Arroyo Seco morning – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Arroyo Seco Morning – 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas on board
As I am still recovering from my cold, I decided I didn’t want to risk a setback painting in oil with mineral spirits so I painted this small study in acrylic. No smell, no muss, no fuss. I can hardly wait to give it a coat of varnish and see the colors glow.
Although I will never lose my passion for watercolor and oil, I have to say that acrylic is growing on me – especially when it’s cold outside and I can’t have my studio window open for ventilation. Colors mix the same and there is so much in common with both oil and watercolor that it feels quite comfortable to me. Plus, acrylic allows you to do things that are just impossible in either oil or watercolor. Because it dries almost immediately you can layer and glaze as the spirit moves you – no waiting a day to come back and do that. And if you glaze a light wash on a dry layer and don’t like the effect – wipe it off (You sure can’t do that in watercolor.) Paint thick or paint thin – use washes or heavy brushwork. It’s really an amazing medium. Scumble, use a palette knife, get painterly – acrylic lets you do it.
This is a scene in Hahamongna Park, which is the upper arroyo seco and lies between Pasadena and my town, La Canada Flintridge. Right now the willows have turned yellow and tomorrow during the rainstorm the arroyo will be full of rushing water coursing out of the San Gabriel Mountains. One of these days (when I’m feeling better) I want to go down there when it’s raining or right after and see the power of nature. Don’t worry, I won’t do anything stupid like trying to go out in a wild river – I’m happy to watch it from high up on the riverbank.
A distant view – daily painting
“A distant view” – watercolor sketch on paper
The cold and flu season has left me a sniffling, coughing, Vicks-laden mess, so I’m trying to not exacerbate the situation by inhaling copious quantities of odorless mineral spirits without a window open for ventilation. (It’s cold outside.) So instead, I’m keeping warm, drinking lots of tea and doing some watercolor studies in preparation for larger paintings, to be completed at a later time. But it still fits within my yearly goals, and I’m content with that.
A word about goals and plans. Many of our art friends are making goal lists this time of year, and I see at least two different types of plans. Some goals are highly specific and detailed, often including numbers of types of works to be drawn or painted, or lists of subjects to be tackled. I think that this can work very well for people who enjoy structure and thrive on that – and you are to be congratulated for having thought through your plans in such detail. And there are others, myself included, who work better with a few broad guidelines and plenty of room for variety. I also find that I produce more when I set my goals low and try to exceed them than when I set them too high and then feel internally nagged to do “too much.”
So whether you’re a wonderfully detailed goal-setter or a ‘big umbrella’ goal setter, I encourage you to be thoughtful about your plans and allow room for the unexpected to happen. You may have intended to work on pen and ink drawing – but then you synchronistically meet a pastellist whose work just blows you away – and who is offering a workshop within driving distance. Sometimes these chance meetings can have extraordinarily wonderful consequences, so leave room in your plans for serendipity, without judging yourself for changing mid-stream.
Fixed forecasts may work in the financial sector but artists need to have room to course correct as the muse moves them. Now, I’m not saying you should “change your major” with every passing whim – that’s a good way to end up going in circles. But do allow yourself the freedom to be inspired by new ideas, and to follow those interests where they lead – even if they weren’t on your radar in January.
Pasadena Colorado Street Bridge – 2007
Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge – 8 x 10 oil
SOLD
As the new year approaches, over a million people will make the pilgrimage to Pasadena, California for the Rose Parade. And perhaps one of our most elegant local landmarks is the Colorado Street Bridge, which I’ve painted several times this year and will no revisit in 2008. It spans the Arroyo Seco, along with the 134 freeway bridge, which can be seen in the background.
Now, onto my look back at some of my favorite art from the past year:
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July. “Sunset Trail” The Cobb Estate in Pasadena is a wild place in the foothills that is just minutes from the downtown. This painting gave me the opportunity to paint a sunset glow – a theme I’d continue throughout the rest of the year. |  |
August. This painting was done as an entry into a California Art Club juried competition – featuring scenes of Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley area. It’s hanging at Marston’s restaurant right now. I wasn’t doing a lot of architectural subjects at that time, so the challenge was a good one for me. |
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September. This painting, of Zuma Beach at Malibu, was painted for my first show at the Descanso Gardens Gallery. |
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October. I got the notification that this painting had been accepted into Watercolor West, a national transparent watercolor show. It’s radically different from other watercolors I’ve done but it was SO much fun to paint. This painting is currently at the Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California |
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November. With fall persimmons appearing in the market, I picked up a few and painted a classic realistic still life setup with a complimentary color scheme. This painting is currently at the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association Gallery at the Artist of the Year show.. |
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December. If I had to pick one favorite painting of the year, this might be it Another sunset seascape, but more chromatic than Winging Home. This painting is currently at the Descanso Gardens Art Gallery in La Canada Flintridge. |
Coming up soon … a look back at my 2007 art goals, and some new goals for 2008
Winter Peace
Winter Peace – 12 x 16 oil on canvas
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On a day like this, with new evidence of the world’s continuing strife and disharmony, I’m posting this recent painting with a wish for peace and harmony in the coming year. My rational side knows that such a wish is unlikely to be fulfilled anytime soon, but the alternative is resignation to despair. And I’m not ready to take that curmudgeonly step.
In the next few days I’ll post a brief retrospective of my art year, looking back on 2007 goals and setting some new ones for the future.
Fall in Winter – in La Canada
Fall in Winter – 9 x 12 watercolor
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Today is the winter solstice and here in La Canada, California, the sycamores finally decided to show some fall color. All I can say is “it’s about time!” This is an impressionistic painting of Flint Canyon – an equestrian trail that borders a small creek here in our town. Due to the recent rains the water was plentiful, reflecting a brilliant blue sky (not shown — you’ll just have to imagine it). One of these days I’m going to go back to Hall Canyon and see how the sycamores are doing up there – and hope that there won’t be any mountain lions about.
This was painted with a very large round brush, quickly, and with a lot of thick, rich paint. The time of day depicted is about 11 am – and look how low the light is … you can tell by the light-struck sides of trees. If it were later in the year everything would be in deep shade with no sideways light.
A few things about leaves. Experienced teachers have always cautioned (whether painting in oil or watercolor) not to paint every leaf on a tree because it looks too fussy. Rather, paint the mass of leaves and then put a few distinct leaf shapes in to suggest the rest. Viewers are pretty clever, and we don’t have to put in minute details get the idea across. I think it’s rather like telling a good joke. If you have to explain it, it didn’t work.
Pond in the Woods
Pond in the Woods – 7.5 x 7 inches – watercolor
As I come to the conclusion of this winter series, I felt an urge to return to my roots in watercolor and to see how my experience of the medium has changed. As I have done in the past, I did no preliminary drawing of this rather abstract design. It was painted entirely with a No. 36 Goliath Round brush. It was my intention not to get too detailed here but to use negative painting to suggest some of the natural forms and to allow the viewer to have their own interpretation. I chose to use a limited palette to reflect the subtle colors of winter – the only spot of warm is in a pile of rocks in the middle ground.
Winter Road – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Winter Road” – 8 x 10 acrylic on canvas board
Today’s painting has an unusual origin. I wanted to do another snowscape – perhaps a winding road type of picture as I’ve done of some fall and spring scenes. But I lacked a photo reference to work from and there’s no snow close by. So I took another picture of a summer scene and imagined what it might look like after a blanket of snow. This is the result. The thinking through process meant that I had to invent what was behind the foreground trees – because I couldn’t see through their summer garb. The real terrain was actually rather flat and I wanted to see more billowing drifted snow, which meant modeling mounds, thinking about lights and darks created by those mounds, and the color of the shadows. The cast shadows of the trees also helped describe the terrain. I decided that I would have the sun coming from the left, so I’ve touched a little warm color into the snowdrifts on the sunward side. A rural mailbox was added to clarify that this is a road, not a frozen river
An exercise like this causes me to think more about what I am painting rather than just copying it. How many cast shadows do I want to include? What color? What shape? Where do they fall? What is my pattern of darks and lights? What colors do I want to introduce for variety? Most importantly, what is the mood that I want to create?
One of my goals for the new year is to try to be even more observant about nature, wherever I may be. That means looking more closely at some of the details I’ve mentioned. It means noticing the effects of atmosphere on different days. It means looking at the structure of trees and shrubs and carefully noting their peculiar growth habits. I think that this practice will help a great deal with plein air painting as well.
I know that a lot of the US is laboring to clear away heavy snow left by blizzard conditions. In California we tend to romanticize and glamorize snow because we get so little of it. So this is my way of enjoying a white Christmas when the real thing is still a faraway dream.
The Woods in White – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“The Woods in White” – 8 x 10 – oil on canvas on board
High in the mountains above Los Angeles (near Big Bear) we are finally getting snow. Of course it’s the snowmaking equipment at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain, but hey, we’ll take what we can get. I would love to ski again like I did when we were raising our family, but I’m more than a little concerned about falling and breaking something. If I did ski I’d have to stick to the green bunny slopes. More likely I’d find a place to paint the snow instead.
Scenes like this one – partly from an old reference photo and partly from imagination – have a lot in common with abstract paintings. This was painted with a limited palette of ultramarine blue, thalo blue, yellow ochre and a small amount of alizarin crimson. And titanium white, of course.
Snowy field – Karen Winters Daily Painting
9 x 12 acrylic on paper
Freshly fallen snow – a moment of quiet winter beauty. In this sketch I’m using acrylic in a watercolor manner.
I’ll write more later – things are busy right now.
