Malibu Creek State Park Landscape Painting – California art by Karen Winters
“Malibu Creek Afternoon Hike”
12 x 16 oil on canvas
This painting will be exhibited at the Allied Artists show at Headwaters Corner, Malibu on Sunday, March 29 – unless someone wants to purchase it before then!
More California landscapes here.
After I painted at Solstice Canyon last week, we took a hike at one of our favorite and restful state parks, Malibu Creek. This is the view after you leave the parking lot and head west into the park. I think it’s especially beautiful in the spring, when the wildflowers are starting to bloom.
I had a lot of fun using the palette knife in painting this one. Most of the time I paint with brushes. Occasionally, I’ll do a painting with only knife. On very rare occasions I’ll use both – each for what it does best. This was one of those times.
Here’s a detail of just a part of the cliff. I think it makes a nice abstract all on its own. Click to enlarge.
Solstice Canyon Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting
Solstice Canyon, Malibu (on the bridge up the trail)
9 x 12
oil on canvas
Click image to see a larger, higher quality picture
Saturday I had the pleasure of going with a group of painting friends to Solstice Canyon, a park in Malibu in the Santa Monica Mountains. When we woke up in the morning (early) it was very dark outside and I came to realize that it wasn’t just our daylight saving time change – the sky was heavily overcast. I debated going or not going, because I generally prefer to paint spring scenes under beautiful clear skies. But I decided to go paint anyway, thinking that maybe it would be a 2-panel day. One before the burnoff and one later.
As it turned out, the overcast skies never really cleared, but there was something about the silvery look and cool blue light that really appealed to me. And it’s a look that I might not have gotten on a typical sunny Malibu day.
In the earliest spring, only a few of the trees had put on their new foliage so a great deal of light came through to illuminate the ground. I can imagine that with a full summer canopy only patches of warm, brilliant light would appear. This is what I love about plein air painting. Even when you have painted a scene before, it’s never the same twice. The weather is different, or the time of day, or the season, and each of those factors interact to create different looks and moods.
Here’s a work in progress shot
California Sycamore Springtime Landscape Painting
Sycamore Spring
11 x 14
oil on canvas
For a few brief weeks in the spring, sycamore trees rapidly put out new growth and are quickly covered with a veil of palest green. This beautiful transformation doesn’t last long, and the leaves quickly turn deep green and expand to the size of a hand.
If you’ve noticed that I’m painting the Santa Monica mountains a lot lately, it’s because spring in this wildflower covered area is truly glorious, and … I’m getting ready for a spring show with the Allied Artists of the Santa Monica mountains and seashore. The date is March 29, a Sunday, from 11 to 4 at Headwaters Corner, which is the intersection of Old Mulholland Drive and Topanga Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. If you’re in So Cal, come say hello.
California Mountain Landscape – San Gabriels – Arroyo Seco Oil Painting
San Gabriel Vista
(from the Arroyo Seco)
14 x 18 oil on canvas
This painting is now SOLD, but I have more at karenwinters.com
This view of the San Gabriel Mountains is from a familiar viewpoint along a trail in the Hahamongna watershed area, formerly known as Oak Grove Park. These days it’s the home of a frisbee golf course, and I have to stay heads up when walking through the zone to get to a painting location. The golfers are pretty tolerant of us hikers and painters, and I try to stay out of their fairways. In the summer my husband and I call this area Snaky Acres and tread carefully among the high grass. Bobcats, mountain lions and other wildlife have been seen here, along with deer, rabbits and abundant bird life.
I started on this painting last fall, when the willlows were starting to turn yellow and the summer grasses were dusty and dun-colored. But the storm clouds rolling in promised the first rains that would germinate the mustard seeds for their spring surge. Now, the whole area is lush and green.
If you’re a walker who likes doing the loop from the Rose Bowl up through the upper Arroyo Seco, or are a Rose Bowl rider who frequently takes your horse for an outing, then I’ll bet you know this view well.
Chinatown, Los Angeles oil painting – California Art Club Plein Air Paint Out
Chinatown Afternoon
11 x 14
plein air painting
oil on canvas panel
• SOLD
Good times just don’t get any better than this. The California Art Club, which is celebrating its centennial this year, invited all members to a big paintout in Los Angeles’ historic Chinatown. Although rain had been threatened, morning brought fair skies and the promise of a picture perfect day. We arrived around 10 am to a very well-organized reception, complete with coffee and pastries – and then we were free to roam the streets of Chinatown looking for the best angles.
CAC members were there at the gracious invitation of the Chinatown Business Improvement District and we were impressed by their hospitality, including the delicious artists’ reception which refreshed us at the end of the day.
To paint, I found an angle just off the main plaza on Broadway, looking toward two of the most colorful buildings. As I explained to people who passed by and stopped to chat with me as I painted, I’m more of a tree and mountain sort of gal (as you blog readers know) – but there’s something about the ornate facades of these beautiful historic buildings that just steal an artist’s heart. In the late afternoon the warm sun makes everything radiant. At that hour, once again, it’s the Chinatown I remember visiting as a child, throwing coins into the fountain to make a wish, buying candied ginger and imported seashells from faraway shores.
The smell of the sea, joss sticks, firecrackers, oolong tea, fried shrimp … the sounds of music emanating from every shop, the babble of conversation in Spanish, Chinese, English and the tinkle of wind chimes … the cool breeze riffling the hanging lanterns and flags … a visit to Chinatown is a sensual delight not to be missed. If you’re an Angeleno and you haven’t been there lately – it’s time to discover it again.
And speaking of things to discover … if you’re an artist living in California, come join us in the CAC and become a part of a grand artistic tradition.
Idyllwild Memories Oil Painting – California Mountain Landscape by Daily Painter Karen Winters
Idyllwild Memories
9 x 12 oil on canvas
SOLD
For information about other Idyllwild paintings, please write.
Idyllwild, California, has always been one of our favorite places to retreat. We began visiting when we were first married, and always loved the beautiful mountain sunsets. Once we stopped our car and watched in awe, while classical music played from a nearby cabin. This is a recreation of that spectacular scene, when the sky was awash with color and all was right with the world. I still like to return, in memory, to that golden time.
Peaceful stream – California impressionist oil painting
Peaceful Stream
6 x 8 inches
oil on canvas
This small painting evolved as a study as I experimented with some ways to work with texture and color in clouds and reflected water using a springtime color palette. Although I do most of my paintings of specific places, sometimes I work with the landscape in a more abstract way. This is not a painting of a specific place but is inspired by landscapes and skies I’ve seen all over our state. The challenge is to unify the colors in sky and land in a convincing way.
Newport Back Bay Sunset – California Landscape Painting
Newport Back Bay Sunset
5 x 7 inch
Oil on canvas panel
This small study was painted to make some design decisions about a larger painting of Newport’s Back Bay, where we visited last week. At sunset the colors of the sky are reflected in the marshy area. The trees probably weren’t this close together (the opening to the sea is larger) but I reserve the right to tinker with the composition whenever I choose.
The rain has mostly stopped here in LA, and that means that later this afternoon we should see some dramatic skies with the clouds breaking up and leaving. If it’s not too cold I might try to get ut and paint a bit.
OK, away from they keyboard and back to the easel for me! I’m working on a large (24 x 30) commission and I need to keep on-task.
Newport Beach Painting – Sunset Surf – California impressionist marine seascape
More of my Newport Beach Paintings
Sunset Surf (at Newport Beach, CA)
8 x 10 oil on linen on board
SOLD
During those times of year when the landscape has shed its fall color, and before spring color appears, sunsets continue to charm the colorist in me.
Newport Beach is one of my favorite subjects for painting – from Balboa Island with its charming shops and village ambience, to the spectacular sunsets of the beach and back bay.
While visiting the Laguna Art Museum recently for the Wm. Wendt exhibit, I saw some paintings by Laguna painter Frank Cuprien and was captivated by the way he captured the luminesence of the surf when the day was drawing to a close. When I saw a Newport sunset with those same opal tones, I was tempted to give it a try.
Try this: This is a small painting, a study, just 8 x 10 inches. To see it as it is meant be seen, enlarge the picture then stand back from your monitor about 8-10 feet, if you have the room. It looks different, doesn’t it? Whenever I am painting up at the Descanso Gallery, people come up to see what I’m doing, standing about 3 feet from the painting. I think that I can read their minds sometime as they see the expressionistic brush strokes, which look coarse in close up. So I walk them back a short distance, as in a living room or dining room and then have them look again. They are almost always surprised at the difference.
This is one of the inherent problems with showing work online when your viewer is sitting right next to the monitor. So … give it a try, stand back and see the difference.
To see more of my seascapes, visit my seascape gallery page.
Laguna Beach Oil Painting – Laguna Romance – Daily Painting
Laguna Romance
8 x 10
oil on canvas on board
SOLD
Several of my friends have been incorporating palette knife techniques into their work, or painting entirely with the knife. I thought it sounded like fun to experiment with, so I took one of my photos with a lot of clouds that I thought would lend itself to that expression, and this is the result. The location is Heisler park in Laguna Beach, a little north of the art museum. Clusters of fan and sago palms decorate the promenade and make interesting shapes against one of Laguna’s radiant sunsets. Everytime we visit we see lovers gazing at the sea. On one occasion a wedding was being held in a small gazebo along the walkway.
So this is my tribute to Valentine’s Day – a little romance along the seashore, as wild and tempestuous as love itself.
