Lean on Me – Fan Palms – Plein Air Oil Landscape Painting
“Lean on Me”
9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
(Fan Palms in Fallbrook, CA)
This friendly palm twosome caught my attention on Wednesday morning at the Libby Tolley workshop. Our assignment was to find a composition that interested us and to paint it in two hours before the light changed. The week got progressively cooler, with atmospheric mornings and more brilliant sunsets. Capturing the quality of cool morning light was one of the many enjoyable challenges we rose to. This painting represents the moment where the morning fog is just starting to burn off, when the sun catches the edge of the palm fronds. Close to the ground the mist still hovers and swirls. But higher up, the clouds are breaking up to reveal a brilliant blue sky.
More palms in other workshop paintings to come …
What I love about workshops – going somewhere new to paint – meeting other artists and making new friends – getting immediate critiques and suggestions about one’s work “in the moment” – the fun of experimenting and trying new solutions to common painting problems – seeing how other people paint a similar scene – feeling tired but satisfied at the end of the day.
Morning at the Ranch – Libby Tolley plein air painting workshop
Morning at the Ranch (Fallbrook) by Karen Winters
8 x 10 inch
plein air oil painting on canvas panel
This past week I had the pleasure of spending five days in a plein air painting workshop with Elizabeth (Libby) Tolley, who is a remarkable central California coast painter. The curriculum for each day built upon the day before, taking us from a demonstration of how she sets up her palette and mixes accurate color quickly to the uses of a quick-drying medium for underpainting. There’s too much detail to share it all here, and besides, it’s all in her North Light book Oil Painter’s Solution Book 
On Monday of the first day, the temperatures were in the 90s by early morning, so instead of going on location and sweltering, our demo was done in the classroom at the Fallbrook School of the Arts. On the second day, we went out to a rural location and were given an hour to do a small painting exercise for mixing greens. This painting was the result. Composition wasn’t the primary goal here – identifying the color and getting it down was. I did touch this up a bit back in the studio to add some details and refine some brushwork, but I didn’t change it much.
Libby is an excellent teacher as well as a gifted painter. She’s clear and precise in her instruction, well-organized, flexible in the face of changing conditions and very down-to-earth in her teaching style. No question is off limits and she is generous in sharing her knowledge.
More about the workshop (and more of my on-site studies) as the week goes on.
Valley Girls – Landscape oil painting – Cows on ranch in Central California
Valley Girls
8 x 10
oil on canvas on birch panel
SOLD
This painting is the result of a test of a new panel I’m working on – a very fine canvas, primed for oil painting and then attached to a birch panel with acid-free archival glue. I didn’t have time to get out today so I used some reference sketches and photos to compose this peaceful scene of a valley in central California.
Although I like the “spring” of stretched canvas, these panels are very light, portable and good for plein air studies.
As I painted this, it started to have sort of a folk art feeling, so rather than fighting it, I just went with it and had fun with the process.
California Plein Air Farm Painting – Peaceful Valley – Karen Winters
Peaceful Valley Farm
9 x 12 inches
plein air oil painting
SOLD
Last week I noticed that the theme on the Creative Construction blog was “farm” and that jogged my memory of this farm study, painted last fall, up around the Santa Ynez Valley. I don’t know the location since we were driving around without a GPS. So I found it in my archives and put on a few finishing touches and here it is.
Today my project is to make canvas panels for a workshop I’ll be attending in Fallbrook the week after next. Someone asked me recently about the importance of study in painting. I think that it’s essential to be a perpetual student, either literally, as in taking classes and workshops, or self-study by learning from nature.
When I’m riding in the car with my husband, if we’re not talking, I’m constantly observing and making mental notes about the landscape. It might be the color of the clouds when the light is coming at a certain angle, or the value difference between the light-struck part of a bush and the underbrush on a bright day. I might think about how I’d mix a certain shadow color that I see on the hills, or the sort of brushstroke I’d use to convey the softness of a field of grass vs. the roughness of a broken stump. We are not just painters when we sit or stand at the easel. We are painters every moment of the day (and sometimes, when we are asleep, too.)
Tuscany Oil Painting – “Tuscan Sunshine” – Karen Winters
“Tuscan sunshine”
6 x 8 oil on canvas
Clicking the image will enlarge it.
SOLD. But I have more paintings on my website
If you’re interested in this painting, please write.
On a cold rainy February day, this small study of Tuscany warms me to the core. The vineyards below may be growing the grapes for a fine Chianti. Cypress trees gently sway in the breeze. I want to walk down that hill and rest in the shade of a small orchard. Someday soon, I hope.
High Sierra Landscape Painting – Bishop, Owens Valley
High Sierra Fall Color
(a ranch near Bishop, in the Owens Valley)
14 x 18 oil on canvas
SOLD
As I continue with my High Sierra fall series, this painting portrays a tranquil pasture land, which I’m pretty sure is named Round Valley. It’s near Bishop. The peaks may be Mt. Morgan and Mt. Abbot, or perhaps the one on the right is Mt. Tom. I’m not too good with my geography of that region, so I’d appreciate knowing the names so I can be accurate.
Wisconsin Breeze – American Impressionist Farmland Oil Painting – Karen Winters
“Wisconsin Breeze”
5 x 7 oil on canvas on board
On our recent trip to Illinois for our daughter’s graduation, we took some time to cross the border to the north and enjoy some of the farmland of one of my husband’s favorite states.
This small study reflects the serene beauty of the southeast part of the state. The day we were there the sky was filled with cumulus clouds which occasionally sprinkled a little, then drifted on.
