California Wine Country Vineyard Oil Painting – by California impressionist Karen Winters

“In The Vineyard Hills”
9 x 12 oil on wood panel
original oil painting
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California’s rich Central Coast wine country was the inspiration for this tranquil scene.

Late afternoon light, and a fog bank drifted in from the sea brings moisture to the thirsty vines. Oaks and eucalyptus trees punctuate the hills with their stately beauty.

See more of my vineyard paintings here
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here

California Landscape Plein Air Painting San Luis Obispo County – Nipomo

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Golden Hillside
(near Nipomo San Luis Obispo County)
9 x 12 plein air oil painting on linen panel

See more of my California Central Coast paintings here

This is a plein air painting that I did last springtime with the California Art Club in San Luis Obispo. We were at a historical location, the Dana Adobe, in Nipomo, and the weather was perfect. I got three paintings done that day. The next day a rainstorm moved in from the north. The fields of mustard liked it, but it wasn’t hospitable to painters. The day after this was painted we went to Moonstone Beach in Cambria (see earlier posts for those paintings.)

Paso Robles Vineyard Oak California Landscape Oil Painting

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“Paso Robles Vineyard Oak”
8 x 10 oil painting on canvas on hardboard

See more of my vineyard paintings here

See more of my California Central Coast paintings here

See more of my landscapes here

The Paso Robles wine growing area has developed so much over the past few years. Every time we take a trip through there we see new vineyards and new plantings. Oaks seem to be iconic in these vineyards. Although it appears that most of the barrels are actually made in France rather than from domestic oaks, I like that some are preserved to add their beauty to the landscape.

Moonstone Beach Surf – Central Coast Cambria Oil Painting – with video – Karen Winters, artist

Moonstone Beach Surf
Cambria, California
11 x 14 oil on linen panel

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This was painted last April (2010) during a California Art Club paintout. The rain came down where we were painting at San Luis Obispo Land Conservancy sites, so some of us headed for the coast nearby. It was incredibly cold and windy, but I had a really good time

This is a video my husband shot and edited – some highlights of me painting there. Please let me know if for any reason it doesn’t play for you. It is hosted on the Facebook server, not YouTube.

Cambria Ranch – California Central Coast Plein Air Oil Painting by Karen Winters



“Cambria Ranch”
12 x 16″ oil painting
Oil on linen panel

See more of my California Central Coast paintings here

Eucalyptuses, how I love them, with their multicolored patchy bark like a coat of many colors. When I saw this stately old tree I knew I wanted to take some time with it, to appreciate the many grays along its flanks. The transparent underlayers of burnt sienna and red peek through here and there, just as underlayers of color are visible as outer bark layers peel off. I think that I will never tire of painting these majestic trees that seem to glow when side lit. We have a lot of them around LA but they are at their best when given a setting like a spring field, bathed in light. I want to paint another really large one, soon. My to-do-list grows daily …

Some of my other favorite eucs:

Cambria Sunset Oil Painting – Central Coast California landscape painting by Karen Winters

Cambria Sunset
9 x 12
oil on linen panel

See more of my Cambria paintings here

One of my newest paintings, “Cambria Sunset,” has been selected for inclusion into the Segil gallery Holiday Small Works show.

The painting features a rural scene along Santa Rosa Creek Road in Cambria (near San Simeon) and includes one of the dramatic eucalyptus trees so typical of that region.

The festive reception for the artists will be December 4, from 5-7 pm. The Segil gallery is at 110 West Lime Avenue
Old Town Monrovia CA 91016
(626) 358-5563

Carpinteria Bluffs Painting – Central California landscape by Karen Winters – KWinters

Carpinteria Bluffs Sunset
Oil Painting 8 x 10
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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.”

Cambria Pines Oil Painting – Santa Rosa Creek Trail, Central Coast, California

“Cambria Pines Sunset”
(on the Santa Rosa Creek Trail)
Oil Painting
16 x 12 inches
Oil on Canvas

Among the places we painted in Central Coast was the Santa Rosa Creek Trail, which goes inland from Cambria.
The trail is a part of the land cared for by the San Luis Obispo Land Conservancy, which hosted us on our paint out.
Santa Rosa Creek winds through beautiful hills and valleys until it finds its outlet.

See more of my Cambria paintings here

Bishop Peak Oil Painting, San Luis Obispo, Central Coast California Art

“Farm at Bishop Peak”
San Luis Obispo, Central Coast
oil painting
14 x 18 inches

See more of my California Central Coast paintings here

When I was painting in San Luis Obispo County earlier this spring with the California Art Club, I was especially attracted to the numerous large peaks that rise from the city of San Luis Obispo out to the sea, the last of which is Morro Rock. Bishop Peak (sometimes called Bishop’s Peak) is one of the Nine Sisters. Technically they are “volcanic plugs,” and the volcanoes that rose above them are long gone. Bishop Peak is the tallest of the formations, and it was noted in the diary of John Muir who wrote:

“The trail brings the traveler suddenly in sight of
Bishop Peak … The town is fairly encircled with beautiful hills…
the one just named being most conspicuous.”

The soft afternoon light and atmospheric mist from the sea made this a picture of rural tranquility that held great appeal for me.

Mooonstone Beach Sunset Oil Painting, Cambria, California

Moonstone Beach, Cambria
Oil Painting
“The Wind from the Sea”
10 x 20 inches

More Cambria, California Paintings
More California Central Coast paintings

This panoramic painting of Moonstone Beach, in Cambria is a larger piece based on the field study I did several months ago. Moonstone Beach is one of our favorite places to go when we’re in the Central Coast area. The Hamlet Restaurant has wonderful jazz performances, and walks along the beach are so romantic. I would imagine it’s been the site of countless weddings and marriage proposals.

If you enjoy visiting the Cambria area, you should discover the Milford Haven books of my friend Mara Purl who writes wonderfully about a fictional Central California town with a strong resemblance to Cambria.