Castle Green Balcony – Pasadena – by Karen Winters
“Castle Green Balcony” – 9 x 12 oil on board
SOLD
One of Pasadena’s most venerable landmarks is the Castle Green, which was built before the turn of the 20th century as an annex to the Hotel Green by Col George Green, who made his fortune in the patent medicine business. It has been home to the Tournament of Roses, and at its time was the center of fashionable society in Pasadena.
Although there are more imposing and “postcard” views of this building, my eye was caught by a simple balcony adorned with geraniums, and accented by a very old palm tree. The late afternoon light made the scene positively glow.
Now, back to the easel …
Saturday’s Show in La Canada
If you’re in LA, I’m going to be exhibiting these new paintings for the first time tomorrow afternoon at Flintridge’s Sacred Heart Academy. The show and benefit is in conjunction with the California Art Club.
SOLD
SOLD
Here’s the info from their press release:
The California Art Club is very excited to be participating in Faith & Hope: Beyond Prison Walls, a benefit art exhibition and sale at in support of Partnership for Re-Entry Program and Families of the Incarcerated, organized by the Office of Restorative Justice. The exhibition, held at the historic Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, will feature work by the Incarcerated through the Arts and Corrections Program, Art Release, and by members of the California Art Club.Proceeds from sales will benefit the incarcerated and their families as they work to transition back into society and to make positive changes in their lives. To purchase tickets for the exhibition and sale, please call Viki Battaglia at the Office of Restorative Justice, 213/637-7428 (Adults $25, Students $10). Participating artists and one guest may attend free. All artwork will be available for purchase (cash and checks only).
The time of the event is 4 pm – 7 pm
Address: 440 St. Katherine Drive, La Canada, CA 91011
In the Garden
“In the Garden” 9 x 12 – oil on canvasboard
SOLD
I tried posting this using Qumana, the blogging application that lets you compose a blog posting in a dedicated application (not a browser.) Although I like the ability to add formatting easily, I don’t see a way to preview my post, which I could do in Safari. Nuts.
===========
Update: Well, sigh. That was a bust. I reopened the file in Safari and removed the garbage that Qumana added, while NOT allowing me to insert the link to my image from my server. It was a good idea, but didn’t work, unfortunately.
The painting was fun to do. I was in the mood for creating a pattern of botanical textures, rather than anything too literal. I can treat the garden as a patchwork quilt of designs and colors, seamed together with light
Painting like crazy
I’m painting and framing like crazy on deadline for three different shows; updates coming soon. In the meantime, so you don’t think I’m slacking, here’s one from the archives …
Santa Barbara Glow – 7 1/2 x 11″ – acrylic
Cherry Reflections – Daily Painting
“Cherry Reflections” – 8 x 10 oil on canvas –
Here’s a detail of the painting. Actual size of this cherry is about 1 3/4″ across. Click to enlarge.
Chinese cup – Japanese persimmons
“Chinese-Japanese” 5 x 7 oil on canvasboard
I had a square cornered Chinese demitasse cup and some Japanese persimmons – and thought they looked good together in a primary color sort of way. It seemed like a good get together for a still life. and the colors are even more vivid in person. Somehow they never look as striking on a monitor as they do in real life. If you want to see how much of a difference vivid color makes, take your little finger and cover that small stroke of bright red. The whole painting changes, doesn’t it? That one small area, the size of a fingertip, really has a big effect. Did you try it?
Speaking of which, I had a very good time this morning going around to garage sales and picking up some props for future still life setups – silver plated vessels – colorful ceramics – and I really don’t know where I’m going to stow them – but they sure are fun to look at and to arrange into interesting combinations.
Sunflower – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Solo Sunflower 8 x 10 oil on canvas board
SOLD
When we were driving on a back road off Highway 1, not far from Paso Robles, we came across a row of sunflowers that had been planted along the roadside. These beauties were 7-8 feet tall and each one had a unique character and form. I must have spent 20 minutes there, shooting them from every angle. I selected this one for my first sunflower portrait – a memory of a bright sunny day with an amazing sky that really was that turquoise.
This one I painted in two sessions … one for the underpainting and a second go for some glazing and highlights. Probably the most challenging part was mixing the colors for the shadowed areas. There were so many colors bouncing around in there – reflected russets from the center of the flower, greens from the abundant leaves nearby, plus ochres and even violets – complements of the yellow.
The Way Back Home – Daily Painting
“The Way Back Home” (Central California Coast) – 9 x 12 oil on canvasboard
SOLD
When I saw this location last week it left me with a feeling of nostalgia and bittersweet longing, even though I have never lived in a rural setting. Perhaps there’s something about a lonely country road that evokes feelings of homesickness and curiosity – wondering what wonderful things await just around the bend.
Can you tell I am becoming seriously infatuated with vivid color?
Note: if you find that this image appears exceptionally dark (not just saturated color but DARK) on your monitor, please let me know. I’m trying to tweak my settings so that images scanned through a Mac appear reasonably correct on a PC.
Evening Glory – Daily Painting
“Evening Glory” (central coast) 12″ x 16″ oil on stretched canvas
SOLD
Now you know a little bit about what I was up to from Thursday to Sunday of this past week – I was on a road trip and photo safari to gather references for new paintings. Much as I’d like to stop and paint quietly at each of these locations, we were on a timetable and my little Nikon served me well, providing a wealth of material to use as inspiration for new works.
Thank you all for the feedback you gave on “Beside Still Waters” – as you can tell, I’m still enjoying the use of heightened colors and there’s a very good chance I’ll be exploring this approach for awhile.
This scene was inspired by a drive we took at sunset near Paso Robles, California – our beautiful Central Coast region. Here, hillsides were generously dotted with oak trees, and the grasses literally glowed shades of gold and orange in the waning light. I made notes on the colors just in case the photographs didn’t reveal the true brilliance of the scene. In fact, I relied more on my memory and notes than the photo in doing this painting. So, I’m painting intensely right now. I sense an opportunity coming that doesn’t even have a name yet – but I know I need to have a number of paintings ready. The muse cracks the whip and I obey.
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Cottage – Central Coast California Watercolor painting by Karen Winters
Thanks to EBSQ for picking my painting, “Santa Barbara Cottage” for Art of the Day this past Saturday
This 11 x 15″ painting, when matted, will fit perfectly into a 16 x 20 frame.
