Carpinteria Bluffs Painting – Central California landscape by Karen Winters – KWinters
Carpinteria Bluffs Sunset
Oil Painting 8 x 10
SOLD
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
The end of the day at Carpinteria bluffs provides an opportunity to work out with the secondary colors – orange, violet and green. The Santa Ynez mountains glow in the fading light.
Ecologically, this is described as a coastal sage environment. Typically you will find black sage, white sage, California buckwheat (the reddish brown plant, in fall) as well as toyon and brittlebrush.
The Spanish colonists named the area Carpinteria because this was a place where Native American Chumash people once built their sea-going canoes (using tar which oozes naturally from the sea bed.) Carpinteria is spanish for “carpenter shop.”
Yosemite Half Dome Oil Painting – California Sierra Landscape – Karen Winters KWinters
Half Dome, Yosemite
Oil painting on canvas
8 x 10 inches
SOLD
See more of my Yosemite paintings here
In the summer, Half Dome, the iconic representation of Yosemite (it’s even their park logo) rises about a meadow filled with marshy grasses and strewn with wildflowers. When we were there in mid summer, I noticed something moving not far from me in the meadow. Suddenly, a large mule deer stood up. He had four prongs on each antler so I guess that would make him an 8-point buck. After looking around and seeing us, he casually walked a few yards, then settled down again. I got a decent photo of him. Maybe I’ll paint that some day.
Sierra Breezes Oil Painting – California Sierra Landscape by Karen Winters KWinters
Sierra Breezes
11 x 14 oil on canvas
Sierra oil painting
SOLD
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
For the last few years, fall means visits to the Sierra and, at its feet, the Owens Valley. Not only do I love it for its serenity but also the exhilarating complementary color palette. This time of year everything is orange/gold and blue. Leaves tumble with every breeze that passes through. Sometimes a storm barrels through and turns a brilliantly colored tree into a sleeping skeleton in one night. My attempt in this painting was to capture a more gentle mood near Bishop – a lightly breezy day before the soon-to-arrive storms.
In a little less than 2 weeks, I’ll be taking some of my new work to the last Montrose Art Walk of the year. This will be my last outdoor show this season.
Sierra Oil Painting – Rush Creek – June Lake Loop – Karen Winters – KWinters
“Rush Creek Overlook”
12 x 9 inches
Sierra Oil Painting
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
The June Lake loop (off highway 395, in California) has several areas where you can pull off the road and look down onto meandering streams. This viewpoint of Rush Creek (between Silver Lake and Grant Lake) was on a bright overcast day, and the hazy whitened sky made the stream look more white then blue. I liked the striking contrast with the straw colored marsh-meadow and the deep blue shaded mountainside in the distance. I used a very limited palette for this study – mostly ultramarine blue, yellow ochre and cadmium yellow light. A few tiny bits of burnt sienna and cad red added warm notes.
I have it on good authority that all those little nooks and crannies along the creek are filled with hungry rainbow and brown trout. Is it true? Fisherfolk, do tell!
Huntington Gardens Tea Room and Rose Garden – San Marino
Huntington Gardens
Tea Room and Rose Garden
Oil Painting
11 x 14 inches – oil on canvas
This is a plein air painting that I did a few years ago, and somehow it escaped being photographed and posted to my blog. A recent conversation prompted me to revisit it and I discovered that it was missing from my site.
Not too long ago we renewed our Huntington membership and I’m looking forward to visiting again when the camellias are in bloom. On a trip a few weeks ago, they had a California landscape exhibit which I enjoyed, along with other permanent collection work in the Paul and Heather Sturt Haaga gallery. If you live in Southern California and you’re not a member of the Huntington, what are you waiting for?
A Wedding Painting in Arizona – Karen Winters Live Event Painter
The Wedding Reception of Stacey and Todd
May 1, 2010 – Scottsdale, AZ
24 x 36
SOLD – wedding oil painting on canvas
This week I shipped the painting I’ve been working on over the past few months – a wedding painting based upon plein air sketches done at the event. I heard tonight that it had been happily received by the newlyweds who are no doubt reliving memories of a wonderful event.
My on-site study provided all the information I needed to do this studio piece for their new home. They were a pleasure to work with every step of the process, and I hope this piece will bring them joy for many years to come.
The couple selected the wedding reception location based in part on the beauty of the courtyard tree, illuminated at night, so that was the focus of the painting. They were not interested in having recognizable people, but rather wanted to capture the mood and romance of the setting, allowing the forms of the guests to merge with the background as abstract shapes.
The clutter of tables and chairs would also be a distraction, so we eliminated them. On the night of the reception, the lights didn’t work in the bougainvillea in the background, but I painted them as they would have been had the lighting gone as planned. Improvisation is part of the plein air painter’s bag of tricks – and with each experience we learn new ways to adapt and create.
A lot of people ask me if it stresses me out to do this kind of painting. Surprisingly, it doesn’t. Maybe it’s because I do a lot of live event painting – the first time was certainly more challenging. But I think it’s also that the happiness of the event keeps my energy going. And as a live event painter I’m there not only to capture a visual impression of the evening but to be one of the “cast of players” who provide entertainment. Interacting with the guests and talking about what I’m doing is part of the job. So my husband and I made a weekend of it, enjoying the sights of Sedona along the way, making memories and charming new friends, too.
Have a wedding coming up in California or the western states?
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Cambria Pines Oil Painting – Santa Rosa Creek Trail, Central Coast, California
“Cambria Pines Sunset”
(on the Santa Rosa Creek Trail)
Oil Painting
16 x 12 inches
Oil on Canvas
Among the places we painted in Central Coast was the Santa Rosa Creek Trail, which goes inland from Cambria.
The trail is a part of the land cared for by the San Luis Obispo Land Conservancy, which hosted us on our paint out.
Santa Rosa Creek winds through beautiful hills and valleys until it finds its outlet.
Bishop Peak Oil Painting, San Luis Obispo, Central Coast California Art
“Farm at Bishop Peak”
San Luis Obispo, Central Coast
oil painting
14 x 18 inches
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
When I was painting in San Luis Obispo County earlier this spring with the California Art Club, I was especially attracted to the numerous large peaks that rise from the city of San Luis Obispo out to the sea, the last of which is Morro Rock. Bishop Peak (sometimes called Bishop’s Peak) is one of the Nine Sisters. Technically they are “volcanic plugs,” and the volcanoes that rose above them are long gone. Bishop Peak is the tallest of the formations, and it was noted in the diary of John Muir who wrote:
“The trail brings the traveler suddenly in sight of
Bishop Peak … The town is fairly encircled with beautiful hills…
the one just named being most conspicuous.”
The soft afternoon light and atmospheric mist from the sea made this a picture of rural tranquility that held great appeal for me.
Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco painting – Baker Beach Oil Painting
“Golden Grandeur”
San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge oil painting
18 x 24 oil on canvas
The Golden Gate bridge stretches gracefully across the bay as sailboats return from a day’s excursion. The viewpoint is from Baker Beach, the romantic site of countless wedding proposals and weddings.
I’m so accustomed to doing Colorado Street Bridge paintings (Pasadena, California) that I thought it was about time that I painted one of the most famous bridges of all. To be sure, it won’t be the last time.
The day we were out there it was cool and breezy and the fog and clouds were swirling around the bridge in beautiful patterns. When we viewed the bridge later, the sky was crystal clear. The following morning, from our hotel room, all we could see of the bridge was the tops of the tallest towers. It was quite a view.
Pasadena Rose Bowl Painting – First Night Fireworks – Pasadena Pops
“First Night Fireworks
Pasadena Pops at the Rose Bowl”
16 x 12 oil on wood panel
See more Pasadena and Rose Bowl paintings here
This painting is the 2nd place winner of the 2010 Pasadena Artwalk Competition. The Artwalk will be held Saturday, October 9, from 10 – 5 pm on El Molino Street in Pasadena, between Colorado Blvd. and Green Street.
The theme of this year’s Artwalk competition was “Art and Culture in Pasadena.” Because the Pasadena Pops and Pasadena Symphony orchestras bring so much cultural richness to the city, I decided to paint the closing act of the first show of the 2010 season. This year, the Pops is at a new venue on the lawn next to the Rose Bowl and fireworks provided an exciting finish to the June concert. I have not painted fireworks before (and this was a studio painting, not from life) but it was a lot of fun to do. Who knows, there may be other explosions in my future. Look closely and you’ll see that of course, there are eucalyptus trees in it – silhouetted by the pyrotechnics.
In 2008, this painting of mine, “El Molino Afternoon,” took First Prize and went home with a nice family who lived on the street.
