Huntington Gardens San Marino – November Dawn – Karen Winters Daily Painting
November Dawn (Scott Gallery -Huntington Gardens) 12 x 16 oil on canvas
This studio painting depicting dawn in the Shakespeare Garden is based on plein sketches and photos I’ve taken at the Huntington. In fact, I’ve never been there at dawn, but I’ve taken some liberties with a noon photo (below) to imagine how it must look at the peak of fall bloom.
Changing the time of day and angle of the sun was a real exercise in thinking about color, shadows and so on because I had no reference to rely on. I remembered that white marble often glows pink in the morning, but there are touches of warm, too. To break up the wide expanse of the wall I invented shadows, but then I had to think about what color they would be. The same is true of the shadows of the side of the building – where would they cast shadows? The sky is different at dawn. Darker at the top than at the horizon (as usual) but it is warmer in the direction of the sun. So those colors needed to be softly blended to suggest the right atmosphere for that time of day.
I find this kind of exercise a lot of fun because it helps me to break out of painting that is just copying. This can be useful for plein air painting, too. For example, if you are a distance from your subject and you know there’s a shadow there but you can’t see it, you can use imagination and logic to decide what color to paint it.
Pasadena – Colorado Street Bridge – Arroyo Seco – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Colorado Street Bridge 5″ x 7″ oil on canvas panel
SOLD
The Colorado Street bridge, which spans the Arroyo Seco was the inspiration for this small impressionist painting. I’ve done plein air paintings in the arroyo many times and it is always a joy to be there. The beautiful sculptural arches frame a wide variety of California flora and fauna. (Remember the duck family?) Cottonwoods are turning color now and the eucalyptuses are as green and graceful as always.
Many years ago we needed a film shot representing falling in a nightmare and we lowered a small camera off the bridge. The effect was dizzying! If the bridge police are reading this, I can assure you it was at least 20 years ago and no eucalyptus trees were harmed in the process. And you can bet that the camera was safely tethered off, too. So that bridge will always have a special meaning for me.
Sunny Afternoon French Chateau European Original Oil Painting – by Karen Winters
8 x 10 oil on canvas panel
Here’s one from the archives as I’m getting ready for a client project tomorrow and running late. We have another client who manages castles and estates in Europe and often shows us pictures of the surrounding area. This little painting is a little bit of fantasizing about that beautiful part of the world. What a treat it would be to do some plein air painting around the Mediterranean.
Goldie
(detail)
Goldie 9 x 12 oil on panel
Today’s painting is a portrait of an anonymous golden retriever I’ll call Goldie, although she looks like a Molly, too. The portrait is actually head and shoulders but I thought I’d take a picture of a closeup of the face since that’s the part I worked on the most. The background is really a bit greener than it appears here, which I think is a nice balance to the warm tones of the fur. Pretty soon I’ll attempt a painting of Ripley (our American bulldog) in oil.
![](http://www.karenwinters.com/blogimages/goldie.jpg")
(The whole painting)
Impressionist waterlilies – daily painting
Pink waterlilies – 9 x 12 inches – oil on canvas
I had such a good time painting the reflections on “Drifters in the Stream” that I decided to paint another “reflections” painting but this time with brighter subject matter. These bright waterlilies provided exciting subject matter to practice with.
Saturday night’s opening at the Pasadena Women’s City Club (Blinn House) was a wonderful event and I was so honored to be able to participate with a painting in the show. The show features 40+ paintings of streams, rivers and harbors and I was happy to see many of my painting friends there. We also had the distinct pleasure of meeting Lewis MacAdams, poet and co-founder of Friends of the LA River. His enthusiasm for stewardship of the river was contagious and we found ourselves captivated by his “word paintings” as well as his wealth of information about this beautiful resource. It’s just another beautiful place to paint in LA.
There aren’t any waterlilies in the LA River (that I’m aware of) but there are fish such as tilapia, catfish and carp and abundant crawfish which the herons and egrets adore. Steelhead salmon used to run in the LA river, although those days are past. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the river could be restored to the degree that it was possible again? To the untutored eye, the LA River seems to be completely encased in concrete — yet there are miles and miles of stretches where the river has a natural sandy bottom and where plant life abounds. Yes, I am a natural history geekette as well as a paint and botany fan. I could listen to stories of our local environment for hours and thankfully my dear husband feels the same way – we are both inveterate information junkies.
Sunset Oaks – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Sunset Oaks” 12 x 16 oil on canvas
SOLD
This studio painting, based upon plein air references is a companion piece to Evening Glory (sold) which can be seen in the sidebar to the left. Painting “oaky goodness” as my husband and I refer to it, is one of my favorite things to do. Our coast live oak trees are simply magnificent any time of year. The dried grasses glow in the sunset giving yet another reason why we’re called The Golden State.
This painting will most likely be included a week from tomorrow at the Montrose Artwalk from 9 – 4 on Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. Look for me near the Citibank bank building.
The Open Pomegranate – Karen Winters Daily Painting
The Open Pomegranate – 5 x 7 inches – oil on canvasboard
Yes, I know it is a little radical compared to yesterday’s more sedate persimmon and plumbago composition, but sometimes a girl’s just got to cut loose and do something different. I had purchased a few pomegranates to put in a still life arrangement and then I got the idea to break it open and see how I could convey the feeling of that juicy flesh and seeds scattering in all directions.
This was a great deal of fun to paint, as you can probably tell from the enthusiastic brush strokes. And I can’t really say what tomorrow will bring …
University of Redlands Sunset – Daily Painting
“Sunset on the Quad” – (University of Redlands) 5 x 7 oil
SOLD
This is one of the paintings I did last weekend en plein air at University of Redlands, about halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. It was painted in the last 20 minutes of light of the day, when the colors are most intense and represents a view of the Administration Building from the viewpoint of the quad. Only a handful of painters were left at this time, but the colors were worth waiting for.
Painting at that speed means giving up actual detail for suggestion of detail, which is different kind of challenge and one that I enjoy.
This is one of the pieces that will be in the U. Redlands show, along with two other plein air paintings and a big bunch of other regional and desert scenes, some of which have already been posted here.
Temple of Love – Huntington Gardens – plein air
“Temple of Love” – 8 x 10 – oil
SOLD – but I have other Huntington paintings.
Click this link to write me. See more of my paintings on my website
This little painting was painted plein air style at Huntington Gardens early one morning. The sun was climbing rapidly so I concentrated on painting the “temple of love” first, while the light bounced warmly inside the classical structure. Then, I worked on the foreground and background trees and finally the grass, which didn’t change appreciably. I don’t know the species of the large tree but it is not a weeping willow. I’d say it looks like it’s in the juniper family, and although I looked for a plant marker I didn’t find one. Maybe some horticultural expert who knows the Huntington plants can enlighten me? There is such a plant as a Tolleson’s weeping juniper, but it supposedly only grows to 30 feet and this one was much larger.
Anyway, back to the plein air part. I’ve been using a glass palette these past few weeks and although I’m a little concerned about its fragility in the field, I really like the ability to clean it quickly with a glass scraper and have a fresh area to mix in. I use a Masterson’s box to transport my palette and to keep it airtight between painting sessions, so the paint does stay fairly moist.
I think I have just outted myself as both a plant geek and a paint geek. Sad, isn’t it? (grin)
Call of the Desert – Pinyon Crest
“Call of the Desert” – 12 x 16 – oil on canvas
SOLD
This new painting – of an Inland Empire desert scene – will be one that I’ll display at the Redlands Centennial Plein Air show and sale this Saturday at the University of Redlands. It depicts a typical byway on the road to Idyllwild – up highway 74 – in a little community called Pinyon Crest. If you live in that area you know just the kind of terrain I’m talking about. Very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. The sale includes not only paintings of the University of Redlands and the city of Redlands but also scenes of the surrounding Inland Empire area – including San Bernardino and Riverside Counties.
Last Saturday’s paintout was a great deal of fun. I got three paintings done that day – two 8 x 10 sized ones of campus buildings, and one small 5 x 7 painting, done feverishly at sunset – showing a long view of the quad with students lounging on the grass. Surprisingly, it was not windy on Saturday and the weather was in the low 80s, quite mild. There’s another paintout tomorrow but I don’t think I’ll be going – too much wind on the freeways bouncing around big 18 wheelers.
