Among them: paint what’s going to change first. He told a story about painting a seascape at Carmel. Some of his workshop students began painting the sky after blocking-in, but he cautioned them to first paint the rock shadows and reflected light- parts of the scene that would change radically over the course of two hours - the average amount of time one spends painting a scene outdoors.
In my painting above, I did paint the shadows under the trees first, knowing that they would move. The painting was started about 9:30 in the morning, the “after” photo is closer to 11:45. You can see how the foreground hillside is no longer in shade (as it was when the sun was lower) but is now in more direct overhead sun.
Great advice, Miss Karen! And you obviously used it masterfully…
How green is the grass! And a Chevy Chase golf course - is it normal or a bit crazy? Our lawns are almost dust with the drought, dried up and a beige colour.
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I would have had a difficult time getting a pencil sketch in let alone a painting! I really admire your work and what you have done with color. Beautiful!
Beautiful work.
Wow, what a clear example of how shadows move! You are so productive–it amazes me. Thanks for the tip.
So lush, Karen. Have a great day at
the Chevy Chase show.
Lovely. Best of luck for the show.
This is so SPRING!!! Great piece of advice, thanks for passing it along. Best of luck in the show.
wonderful adivce and a beautiful painting. great work Karen! all the best for the show.
You always have such interesting subjects for your paintings. I never would have thought to go to one of our Golf Clubs to do a drawing - or a painting. Maybe only if they were as interesting as yours seem to be.
I love the lush greens in your painting! I can almost feel the velvety texture of your grass. Can’t wait to actually walk barefoot in the grass again. not for a while, I think.
Great advice about painting changeable elements first. This is one of those things that is so easy to forget thinking about in the moment of sketching. Thanks for the reminder.
Good luck with the Art Show!
I had no idea that you were in the crowd. I visit your blog often and would have loved to chat.
I was very nervous but I am so glad you enjoyed the demo. Glad to see you trying some of the things I mentioned.
I don’t know if Alice has told you yet but I locked down some dates for a workshop in Pasadena.
Here is the link in case your or some of your readers are interested.
http://www.blog.eliocamacho.com/the-workshops/pasadena-plein-air-workshop
Till next time…happy painting!
Another of my favorite Elio-isms is “paint the dog before the fleas” — I think he got that from his mentor but it’s such good advice. It’s so tempting to paint the details too soon. I love all that lush spring green!