Newport Back Bay Sunset – California Landscape Painting
Newport Back Bay Sunset
5 x 7 inch
Oil on canvas panel
This small study was painted to make some design decisions about a larger painting of Newport’s Back Bay, where we visited last week. At sunset the colors of the sky are reflected in the marshy area. The trees probably weren’t this close together (the opening to the sea is larger) but I reserve the right to tinker with the composition whenever I choose.
The rain has mostly stopped here in LA, and that means that later this afternoon we should see some dramatic skies with the clouds breaking up and leaving. If it’s not too cold I might try to get ut and paint a bit.
OK, away from they keyboard and back to the easel for me! I’m working on a large (24 x 30) commission and I need to keep on-task.
California snow landscape oil painting – Red Cabin – Mt Pinos
“Red Cabin at Mt. Pinos”
12 x 16 oil on canvas
Available
We had another good rainstorm here in Los Angeles, which translates to snow in our higher mountains. I had been saving this painting for the next snowy occasion , so here it is. It’s a new one, of a cabin in the woods on Highway 95, through Fort Tejon National Park, northwest of L.A. on the slopes of Mt. Pinos.
I hear there’s another storm coming in a day or two. After that one passes we’ll probably make another snow trip, perhaps closer to home into the Angeles Crest National Forest.
Snow is interesting to paint because, being white, it picks up all the colors of the environment. When you look at this painting, there’s actually very little pure white in it. But it’s unmistakably snow, right?
Newport Beach Painting – Sunset Surf – California impressionist marine seascape
More of my Newport Beach Paintings
Sunset Surf (at Newport Beach, CA)
8 x 10 oil on linen on board
SOLD
During those times of year when the landscape has shed its fall color, and before spring color appears, sunsets continue to charm the colorist in me.
Newport Beach is one of my favorite subjects for painting – from Balboa Island with its charming shops and village ambience, to the spectacular sunsets of the beach and back bay.
While visiting the Laguna Art Museum recently for the Wm. Wendt exhibit, I saw some paintings by Laguna painter Frank Cuprien and was captivated by the way he captured the luminesence of the surf when the day was drawing to a close. When I saw a Newport sunset with those same opal tones, I was tempted to give it a try.
Try this: This is a small painting, a study, just 8 x 10 inches. To see it as it is meant be seen, enlarge the picture then stand back from your monitor about 8-10 feet, if you have the room. It looks different, doesn’t it? Whenever I am painting up at the Descanso Gallery, people come up to see what I’m doing, standing about 3 feet from the painting. I think that I can read their minds sometime as they see the expressionistic brush strokes, which look coarse in close up. So I walk them back a short distance, as in a living room or dining room and then have them look again. They are almost always surprised at the difference.
This is one of the inherent problems with showing work online when your viewer is sitting right next to the monitor. So … give it a try, stand back and see the difference.
To see more of my seascapes, visit my seascape gallery page.
California Oil Painting – Sycamore Meadow – Karen Winters
Sycamore Meadow
(Placerita Canyon Nature Center)
9 x 12 oil on canvas on board
The brilliant colors of fall give way to the softer colors of winter. In the last transitional days, some color remains on the trees, but the landscape takes on soft and refined hues.
Today the rainstorms are subsiding, and I’m optimistic that the next few days will show snow-decked mountains. I can hardly wait to see what the storm has left. Every season brings its unique gifts. As a California painter it’s always a thrill to see the seasonal changes of this beautiful and varied state.
Descanso Rose Garden Pathway
Descanso Rose Garden Pathway
8 x 10 oil on canvas on board
Available for sale.
This painting has evolved through the years. It started as an oil sketch a few years ago, but I put it away, dissatisfied. Today, with a few miles under my brush, I took it out again and revisited the subject. I’ve noticed differences in how I paint certain subjects. I’m more aware of color in shadows, and I tend to paint masses of leaves and flowers rather than just individual blossoms. I’m more likely to change the scene from “what is” to “what could be.” And I am more inclined to simplify and not to put in every bench and bud if it doesn’t add to the composition. The painting is wet so I had to filter it a little bit to get rid of all the distracting specks from the indoor light. When it’s dry I’ll either scan it or take it outside on a non-rainy day and shoot it in light shade or indirect north light. Which is to say, it’s a bit crisper than this.
If you’re interested in this painting, please write. My email is at the top left of this blog.
Huntington Beach California Seascape Painting
SOLD
Stormy Day at Huntington Beach
8 x 10 oil on panel
For price and more info about this painting, please write.
When stormy weather churns up the ocean, the results can be dramatic, and the sunsets are glorious. This is a view of Huntington Beach, with Catalina, cloud-shrouded, on the horizon.
And here’s how it might look in a nice plein air frame:
Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Timothy Clark paint a demonstration watercolor for a local art club. Since Timothy doesn’t demo publicly, only for his own workshops, this was a rare treat. What made the evening even more special was when one of my watercolor portraits got the blue ribbon for Artist of the Month, which puts me in the running for artist of the year. The perfect ending to a perfect day, even if it was dark and rainy.
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.
White Roses Botanical Oil Painting – Sally Holmes
“Two Sally Holmes White Roses with Jasmine”
9 x 12 oil on canvas
Available
Interested in this painting? I’d love to hear from you.
These Sally Holmes roses grow in my garden. They’re climbers and love to arch over the little arbor I have that leads to the back yard. Sally is technically a shrub rose, but it is a hybrid of “Ballerina” (a hybrid musk) and Ivory Fashion (a floribunda.) It grows like crazy and is a welcome addition to any garden.
I’ll be showing this painting and many others at the Sierra Madre Art Fair on Saturday and Sunday May 7-8, 2011 in Sierra Madre, California in memorial park. Please come!
California Plein Air Landscape – California Mission Garden at Descanso Gardens
California Mission Garden at Descanso Gardens
11 x 14
oil on canvas, plein air painting
Interested in this painting? Please write!
The good news: it was a picture perfect day in Southern California. Perfect, in fact, for April. The bad news: this is February 1, and no rain in sight. We desperately need rain, both for the snowpack on the Sierras and to nourish our local flora as well. But I tried to make the best of a bad situation by going out to paint at Descanso Gardens today in the Rosarium. The good news: it wasn’t too busy because everyone was home getting ready for SuperBowl parties. The bad news: there weren’t any roses to paint, either (duh) because they had all been pruned back in anticipation of a fabulous spring bloom. So we looked around to find something as sparkly and fetching as newly opened roses and I came upon the Mission Garden fountain, glistening in the afternoon sun.
I got set up around 1:30 and by 3:30 the light had changed so completely that I packed it in. In the meantime, I enjoyed painting and sharing my love of plein air painting with others.
I thought I was painting, but it turned out I was drawing … a crowd. Of course, I love talking to people about painting so I didn’t mind, and it was good practice for the demo I’ll be doing in May for a local art club. I expect they’ll want me to talk while painting and I don’t want to disappoint them!
For those of you who like to know what I’m using … I have a small 7.5 lb. Yarka easel which sets up very quickly. I should have had an umbrella but didn’t. I should have been wearing a black apron but wasn’t. I have an easel pal that sits on the easel and holds my palette in the middle, while the wings open up and hold OMS, brushes, spare paper towels and whatnot.
California Desert Landscape – Owens Valley Oil Painting
Owens Valley Morning
12 x 16 inches
oil on canvas
The eastern Sierra Nevada is a place of many different textures, moods and biomes, depending where you look. Just a short distance from some of the cottonwood groves I’ve painted is this desert like area with sagebrush and other desert wildflowers. Being an Angeleno, I have to confess that the Owens Valley was not a desert before Mulholland secured (grabbed) the water rights for Los Angeles. And it is true that the DWP is restoring water to the area, which is helping to bring back some of the native flora and fauna.
If you look carefully in the background of this painting, off to the right, you’ll see some brushy trees. That’s where the Owens River is flowing in this location. The range in the background is the White Mountians.
