Arboretum Fountain – California plein air landscape oil painting

“First there is a fountain, then there is no fountain, then there is”
11 x 14
oil on canvas panel

Click image above to enlarge


Interested in purchasing this painting? Please write

View my online gallery of paintings here

Last weekend I did a plein air painting at the Los Angeles Arboretum, which was a nice change of pace. I have a reciprocal membership with my Descanso membership, so I’m looking forward to doing this some more this fall.

This is a view of the San Gabriels that I haven’t painted before. I was enjoying blocking in the fountains, but after awhile they were turned off, so I had to do the rest from memory. If you remember a certain 70s Donovan song, the title of the painting will make perfect sense.

Some other curve balls thrown by Mother Nature. When I started blocking in the painting there was not a cloud in the sky. An hour and a half later, the sky looked like this. By the time the sun had lowered and the interesting shadows started, the clouds were all gone. So this is sort of a compressed-time view of the scene, as plein air paintings often are. You just have to adapt to the changes in a sort of Zen way – acceptance of the moment without stress. Here’s me, below, wildly gesticulating with brushes, no doubt. I hope I didn’t get any paint on that nice lady watching.

California Art Club – So. Pasadena City of Trees Show – “Arroyo Vista”

Arroyo Vista
South Pasadena
18 x 24 oil on canvas

Click image to enlarge


For more information about this painting, please write

This is my newest painting, which I took to the South Pasadena Public Library today for display at the annual show featuring scenes of South Pasdena. This year, the theme is City of Trees. Although many people are painting historically significant trees, I have grown fond of this group, framing the Arroyo Seco, which we see on our walks in the area. When the theme of “trees” was announced, I knew just what I wanted to paint.

The following information is from the California Art Club news release about the event:

Location: South Pasadena Public Library Community Room 
1115 El Centro Avenue
South Pasadena, CA 91030

Collectors’ Preview Reception: Friday, October 2, 7 – 9:30 p.m
All submitted artwork will be on display for this special Collectors’ Preview event at the South Pasadena Public Library Community Room. Tickets $25 per person. R.S.V.P. to 626-441-2339  (Participating artists get in free.)

Saturday, October 3, 6 – 10 p.m.
The free exhibition at the South Pasadena Library Community Room continues for one more day as part of SouthPas ArtsFest, featuring live music and entertainment,wine tasting, food court and an ArtWalk featuring eight galleries. 

Sierra Madre Wistaria painting – California mountain landscape painting

Sierra Madre Wistaria
5 x 7 inches, acrylic


Interested in this painting? Please write.

Sierra Madre is home of the world’s largest wistaria vine. I’ve visited the phenomenon several times when it’s in bloom in the spring, and the color and scent are breathtakng.

This painting is one of 30 San Gabriel Valley paintings that I’ll be showing today at Royal Oaks Manor in BradburyFor show details, visit my events page
There will be music, refreshments, a very nice reception – and I’ll be working on a new painting.

Reminder for tomorrow:

This weekend, Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th, I’ll be showing a large number of California impressionist landscape and seascape paintings at the Eagle Rock Plein Air Art Sale at 2222 Laverna Ave. in Eagle Rock.

Here’s a google map to the location

Show hours are 9 to 3 daily, and I will be there most of the time and probably painting. A significant percentage of the proceeds go to support the Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful and its projects. Come learn about drought tolerant landscaping, buy some art, support a great cause and have a good time.

It’s on the grounds of the GLAD center – Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness. Plenty of free parking!

Santa Anita Racetrack – Arcadia equine

Before the Race
12 x 16 inches
acrylic on panel

I don’t paint in acrylic too often and I’m thinking that I have overlooked a very versatile medium. I painted this scene recently of the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia because I needed another painting for a show featuring the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Gabriel Valley area.

I didn’t have time to do an oil painting – because it needs to be shown this Friday afternoon in Bradbury, near Duarte. For show details, visit my events page
But acrylic gives a more opaque look than watercolor, and allows the same sort of brushwork that I’m used to with oil.

The Bowers Museum show was rewarding in every way. One of my paintings got an Honorable Mention award and sold to a new collector who also took one of my Falllbrook landscapes. One of my spring wildflowers went home with another couple. It was fun to meet new artists and enjoy the company of some of my regular painting buddies.

This weekend, Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th, I’ll be showing a large number of California impressionist landscape and seascape paintings at the Eagle Rock Plein Air Art Sale at 2222 Laverna Ave. in Eagle Rock.

Here’s a google map to the location

Show hours are 9 to 3 daily, and I will be there most of the time and probably painting. A significant percentage of the proceeds go to support the Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful and its projects. Come learn about drought tolerant landscaping, buy some art, support a great cause and have a good time.

It’s on the grounds of the GLAD center – Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness. Plenty of free parking!

California Landscape Oil Painting – Pasadena San Gabriel View

Overlooking Pasadena
14 x 11 oil on canvas
SOLD

Although this painting is sold, you can see more Pasadena paintings here

Stately eucalyptus trees line a path overlooking Pasadena/Altadena, looking east and north toward the San Gabriel Mountains. The branches catch the early morning light.


Interested in this painting? Please write

California Oak Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting – Descanso Oak Trio

Descanso Oak Trio
8 x 10
oil

Another warm twilight evening, another chance to paint some Descanso Oaks. I picked a different view this week and did a little rearranging of the shrubberies to create a path where there was none.

You can see the work in progress below. As should be evident from the photo, which my husband took for me, the leftmost trunk is very straight in reality and I painted it that way. When I got home and put the panel in a frame, I didn’t like the effect at all … it was a like an arrow shooting right out of the frame. So I repainted the trunk to give it some bends and curves and had to use my imagination to think through how the light would wrap around the bends. I also lifted the San Gabriel Mountain range to make it peek through the distant foliage, and created a variety of patterns in the foreground which was just shredded wood bark in full shade, very drab. So even though the colors of the actual scene were rather subdued there was salsa music playing and I painted an emotional response to the scene, not a literal rendering.


For more information and pricing, please write.

Colorado Street Bridge – Summer Landscape California Oil Painting

Pasadena Bridge – Summer Days
(Colorado Street Bridge)
8 x 10 oil on canvas

SOLD but I have other bridge paintings

This California landscape is one that is familiar to residents of Pasadena and the communities surrounding the Arroyo Seco. The Colorado Street Bridge , seen here looking northward, rises over the grassy fields that are now turning golden. Only the evergreen eucalyptus, oaks, willows and other natives keep their colors. The 134 freeway bridge can be seen in the distance. On these late spring days it’s not uncommon to see thunderheads building over the San Gabriel Mountains – you can feel the humidity build up at those times.

I am counting down the days until my reception at Gale’s Restaurant in Pasadena. Sunday, May 31, 4-6 pm. If you’re local, I hope you can come!

Book tip of the day: Kevin McPherson’s Landscape Painting Inside and Out: Capture the Vitality of Outdoor Painting in Your Studio With Oils. I do plein air painting as often as I can … but I have learned a lot from this book and others about keeping the fresh plein air feeling while painting in studio. Check it out!

Pasadena bridge landscape oil painting – Arroyo Springtime

Arroyo Springtime
Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge painting
16 x 20 oil on canvas
SOLD


This painting has been sold but I have others. Please write.

See more Pasadena paintings here

This painting, of Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge in the setting of the Arroyo Seco, is one of my favorite renditions of the area so far. Because it is so close to my home, I can visit frequently and observe the changing foliage through the seasons. In the springtime the wide meadow leading down to the river is covered with wild mustard. The mustard is an invasive imported species, not a native, so it tends to crowd out the indigenous plants. But it does lend a beautiful color to these open areas when the light strikes it just so.

Every time we go down there we see something different and interesting. One time it was ranger on horseback patrolling to make sure that dogs were on-leash. Another time it was a group of people with a flock of (leashed) goats. Never a dull moment in the arroyo!

My show at Gale’s has been going very well. So far three paintings have been sold, and I’ve replaced them with new ones. You can see some of the sold paintings in the left hand column at http://www.karensblog.com

This weekend we’re going to the reception of the On Location in Malibu show, presented by the California Art Club. I’m sure it will be a wonderful event as all of their shows are. Art, Malibu, hanging out with painters … what could be better?

Chapparal Trail

Chapparal Trail
(Dunsmore Canyon, La Crescenta)
9 x 12 oil

We’re having some unseasonably hot weather right now. Today it was in the high 80s and tomorrow it’s likely to be 90. Last year, when I was doing the Sierra Madre Art Fair, it was 100 both days. Because I am showing so many paintings at Gale’s (which hung this morning) I opted not to do the SM Fair just this year. It seemed like I’d be burning the candle at both ends to have 30 paintings for Gale and another 20 for a fair booth. Now, seeing the weather (again) I’m glad I opted to pass. Next year I might do it again, though. Now I’m home in my studio, staying cool, and working on some other projects.

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.


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