California Impressionist Oil Painting -La Canada Memories – San Gabriel Mountains – Karen Winters
12 x 16 oil on canvas
“La Canada Memories – Oak Grove Park”
This one is not for sale but was a last Christmas gift to my daughter. But it wasn’t really practical for her to schlep it back on the plane to Northwestern U. so we agreed I’d get it framed up for her to take to her new place in the SF Bay area. So, it’s all finished up and here it is.
This is a scene of Hahamongna Park looking northward to the San Gabriel Mountains. (Formerly Oak Grove Park.) It is right across the street from the high school where Kelly and her brother went to school, as well as right next door to their preschool. So this truly is a hometown painting. Hahamongna Park is also known as the northern part of the Arroyo Seco, an area I’ve painted often and will again in the very near future!
Pacific Palisades Hillside – Will Rogers State Park by Karen Winters, California Impressionist
“California Summer Hillside – at Pacific Palisades, Will Rogers State Park”
Plein air painting 11 x 14 oil on stretched canvas.
Yesterday I enjoyed the company of the Allied Artists of the Santa Monica Mountains for a paint out at Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades.
I saw many faces I knew from the California Art Club, Artists of the Canyon, and other paint-out groups, and we all had a wonderful day enjoying the mild good weather and range of painting subjects.
It was a little breezy and I struggled getting my umbrella to shade my work but finally gave up and positioned my medium sized Yarka easel so that the sun wouldn’t strike it directly. Note to self: bring a sandbag next time for the umbrella and stand. It had been left in the other car.
Because I positioned myself at a trailhead I had the pleasure of talking with many hikers on that beautiful Saturday morning, including some who were quite knowledgeable about impressionism and the growing popularity of plein air painting. It really is undergoing a revival!
After the paintout we enjoyed a potluck lunch and shared stories about galleries, shows, teachers, art products and more. I always have a good time getting together with artists – for all our solitary pursuits we can also be gregarious.
California Mountain – Impressionist landscape oil painting by Karen Winters
“California Mountain”
12 x 16 oil on canvas
This is another in my series of spring landscapes, capturing the beauty of California in an impressionist mood. When I’m out painting and taking pictures for reference I don’t always know the name of the landmarks, especially if they are out of my home territory. But this strong summit is around California’s central coast area.
This painting was such a pleasure for me to paint – especially mixing all the different colors of greens that represent grass covered hillsides, trees, meadows and wildflowers. Can’t you just imagine this in a gold plein air frame? Eternal springtime!
Oak in the Meadow – Santa Monica Mountains – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Oak in the Meadow 12 x 16 inch oil on canvas
Late afternoon light streams across a meadow dotted with oak trees. The glow reminded me of a long ago time in a peaceful place.
In real life, the place is the Santa Monica Mountains – a meadow not far from Malibu Creek State Park. The distant mountain range takes on a violet cast as the sun descends. Soon, even the wildflowers will be covered with deep shadows. Don’t you just want to sit under that tree and listen to the calls of the red-winged blackbirds?
May at Malibu Creek – Karen Winters Daily Painting – Art
“May at Malibu Creek”
11 x 14 pastel on board
SOLD
This week has been another week of preparation for a show – this Sunday, June 1 at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. So I haven’t had a lot of extra time for painting but I will try to make up for it, soon.
This is another favorite scene of mine from Malibu Creek State Park. The long lazy trail winds back through the spring grasses, which are beginning to turn golden here and there. Wildflowers decorate the hillsides with swaths of color, and the afternoon glow kisses the chapparal-covered mountainsides.
I was reading a website recently that was extolling the beauty of the Santa Monica Mountains. This area is so close to urban Los Angeles, yet it might as well be out in the wilderness. There is so much natural texture and beauty here – a painter’s delight.
The other day I was sitting in the car in the parking lot while my husband ran into OSH for a few hardware bits. Rather than wrap myself up in an art magazine, I just gazed for a long time at the Verdugo Hills and the clouds drifting above it. I challenged myself to see as many colors and values as I could. Art is not only made with brush or pastel in hand. Sometimes it gestates by just our attentive seeing.
Golden Hour – California Art Club show -Pasadena Women’s City Club
“Golden Hour”
14 x 18 oil on canvas
SOLD to a collector from Claremont
So here’s the other painting that was accepted into the California Art Club show at the Women’s City Club in Pasadena.
It represents a few moments just before sunset in California’s Central Coast, not far from Paso Robles. I am just thrilled to be in the show for the second consecutive time, on this occasion with two entries, one watercolor, and one oil. (See day before yesterday for my watercolor portrait, “Strength is Beautiful.”
My objective here was to show a more traditional view of Natural Beauty, that of California’s scenic splendor. I thought about choosing one of the frequently selected wonders, like Yosemite or the Sierras, but this commonplace scene of oak woodlands seemed to represent beauty just as well. Perhaps beauty truly is all around us, if we just have eyes to see.
The painting will be displayed for sale at the Women’s City Club in Pasadena until late November.
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!
Malibu Creek Afternoon by Karen Winters – oil painting – Santa Monica Mountains
“Malibu Creek Afternoon” 16 x 20 oil on canvas
SOLD
See more of my Malibu paintings here
A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of visiting Malibu Creek State Park, deep in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains. While our children were growing up we made many visits to ponds and hiking trails throughout the range, but we never visited this beautiful place. Sycamores line the banks of the creek (they’re all green now) but I’m planning return visits in the summer and fall to see how the landscape changes. This point of view is from the bridge by the visitor’s center, if you know the area. The scene depicted is about 3:30 in the afternoon.
Last week I enjoyed taking a watercolor workshop from Dale Laitinen, which was excellent. I learned a lot not only about different watercolor techniques but about abstract design and composition. I’ll be posting some of those in the next few days. Right now I’m trying to compile a list of paintings to enter in various shows, and to prep for a number of sales.
More later
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.
Rosarium Sunset
“Rosarium Sunset” 8 x 10 oil on canvasboard
On the heels of yesterday’s plein air outing at the arroyo, we went to Descanso Gardens at sunset today for some more painting and photographing. Descanso is open Thursday nights for the months of July and August. I wait all year for this opportunity to see the beautiful gardens at “golden hour” – the loveliest time (other than dawn.)
This represents one of the paths lined with rose bushes. Roughing in the painting took about an hour, from 615 t0 715, and I added finishing touches (such as the sky) after I got home. At that time of day the light was changing so rapidly there was not much point in painting after an hour had elapsed. I finished it off at home, refinining edges, adjusting things. The above painting represents the colors as they really are under room light conditions. The photographs below are more bluish, representing shady daylight conditions.
I promised some people that the very next time I went out painting with my lightweight easel that I would take pictures of the shelf in closeup, so here they are. I made a cardboard mock-up to work out the dimensions, then gave it to my husband who cut it out of 1/4″ masonite. There are no supports underneath the shelf other than two little L brackets to reinforce the holes. It sits on the easel by a friction-fit.
