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.

Huntington Gardens Tea Room and Rose Garden – San Marino



Huntington Gardens
Tea Room and Rose Garden
Oil Painting

11 x 14 inches – oil on canvas

This is a plein air painting that I did a few years ago, and somehow it escaped being photographed and posted to my blog. A recent conversation prompted me to revisit it and I discovered that it was missing from my site.

Not too long ago we renewed our Huntington membership and I’m looking forward to visiting again when the camellias are in bloom. On a trip a few weeks ago, they had a California landscape exhibit which I enjoyed, along with other permanent collection work in the Paul and Heather Sturt Haaga gallery. If you live in Southern California and you’re not a member of the Huntington, what are you waiting for?

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.

Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco painting – Baker Beach Oil Painting

“Golden Grandeur”
San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge oil painting
18 x 24 oil on canvas

The Golden Gate bridge stretches gracefully across the bay as sailboats return from a day’s excursion. The viewpoint is from Baker Beach, the romantic site of countless wedding proposals and weddings.

I’m so accustomed to doing Colorado Street Bridge paintings (Pasadena, California) that I thought it was about time that I painted one of the most famous bridges of all. To be sure, it won’t be the last time.

The day we were out there it was cool and breezy and the fog and clouds were swirling around the bridge in beautiful patterns. When we viewed the bridge later, the sky was crystal clear. The following morning, from our hotel room, all we could see of the bridge was the tops of the tallest towers. It was quite a view.


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Catalina Island Oil Painting – Little Harbor, Peaceful Cove

SOLD

Little Harbor, Catalina Island,
Oil painting, 16 x 20
“Peaceful Cove”

See more Catalina Island paintings here

Eucalyptus, rolling hillsides, ocean waves – this painting incorporates some of my favorite subjects and themes, and was a real pleasure to paint.

Avalon Harbor Catalina Painting – Taking the High Road

“Avalon Harbor – Taking the High Road”
9 x 12 pastel painting
Avalon Harbor, Catalina Island

(Available at Segil Fine Art beginning August 28 for the “Colors of Catalina” Group Show)

A high road winds up, up, up around Avalon Harbor. At every turn, stately eucalyptus trees provide foreground interest for the tranquil scene below. I have been enjoying doing some pastel paintings along with my usual oils. This one was painted on archival museum board and framed like an oil painting using anti-reflective museum glass. I used to mat my pastels, but I haven’t done that for my most recent projects.

Avalon at Night – Catalina Island Oil Painting

“Avalon at Night”
Catalina Island Oil Painting
12 x 24 inches
Oil on Canvas


See more Catalina Island paintings here

This painting will be included in a group show at Segil Fine Art, themed “Colors of Catalina.” The artists’ reception will be September 11 from 5 to 7 pm. At night the lights of Avalon Harbor gleam against the deep blue ocean. Catalina has been a popular getaway spot for Southern Californians (and many others) for a century. We’ve enjoyed visiting from before our kids were born. Camp Fox provided other reasons for family getaways. Now it beckons again – its own unique charm is wonderful for painters.

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.

Yosemite Falls Merced River Swinging Bridge Oil Painting

Yosemite Falls from the Swinging Bridge
11 x 14 oil painting
SOLD

See more of my Sierra Nevada Paintings
More of my Yosemite Paintings at this link.

The Swinging Bridge across the Merced River in Yosemite connects the two sides of Yosemite valley. From the bridge, or a little south of it, where I was, you can see Yosemite Falls cascading down the granite face. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America. When we visited, in the summer, it was not at its most intense flow, but it was impressive all the same.