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.
Malibu Meadow Plein Air California Landscape Oil Painting
Malibu Meadow
8 x 10 oil on canvas on hardboard
(Click image to enlarge)
More of my malibu creek paintings at this link
I painted this in the spring, when the meadows of the Santa Monica Mtns were still green, but never got around to finishing it up. Now that the summer/fall show season is starting to wind down, I have time to revisit some of my field studies and bring them to completion, like this one. This is a meadow near one of the grassland trail entrances to Malibu Creek State Park
Mark your calendars for the annual Pasadena Art Walk, Saturday, October 10.
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.
El Capitan Yosemite Valley – California Plein Air Oil Painting – Sierra Landscape
El Capitan
Plein air oil painting
9 x 12 inches
SOLD
See more of my Yosemite paintings here
This was painted en plein air Friday, July 17 in Yosemite Valley.
If you’re interested in this painting, please write
Well, I’m back from our whirlwind tour of Northern California. I didn’t have the time or energy to upload paintings every day, but now that I’m back I’m going to try to catch up. This was painted on the last day of our trip, late in the afternoon. If you are a new visitor to my blog, one of the people who saw me painting this in progress, welcome! Now you know how it turned out.
Yosemite Valley was spectacular, as always, but it was very hot, as it currently is in Los Angeles. But just looking at the cool water of the Merced River seemed to help. Those distant thunderheads, which rose as I painted, tell you how much moisture and humidity there was in the air.
As always, people gathered around to watch me tackle the scene. They are always very polite and ask if they can watch. I let them know that if I wanted to be alone, I’d be in my studio! I truly enjoy having observers, as long as they are ok with me continuing to work as we chat. My husband took the picture below as I wrapped up. You can see by the painting compared to the final photo how much the light changed during the time I was painting. But it’s a no-win game to keep chasing shadows. You just have to draw them in at the beginning and then stick with the plan.
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.
La Canada Angeles Crest Landscape Oil Painting – Karen Winters
“Snow on the Crest”
16 x 20 oil on canvas
This is a view into the Crescenta Canada Valley from a high road in Flintridge, near the Sacred Heart Academy. The 210 freeway can be seen on the left as it passes the upper Arroyo Seco. The mountains are the San Gabriel range. Last winter, a snowstorm left a dusting of snow on the Angeles Crest Forest. It only lasted a few days but I had the opportunity to take some early morning pictures of this rare occurrence. By the next day, most of the snow had vanished.
Now that the temperatures have reached the high 90s locally, I thought it was a good time to think about something cool.
California Golden Hills – Oak Landscape Plein Air Oil Painting
California Golden Hills
11 x 14
Plein air oil painting
Interested in this painting? Please write
This painting is currently on exhibition in the San Clemente Art Association Gallery, in San Clemente, CA.
Much of the week in San Clemente we experienced “June gloom” – that cool gray marine layer that covers the seacoast until early afternoon. Although paintings in the gloom do have a certain mystery to them, I was looking for a more colorful subject, and so we traveled inland along the Ortega Highway to find this vista at Caspers Park. But really, it could be anywhere in the state – the golden hills studded with oaks is so typical of our scenery.
Just for fun, I included a photo of me, mid-painting, on location. You can see my preliminary sketch on the easel, above the canvas. If I have the time I always try to do a sketch because it helps me to organize my thoughts and not to “get lost” as I strive to capture the scene on canvas. Here are the steps I usually take:
1) select an appealing scene
2) do a value sketch
3) draw the “bones” of the scene on canvas
4) put in the darks
5) put in the lights
6) refinement
If the light is rapidly changing, though, all bets are off, and sometimes you just have to paint whatever is most ephemeral. In this case, I knew that the cloud shadows might go away, so I painted them first, saving the golden grasses for last.
More paintout paintings to come …
Above San Clemente Coastal Plein Air Seascape Skyline Painting
“Above San Clemente”
8 x 10 oil
The view from Salvador Drive, high above San Clemente, about 5:30 in the evening
This painting is on exhibit at the San Clemente Art Association Gallery, until July 31.
If you are not in the area but are interested in purchasing, please write me and I will contact the gallery.
This was one of the paintings I did for the plein air paintout – at the end of a very long day painting in other locations. It portrays the silvery bay in late afternoon light from the vantage point of Salvador Drive, up Presidio, east of the city. The sun was just out of the frame, and I was trying to keep it under the brim of my hat – not easy! My husband took this picture of the painting on the easel at the end, just as the sky was starting to turn warmish. I thought it looked kind of neat backlit by the sun.
More of my work from the paint out will be posted all this week, so please check back.
