Grand Canyon Oil Painting – Sculpted by Time – Yavapai Point – by Karen Winters
“Sculpted by Time”
Yavapai Point, Grand Canyon
9 x 12
oil painting on linen panel
Available from Hueys Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Feb. 11 – March 2011
I was happy to be learn that this painting, Sculpted by Time, will be included in the 2011 Canyonlands Show at Hueys Fine Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The show celebrates the beauty of the Grand Canyon and Canyon de Chelly.
I’m looking forward to visiting the canyon again sometime this winter season – perhaps combining it with a trip through northern Arizona and/or Utah. I love California but there’s a whole lot of west to explore and paint, with new vistas and new painting challenges.
One of the many things I love about the Grand Canyon is the way it naturally provides complementary colors to work with – from the red rock chiseled cliffs to the blue of the sky and distant mountains.
Descanso Gardens Teahouse Watercolor Painting – California Landscape Art Gallery
Descanso Gardens Japanese Teahouse
22 x 30 watercolor on Arches paper
SOLD (painted on commission)
This painting has a history. Several years ago, I painted a smaller version of it, and it was exhibited for sale at a local store in La Canada. One day in April a few years ago, a car transport trailer lost its brakes on the Angeles Crest Highway and crashed through the store. Two people lost their lives in the accident, and one of the most minor casualties was that watercolor painting, of which I still have a remnant.
A very lovely woman contacted me a few months ago and asked if the original painting was for sale (it was not) but I offered to paint it again for her in a size to suit her home, and this is the result. She and her husband were married at Descanso Gardens many years ago, and the painting will be a memory of that very special day. And it makes me especially happy to know that the destroyed painting survives in a unique way. It became a study for this one, which will be in their family for years to come.
Because of my concentration on oil painting, I haven’t been painting watercolor as frequently. But I enjoyed this return to the medium so much that I will probably try to devote a little more time to it in the coming year.
Merry Christmas to all those who are celebrating it tonight and tomorrow.
Colorado Street Bridge Painting, Pasadena, “Below the Arch”
“Below the Arch”
Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena
11 x 14 painting
oil on canvas
SOLD
See more Pasadena paintings here
This painting of our iconic Colorado Street Bridge went home yesterday with a new collector. I always enjoy painting the bridge, and hope to appreciate its beauty from many new angles in the coming year. This was a larger painting based upon a 5 x 7 study I did a few years ago.
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.”
South Pasadena Arroyo Seco Eucalptus Oil Painting – Karen Winters – KWinters
“Arroyo Guardian”
9 x 12 inches
Pasadena Arroyo Seco oil painting
SOLD
This one is sold but you can see more Pasadena area paintings here
A stately old eucalyptus grows along Arroyo Drive in South Pasadena, standing guard at the edge of the Arroyo Seco.
October 2010 – exhibited in a California Art Club show at the South Pasadena Gallery, S. Pasadena, CA. The judge was the esteemed CAC Signature artist, Junn Roca.
Link to the So Pas Gallery
I have been painting like crazy here, and traveling to paint on location, but I always seem to run out of time to post what I’m doing. Some of the paintings are commissioned works which are surprise gifts for people, so I have to be a little careful about what I put where in this day of social networking and transparency.
We’ve made one recent trip to the eastern Sierra and hope to get a few more trips in soon. Southern California weather has been marked by the same June gloom/grayness that typified our summer. I’m looking forward to making a trip to Santa Barbara to see the Clyde Aspevig show before it closes in February 2011 – he’s among my favorite landscape artists – a list that is growing quite lengthy.
Catalina Painting – Catalina Harbor Painting – pastel – at Two harbors
Catalina painting
Pastel
Catalina Harbor sunset
(at Two Harbors)
8 x 16 inches
See more Catalina Island paintings here
This is another of my paintings that will be exhibited at Segil Fine Art Source Gallery in Monrovia – reception is Saturday, September 11 from 5 – 7 pm
Catalina Harbor is also known as “Cat Harbor” – it’s on the opposite side of the island from Avalon, and faces south, out to sea, rather than the mainland. The warm and cool colors in this scene made it an interesting challenge to paint in pastel.
Montana de Oro Spooners Cove San Luis Obispo oil painting
“Montana de Oro – Spooner’s Cove”
Oil painting
14 x 18
See more of my California Central Coast Paintings
This painting came out of one of our recent San Luis Obispo trips. I had often wanted to visit Montana de Oro, having heard about its beautiful seashore. Finally, I had the chance to paint it. The stormy sky added to the drama of the incoming surf, pounding the sharp shale rocks. The name of the park, Mountain of Gold, derives from the golden wildflowers that cover the hillsides in the spring. Can I resist the mental image that conjures up? I think a springtime painting trip will be a must.
California Seascape – Dogs on Beach Painting – Pet Portrait Offleash dog beach
“Beach Pals”
12 x 16 oil
Dogs playing on a leash-free beach in Santa Barbara
SOLD
This is another of the paintings that I did for the “Art for the Animals” show at Gale’s Restaurant in Pasadena, which sold yesterday. The show closes this coming Friday night, August 27. So if you’re in Los Angeles there are still a few days to see it. A portion of the proceeds go to benefit the Pasadena Humane Society and SPCA.
Painting animals is such a pleasure, I should really do it more frequently. These two buddies were having a good time chasing a tennis ball around in the surf. The little Corgi was pretty fast on his or her feet. I took a lot of photos that day, including some of an English bulldog romping in the surf. I’ll probably be painting that one, too.
The holidays are coming soon. If you’re thinking about a painting as a gift for someone special, this is a good time to make plans.
Interested in commissioning a painting?
Click this link to write me. See more of my paintings on my website
Los Osos Valley Road – For the Love of the Land – California landscape oil painting – Central Coast
“For the Love of the Land”
Los Osos Valley Road, California Central Coast
12 x 16 inches
California landscape oil painting
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
This painting is one of the works that resulted from my spring trip to the San Luis Obispo area with the California Art Club. I just got the news yesterday that it has been selected for inclusion in a special exhibition at the CAC gallery at the Old Mill in San Marino. The show, named Capturing California’s Preserved Lands and Historic Districts: Gems from the Central Coast will open August 31 and run through January 2, 2011. All of the paintings are for sale.
There will be an artists reception Thursday, September 2 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. This is the first time that I’ve been eligible as an Artist member to submit work for this gallery and I am delighted that this piece was chosen for the show.
The painting depicts a spot along the Los Osos Valley Road, toward sunset. The green grasses of spring were drying out and starting to turn that characteristic California gold.
I have more paintings which came out of that trip, and will be posting them here soon.
California Landscape Oil Painting – Orange Grove – Santa Paula Art Museum Juried Show
The Scent of Citrus
12 x 16 oil on linen panel
Citrus grove in Santa Paula, California
Accepted into the 3rd annual Art about Agriculture exhibition
Location: Santa Paula Art Museum, Santa Paula.
Artists reception: August 21, 4-6 pm
I painted this scene of a wonderful area along highway 126 – in the Santa Clara River Valley. This agriculturally rich area is probably what the San Fernando and other regional valleys were like a hundred years ago. But I’m just guessing at that. Avocados, citrus as well as row crops are abundant, and in the springtime the colors are rich. My objective in this painting was to capture the feeling of velvety green on the distant hills where the light broke through the clearing storm clouds.
