Point Lobos – Monterey Peninsula
Pt. Lobos Rocks
9 x 12 acrylic on paper
We’ve been having a great time seeing some of the natural beauty of Northern California, and this is one of my recent studies from a few days ago at Point Lobos. I’m updating from the road so I don’t have quite as much time for blogging – there’s too much to see and do.
This scene is from Pt. Lobos State Park, on the Monterey Peninsula. It’s a breathtaking place and I could spend days there. We’ve also spent some time in Big Sur, San Francisco and around Paso Robles and the central coast.
I don’t have Photoshop with me on this computer so I can’t tweak the colors to get them exactly like the original, which is a bit frustrating. IPhoto does an ok job, but it doesn’t have the control I’m used to with PS.
Last night we went to see Wicked, a Christmas present from our kids. It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. A great musical and one that will surely become a classic in American musical theater.
California Art Oak Landscape Oil Painting
Evening Peace
12 x 16 oil on canvas
(Central California, Sierra Foothills oil painting)
This painting is SOLD, but I have more oak paintings:
See more of my oak tree paintings here
This California oil painting celebrates the end of the day in Central California as valley oaks are silhouetted by the fading sun. The warm glow of sunset still lingers in the sky. Mist is already starting to form in the distant Sierra foothills, creating a sense of mystery.
Last weekend’s opening of the California Art Club “On Location in Malibu” show at the Weisman Museum at Pepperdine University was really outstanding. Although I paint frequently in Malibu it is always interesting to see other artists’ interpretations of the same subjects. I hope to return to the exhibit to see more of the paintings when there is no crowd. It was really elbow to elbow in the galleries.
California Plein Air Painting – Blue Heron Lake
Blue Heron Lake
9 x 12 oil on linen panel
This is another of the plein air paintings I did a month or so ago on our trip up through Central California. A small lake, with trees leaning down to touch the water. Yes, it was cold out there. Snow on the mountains and the wind whipped down and chilled us to the bone. One of the many other challenges of plein air painting is reflections in water. Every time the wind moves, the ripple pattern on the water changes, and that changes what is reflected and what is not. Still water reflects. Ruffled disturbed water does not. But changing wind currents puts the reflections in different places, see? At some point you just have to settle with one thing. Although this is named Blue Heron Lake, I didn’t see any that day. Maybe I’ll paint one in sometime. I have plenty of reference photos of herons in other locations, including at Descanso Gardens.
California plein air landscape painting – Wildflower Hills
SOLD
California Wildflower Hills
9 x 12 plein air painting
oil on linen panel
See more of my landscapes here
A few months ago, after keeping an eye on the wildflower reporting sites, we took a trip up into the foothills of the western Sierras. The online sources were right – they really were really spectacular this year. I started this painting on site, and have been waiting for the opportunity to touch it up in studio before posting here. Among the challenges at this location was a storm system that cast ever-changing shadows over the golden hills. One minute the foreground was in light and the background in darkness. Five minutes later it was the reverse. At the point of laying in my darks I decided to go with the cloud shapes on the distant hills and leave the foreground hill bright, and then to paint it that way no matter what nature was doing.
Next week, after my show is hung this Saturday at Gale’s Restaurant in Pasadena, I should be back to painting and posting regularly. There are just too many details to take care of right now.
Karen Winters California Impressionism New Works Show at Gale’s Restaurant, Pasadena
If you’ve been following my blog, you know I’ve been preparing for this event for some time.
So, if you’re in the LA area and would like to see my work in person, I invite you to come to my show of California impressionist fine art.
Place: Gale’s Restaurant
Address: 452 S. FairOaks in Pasadena, California
Dates: Sat. May 16 – Friday, July 10
Reception: Sunday afternoon, May 31, 4-6 pm.
nodp
California Oak Wildflower Landscape – Karen Winters
The Oak’s New Spring Gown
9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
SOLD
In the western foothills of the Sierra range, valley oaks begin to deck themselves in fresh green foliage … lacy layers of silken fluff. Out in the meadows they look like girls going to their first big dance. The late light of day puts the lady in a spotlight as admiring wildflowers look on.
The Meadow Wakes – California landscape painting – Karen Winters
“The meadow wakes”
(Sierra foothills, east of Visalia)
6 x 8 oil on canvas
SOLD
When the first strong rays of light hit a meadow filled with fiddlehead flowers, the mist was still rising from the nearby hills, providing an interesting contrast of saturated and desaturated colors. The statuesque valley oak was just starting to put out its new foliage, creating that lacy effect that is only characteristic of earliest spring. I wonder what it would be like to live on a farm like this, with so much beauty to see in every season.
A plein air study – granite rock group
Sketchbook, rock study
From time to time I’ve mentioned that I keep an industrial-strength watercolor sketchbook with nature studies of trees, geology, animals (occasionally) and other features of the natural world. Because the focus of this blog has changed to reflect my evolution into a full-time painter, I have stopped posting those studies. But recently I’ve joined .a group of nature sketchers on a group blog, so I will be posting some of those studies here as well. And, of course, I’ll continue to post new paintings daily, or as often as I can.
This is a study of some granitic rocks in cool morning light. The gentle morning light made the gray rock look violet, which was a beautiful complement to the yellow green spring grass. I did this study to learn more about how rocks can have several types of shadows, depending upon whether there is a hard or soft edge. This sort of observation is very useful to a plein air painter, whether one works in an impressionist or realist style.
For those of you who get this blog in an email, you may notice that these sketchbook posts will have the words “nodp” at the bottom. That is a secret code that tells the Daily Painter software not to post these entries to dailypainter.com because it’s not a painting for sale. So if you’re wondering what that phrase means, now you know.
nodp
Valley Girls – Landscape oil painting – Cows on ranch in Central California
Valley Girls
8 x 10
oil on canvas on birch panel
SOLD
This painting is the result of a test of a new panel I’m working on – a very fine canvas, primed for oil painting and then attached to a birch panel with acid-free archival glue. I didn’t have time to get out today so I used some reference sketches and photos to compose this peaceful scene of a valley in central California.
Although I like the “spring” of stretched canvas, these panels are very light, portable and good for plein air studies.
As I painted this, it started to have sort of a folk art feeling, so rather than fighting it, I just went with it and had fun with the process.
California Plein Air Farm Painting – Peaceful Valley – Karen Winters
Peaceful Valley Farm
9 x 12 inches
plein air oil painting
SOLD
Last week I noticed that the theme on the Creative Construction blog was “farm” and that jogged my memory of this farm study, painted last fall, up around the Santa Ynez Valley. I don’t know the location since we were driving around without a GPS. So I found it in my archives and put on a few finishing touches and here it is.
Today my project is to make canvas panels for a workshop I’ll be attending in Fallbrook the week after next. Someone asked me recently about the importance of study in painting. I think that it’s essential to be a perpetual student, either literally, as in taking classes and workshops, or self-study by learning from nature.
When I’m riding in the car with my husband, if we’re not talking, I’m constantly observing and making mental notes about the landscape. It might be the color of the clouds when the light is coming at a certain angle, or the value difference between the light-struck part of a bush and the underbrush on a bright day. I might think about how I’d mix a certain shadow color that I see on the hills, or the sort of brushstroke I’d use to convey the softness of a field of grass vs. the roughness of a broken stump. We are not just painters when we sit or stand at the easel. We are painters every moment of the day (and sometimes, when we are asleep, too.)
