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?

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.

A Garden Wedding – Live Event Painting

Garden Wedding
9 x 12 oil
SOLD

Not too long ago I was at a botanical garden for an art show and a wedding was about to take place. It seemed like a beautiful romantic scene to paint, so we asked the wedding party if they would allow me to paint discreetly from the side. They graciously said yes and this was the result. The framed painting was delivered today to family members who are giving it as a gift. (You’ll notice I’m not mentioning the name of the garden or the family. Shhh, it’s a surprise.)

Usually when I do a plein air painting I try to portray an exact moment as it is – a shadow pattern at a specific time, a certain quality of light. Wedding paintings are somewhat different in that they are idealized renditions of an entire event. In this painting, by the time the bride and groom arrived after taking their pictures, there was little light left on plaza. Some of the guests said they were sorry that the wildflowers in the background were not blooming as they had been a month before. I told them – in my painting they’ll be blooming. Milford Zornes, the watercolorist, once said “paint it the way it could be.” When it comes to event painting, that is very good advice.

Wedding paintings make treasured heirloom gifts. To ask about live painting at a wedding (or a studio painting from a wedding photo),
click this link to write me.


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Newport Back Bay Twilight – Newport Beach California estuary marine oil painting

Back Bay Twilight
(Upper Newport Bay – “Back Bay,” California)
9 x 12 oil on canvas panel
Plein air oil painting
SOLD

This is sold, but you can see more of my Newport Beach paintings here

This was one of the paintings that I took to the Newport Back Bay show last weekend, one of several which went home with new collectors. What a great weekend it was meeting so many new people and sharing my love of art with them. The weather was beautiful. Good times all around.

Now I’m painting for several upcoming shows but my outdoor show schedule will settle down until early September when I do the Montrose Artwalk again, followed by the Bowers Museum Invitational show. It’s good to have a few weeks off to regroup, get out and paint some new work for fall exhibitions.

Silvery Streams – Newport Back Bay Oil Painting

“Silvery Streams”
8 x 10 oil on canvas panel

Juried into SoCal PAPA’s Newport Back Bay Show – July 23-25, Muth Interpretive Center, Newport Beach

This was painted in Rigel Park in Newport, about a month or so ago, for the SoCal Plein Air Painters Assn. biennial show and sale which will be taking place this weekend. The artists reception is 6-9 pm Friday evening. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll attend.

This small painting was challenging to do not only because of the changing light at sunset but also because the tide was coming in and the patterns of water among the estuary sand bars didn’t stay the same for long.

Kayaking on Back Bay – Newport Back Bay Oil Painting

Kayaking on Back Bay
acrylic
11 x 14

When I was painting this, I liked the scene, but I liked it even better when some kayakers glided through the bay. There was a good place for them so I put them in.

This is one of two paintings that I painted for the upcoming SoCal Plein Air Painters Association Juried Show at the Muth Center, in the Upper Newport Bay next Saturday and Sunday, July 24 and 25. In addition I will be exhibiting about 18 other paintings of Southern California in this 50 artist outdoor group exhibition and sale.

I’ve decided that in addition to getting around the state and exploring different areas, I should also explore some places closer to home. Orange County, and the areas around Laguna, Newport Beach, San Clemente and Dana Point are among the locations that I’ve been painting at, and will continue to appreciate in paint.

Through the Bowers Museum show and various California Art Club events, as well as through the San Clemente Plein Air paint out and studio painting opportunities at Randy Higbee’s store and gallery… I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a number of SoCal PAPA artists. It was the right time to join the group and have fun participating in some of their shows, too.

Here’s one thing that’s tricky about classifying a painting like this. It’s an estuary, so technically it’s a marine painting. But is it a seascape? A landscape? A sea-landscape? I’m going to list it in both categories, just to be contrary.

Sunset Surf – California seascape oil painting

SOLD

“Sunset Surf”
8 x 10 oil

This painting is sold, however I have more seascape paintings at Karen Winters Seascapes

California seascape … dramatic clouds make colorful accents to this Southern California marine seascape. Whenever there is a marine layer with breaks for the sun, the sunsets are spectacular. I’m getting ready to do some plein air painting one day this week at the San Clemente Plein Air Festival, as I did last year. If we don’t have days of June gloom it should be fun!

If you have a question or or would like to find out if a painting is still available for sale…..

Write Me

La Canada Landscape Oil Painting – Memorial Day Concert – California impressionist genre painting

Memorial Day Concert, 2010
(La Canada Flintridge, featuring Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries)
8 x 10
plein air oil painting

This painting is now SOLD but I have many others for sale…..
Write Me

Ah, the beginning of summer, and the summer Music in the Park series in my hometown, La Canada Flintridge. I enjoyed painting this scene while visiting with picnickers and others who were out savoring the warm day. The first act, Misplaced Priorities, energized the audience and set the stage for the second act, Captain Cardiac and the Coronaries. Both 50s-60s rock bands were enthusiastically received. In front of the gazebo/bandshell, dancers of all ages found their groove.
When I was growing up, I couldn’t imagine having fun dancing to the same music my grandparents liked. But old time rock and roll was appreciated that day by 70-somethings and 5 year olds alike.

It was good to see so many friends and neighbors out relaxing. Thanks to the LCF Chamber of Commerce for making Fiesta Days a wonderful event once again.

California Landscape Oil Painting – Claremont Wilderness Park Trail

Claremont Wilderness Park Trail
(featuring Potato Mountain – and the Angeles National Forest – San Gabriel Mountains)
18 x 24 oil on canvas

If you have a question or or would like to find out if this painting is still available for sale…..

Write Me

This painting is brand new and features a viewpoint from a trail in the Claremont Wilderness Park. Depending upon which way you’re hiking on the trail, it’s either the beginning or end of a loop that goes way up into the mountains. On the day I was there and did a small on-location study, there were spectacular clouds in the sky, making interesting shadows and bright spots on the ground – a painter’s delight.

I’m taking the painting tomorrow to the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens show in Claremont for their annual juried Art in the Garden show. This will be my third year participating in this wonderful location. I would love to see you there, so if you plan to attend, please email me and I will send you a flyer you can print out – good for free admission this weekend only.

Please make a calendar date: Next weekend, June 12-13, I will be painting in my home territory, Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge during a 2-day Art in the Garden event. Look for a number of painters painting around the pavilion in the International Rosarium. I will be bringing a selection of works for sale also.

More later … now I’m back to getting my last-minute framing done.