Desert Dawn – Palm Springs California Impressionist Oil Painting
Desert Dawn – Palm Springs – California Impressionist Oil Painting
11 x 14 oil on canvas
Click image to see larger, better res version
Painting the desert as seen in morning light is definitely a challenge. The air is remarkably crisp and clear, probably clearer and with less particulate material than just about anywhere I’ve seen. So that’s a distinctive look that says “desert.” But this is in contrast to one of the principles of landscape painting that tells us that distant objects should be softer, grayer, bluer and with less distinct detail. I could have painted this painting that way .. “pushing back” the mountains with desaturation and adding more blue. But this time I chose to keep them darker, almost close enough to touch. This alluvial area comes out of the San Jacinto Mountains. I believe it’s an area along the Randall Henderson Trail, but I’m not certain. I really need to take better notes about my locations.
This painting was done using only three colors, black and white: ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow light and alizarin crimson. I feel that the limited palette can help to create greater color harmony. It was an experiment and I like the results. Some very wise teachers advocate using a full palette with perhaps two dozen colors, many premixed, so that you can quickly select the right color when time is short. There is definitely an advantage to working that way, speed being a major concern. But other good painters say that you can get more color harmony if you limit your colors and just mix like crazy. I know one demo painter that only uses about seven colors on his palette on location. Another teacher, John Cosby, challenges his students to paint with just five. So there are a lot of different things to explore and learn from.
I may be taking this painting with me to the show at Descanso. Now I’m down to the wire deciding on the right mix of subject matter, size, color, medium and so forth. Although I’m restricted to bringing 20 paintings, if you’re coming to the show and would like to see something else that I’ve featured here or on my website, drop me a note and make sure I have it available for viewing in person.
Sierra Madre Art Fair this weekend
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Come see me this weekend if you’re in the Pasadena area. I’ll be bringing more than 40 original oil paintings and watercolors, plus some prints and cards. The park is shady so don’t let the weather keep you away! If you love art you won’t want to miss this once a year event!
Spring Medley – Anza Borrego Desert Painting – Karen Winters
Spring Medley – 11 x 15 – mixed media
SOLD
Here’s a painting that combines both watercolor and acrylic – one for its transparency, the other for its opacity – each used to its best advantage (in my opinion!)
It was inspired by a photo I took at the Anza Borrego State Park in N. San Diego County when we went there to look at the wildflower bloom several weeks ago (better make that months ago!) What attracted me to this scene was the contrast of textures – the hard rocks and the soft desert flowers, plus the contrast of shadows and bright sunlight.
Right now I’m in final preparations for the Sierra Madre show. All of the pictures (more than 35!) are in their frames, although I don’t think I have enough space in my booth to display them all at once – so I’m going to have to make some hard choices.
In addition I have a number of matted but unframed watercolors, like this one, which will be in a bin for people to look through.
Poppy fields forever – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Poppy Fields Forever” 9 x 12 oil on board
SOLD, but I have more wildflower paintings at See more here
All over Southern California the golden poppies are in bloom. In the Antelope Valley, in Pasadena, and even a few in my yard.
Wildflower Spring – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Wildflower Spring” – 14 x 18 oil on canvas
This very new painting (painted last week) was inspired by my recent trip to California’s Anza Borrego State Park in North San Diego County. I’ve never been much of a desert person, although one of my warmest memories of a family trip was to see the California desert for the first time – around Joshua Tree, I believe. Perhaps it’s because most of the year it is fairly dry and barren. But when springtime follows a winter of abundant rainfall – stand back. This is the desert as I’ve never seen it before. Next year I’ll be looking for new places to paint and take photos with different kinds of flora.
If there is someone reading who lives in the North San Diego area and is familiar with the native plants, I’d like to know the name of the tree/shrub, which grow near Coyote Canyon at the upper part of the A-B preserve. Some have said it’s a smoke tree but it seems too full for that. It has some resemblance to a palo verde, but the trunks weren’t green. The foliage is soft and airy and drooping. It grows out in the middle of the desert, in what look like flash flood gullies. It likes sand as opposed to a craggy, rocky habitat.
This might be a good time to remind new readers of a few things about the images you see here:
I scan and process my photos on a Mac, which means that it may look slightly different on a PC, even though I have my monitor setup for PC preview, since that’s what more people use. I do my best to get a good color match, but if you’ve ever been in a computer store or the TV department of a large retailer, you know that there are rarely two screens that look alike. I’ve been told that in most cases the painting “in real life” looks even better than on the monitor.
Thing two: My name and blog address which appear in one of the corners of the photo are NOT on the painting.That is not how I sign my name. It’s a watermark that I apply digitally to my work so that if it ever gets separated from my site, or if I display it on Flickr (not here) that people know where to go to see more. I usually sign my name very small and subtly in either the lower left or right hand corner, whichever looks best.
Thing three: What you see in this post is a low res version so the blog page will load quickly. If you want to see a somewhat higher res version, click the image and it is likely you’ll be able to see more brushstrokes and detail.
More paintings coming soon … I have a lot on the easel(s) and I’m doing final tweaking for all the shows coming up this month and next, among them the Art Matters show and sale at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. More details as the dates approach. Mark your calendar for the weekend of May 2-3-4.
Desert Sunrise – Palm Springs – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Desert Sunrise” oil on canvas 14 x 18
SOLD
But you can find more of my desert paintings and other landscapes at Karen Winters Gallery Site
This Friday, December 8, I will be exhibiting some paintings again at Descanso Gardens in La Canada, and this painting may be among them. (I’m still deciding which four I’ll bring for the group exhibition, and my final selection will probably be made that morning.) This painting was inspired by the warm beauty of the sunrise in Palm Springs.
On another topic, last Friday night we attended a lecture at the Norton Simon museum in Pasadena on the landscapes of Renoir. His painting continued to evolve through the years, and there were some startling examples of contemporaneous paintings executed in very different styles, depending upon the subject matter. This came as a surprise to me because I think we are used to seeing a great deal of consistency in the bodies of work of the masters. It’s refreshing to see how they experimented and explored new techniques with a variety of interesting results.
