Sierra Creek -California Landscape Oil Painting – June Lake Loop,High Sierra
Sierra Creek
(Rush Creek, on June Lake Loop), California
Eastern Sierra Nevada
16 x 20
Oil on Canvas
SOLD to a collector from Walnut Creek
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
This painting is from my fall Sierra series (ongoing) depicting the color of the Eastern Sierra in late October. The exact location for this one is a small creek that exits Silver Lake, on the June Lake loop, just west of highway 395. Between the willows and the aspens, it was a symphony in gold. I thought that the blue of the sky played a nice complement to all of those warm hues. This location is no doubt loaded with trout as we saw many anglers along its shores. Just gazing upon this scene puts me back in a reverie.
Today I got some wonderful good news – I was accepted as a juried Artist Member of the California Art Club, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It means a lot to me to be welcomed into the company of artists who I admire and respect so much. I am looking forward to the new exhibitions I’ll be able to participate in, as well as getting to know other peers who have contributed so much to this esteemed organization with its long and illustrious history.
California tonal landscape oil painting – Tin Roof, Bishop
Tin Roof, Bishop
9 x 12 oil on panel
Just north of Bishop, California there is a ranching area where the barns have tin roofs that have weathered wonderfully through the years. This scene attracted me as a subject to paint, but the cool light of the afternoon I was there didn’t appeal to me – it made the scene look cold and sad. I wanted a warm look that suggested the radiant beauty of fall, and which struck less melancholy notes.
This painting takes the basic elements of the scene, but translates them to a warm (monochromatic) color palette consisting mostly of yellow, ochre, and small amounts of burnt sienna, tempered with gray. These small studies with varying color experiments have been useful in thinking of alternate ways of painting a scene. What you see isn’t necessarily all there is.
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California impressionist landscape oil painting – Bishop Byway – rural scene
Bishop Byway
9 x 12
oil on canvas panel
SOLD
Today’s painting is a rural scene from Bishop, California, focusing on the beauty of fall in this eastern Sierra community. The warm color palette suggests afternoon light. Bishop receives little rainfall during the year (the Sierra catches most of the precipitation on its high peaks.) Temperatures can swing wildly, with hot days and cold nights. 50 degree changes from day to night are not uncommon even within a day. (Dress appropriately, as we’ve discovered.)
Yesterday we had a storm blow through that mostly saturated us with drizzle. No pounding rain, but enough precipitation to wet the ground and freshen the foliage. It had to be gone by today, of course, being New Years Eve, so that the skies would appear blue and sunny for everyone watching the Rose Parade. Look for our La Canada float if you are tuned into the coverage – it features a wizard and a large green origami dragon.
High Desert California Landscape Painting – Owens Valley Grazing
“High Desert Grazing”
5 x 7 inch
oil miniature
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This small oil painting is a memory of our recent trip up into the eastern Sierra. Looking westward one sees the mighty Sierra Nevada range. Looking eastward (this view) is the Owens Valley, a high desert area where cattle and sheep grazing is common. I love the serene look of these wide open spaces, especially when storm clouds billow in the late afternoon light. This will be a study for a larger painting yet to come.
I hope that everyone had a great holiday with family and friends. We certainly did – it was wonderful seeing our children for such an extended period of time – always a treat to look forward to. We played games, feasted, toasted and enjoyed time together. One of my favorite gifts was to my husband and me from our kids – a getaway to a snowy place where we can take pictures, paint and enjoy the beauty of winter. We’re thinking maybe a return to Yosemite or perhaps the Sequoia area. Any good suggestions for accessible California places with cozy cabins and snowy scenes? We don’t ski anymore so that’s not a priority.
Crystal Crag -Mammoth Lakes California Snow Sierra Landscape Painting
Crystal Crag (view from Lake Mary)
Mammoth Lakes, California
5 x 7″
acrylic
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See more of my paintings on my website
The first snow at Mammoth Lakes, California, dusted the Crystal Crag formation overlooking Lake Mary. More storms would follow creating tall drifts contrasting vividly with the blue of the water. This seemed to be a good subject for a winter scene, although the time was truly in late fall. The late afternoon sun gave a slightly warm glow to the white snow. In nature, white is rarely, if ever, pure white. It is always picking up color from the environment, including the warm light of the sun, or cool skylight in shade.
California Sierra Cottonwood Trail – Impressionist Landscape Oil Painting
“Cottonwood Trail”
20 x 16 oil on canvas
(near Bishop, California)
This painting has been SOLD, but I have more sierra paintings here:
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
As the seasons change, I am following along, brush in hand, capturing the colors that nature provides. This scene is from the Owens Valley, in the foothills of the Sierra, not far from the Owens River, which I hear has some great fishing these days. The cottonwoods shimmer in the morning light, their orange leaves making a nice complement to the deep blue sky.
I’m going to guess that this is a Fremont Cottonwood (populus fremontii) which is common in lowlands, close to streams. I’ve heard that you can take a twig and stick it into moist ground and it will quickly root. Maybe that’s why you see so many cottonwoods used as windbreaks out in rural pastures. You can just imagine the farmers sticking branches in the ground at reasonable intervals. These were wild ones, however … they didn’t look as though they had been planted in any careful way.
If you notice some other cottonwoods on the right (to the rear) that are still green, that is very typical of the foliage this year. You’ll see trees fully turned growing next to others of the same species that are still wearing their summer look. Wind and weather create some interesting effects, as you’ll see in some of the other paintings I’ll post in the future.
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Sierra Splendor – Mt Whitney, Lone Pine, California landscape oil painting – Eastern Sierra Nevadas
Sierra Splendor
a view toward Mt. Whitney Portal from Lone Pine
18 x 24 oil on canvas
SOLD
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
Some time this fall we’re going to return to the area again for another painting and research trip. A new collector has tipped me off to some beautiful painting spots in the area – and it’s a trip I’m eagerly anticipating.
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
Aspen Sierra Morning – California Eastern Sierra Oil Painting
Aspen Sierra Morning
(near Bishop, Owens Valley, Eastern Sierras
16 x 20 oil on canvas
Because many of my Sierra/aspen/Owens Valley paintings have gone away to new homes, I decided to finish up another that I began last year, inspired by our Eastern Sierra trip. This painting features a grove of aspens caught in the earliest morning light. And I mean *really* early, when the color is intense and warm. That’s the time when more sensible people are snug in their beds, or enjoying their first cups of coffee in the kitchen, but the plein air painters and photographers are stomping around in the brush, looking for the best compositions and getting tangled up in barbed wire. (Yes, that happened to me in November, and it wasn’t pretty.)
Truck crash update, for those who are interested.
At Flintridge bookstore, seven of my ten paintings have been found, in various states of damage. All framing has been destroyed. Some of the watercolors survived, others will require significant repair, and the other (one of my favorites) was torn down the middle. The only acrylic – painted on a hard panel, came through ok. It will only need a brush off to remove some plaster dust, and a few touch-ups. The other two oil paintings are still buried, no doubt. On the positive side, all of those who were hospitalized have been discharged to their homes, and there were no more deaths. Large trucks have been banned on Angeles Crest Highway, at least temporarily, until legislative action can ban them permanently.
We watched the city council meeting last night via cable TV and were glad to see a good discussion of the options to prevent future calamities. And the council was very thorough in thanking everyone who helped in the aftermath, including those who sent letters of support and ideas. At the council meeting I did not hear an acknowledgment of Girl Scout, Malia Mailes, whose 46 slide powerpoint project outlined the disaster waiting to happen before the crash, and she was not mentioned in the round of hearty back-slapping. Perhaps it’s the fact that her report was horrifically prescient and is/was a source of embarrassment to our council who were unable to use her research to get any action. It’s interesting, isn’t it, that teenagers are usually characterized as feeling “immortal” and behaving as though nothing bad could happen to them. Yet here you have a teen sounding a clarion call and the adults patiently waiting for the state to throw them crumbs.
The burning question, which a member of the public raised at the meeting, was, why did it take so long, with repeated runaway truck “near misses” and finally two deaths to get some action? Clearly, the carefully worded requests for action from our city manager, as politely “by the book” as they may have been, fell on deaf ears with the regional CalTrans director who recently told a reporter he wasn’t going to spend any money on our requests. If our city representatives tolerated a runaround on this issue, which ended in fatalities, how will they respond to future needs? Will they have learned a little assertiveness from the experience? Perhaps the PR firm that they hired to manage the media and interviews on the day of the event can give them some helpful suggestions.
Here’s a helpful suggestion: Malia Mailes for City Council in two years, when she’s 18. She sounds like a go-getter, someone who is passionate, energetic and wants to get things done. We can use more of that around here.
Sierra Blessing – California Eastern Sierra Nevada Oil Painting Commission
Sierra Blessing
18 x 24″ landscape oil painting on canvas
SOLD (commission)
Today, I finished this Eastern Sierra Nevada painting with much love and joy, and shared a photo of it with the client who commissioned it. I have since signed it and will give it a protective coating in a few days and then it will be time to leave my studio and go to live with a new family.
The origin of the painting has an interesting story, I think. The individual contacted me because she had seen a painting of mine on my website of a location close to where she lives. But as we got to talking, it turned out that she also liked my painting of the Sierras, a place where she and her family had camped together and enjoyed many happy days together.
This painting is a reflection of one of those special places, with a view of Lone Pine and Mt. Whitney. It has a special significance to the family that makes it especially sacred to them. I feel honored that she entrusted me to interpret this spot artistically, and I hope that long after I am gone it will be passed down in their family.
For me, this is what making art is all about. It is about taking something in the real world and, through the application of study, practice and technique, turning it into a creation that will capture a feeling, a moment in time, a spiritual insight. I love painting plein air, and I do it as much as I can, but sometimes I rely on my field studies, sketches, direct observation and other references to re-create a scene. That was the process I used here.
I love this painting so much that I am going to paint it again, in a slightly different size, probably a little bigger … and no doubt I will interpret it a little differently. That always happens.
Out of the wreckage of the runaway truck accident, there are some positives. Yesterday my dear husband went to the store and recovered three paintings which the store owner had carefully found and put up on the counter in a safe place. (The vase of peonies, a pink magnolia watercolor which I had forgotten was there, and the vertical eucalyptus painting.) Today my husband visited just as a cleanup crew was arriving and showed them a poster we made with small images of the remaining six works. They promised to keep an eye out for them. If they find even one or two more I will be very happy. And I am optimistic that they will!
As a dear friend of mine is fond of saying “You can’t see around life’s corners.” Indeed we can’t. Which is why it is especially important to do our best and be kind to each other at every opportunity.
And now, it’s time for me to get back to the easel!
