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
Poppy Patch – Pasadena – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Return to the Poppy Patch” 9 x 12 watercolor
SOLD
It’s another walk around the Arlington street poppy garden, but this time in a more decorative, somewhat abstract mood. I abandoned any attempt to be realistic and considered the landscape as a decorative tapestry, with different colors and textures woven through. With some modifications, this might scale up well into a larger painting. But then I’d have to fight the temptation to put in all sorts of fiddly realistic details. Can’t you just imagine Dorothy, Toto and the gang taking a nap back there between the poppies and the irises? We’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re in Pasadena.
Sandstone Peak – near Malibu – Karen Winters Plein Air painting
“Sandstone Peak”
12 x 16 oil on canvas
Here’s the result of last Saturday’s paintout, with a very nice group of painters who specialize in the Santa Monica Mountains area. This location is at Circle X Ranch, high in the mountains above Malibu, actually a little closer to Ventura, just north of “County Line.” We arrived around 9 am – a problematic time for plein air painting as the face of the mountain was completely front lit. We’re talking full frontal eastern sunlight, which pretty much wiped out any chance of getting strong shadows. I knew this was going to be difficult, but we didn’t drive over an hour to paint some trees and bushes in the shade, so I figured I’d give it a go anyway.
When I got home from the paintout I discovered that I had to alter some of the colors to make the hillside recede, and to punch the foreground wildflowers to make them come forward. I could have done it on the spot but by the time I finished (around noon) the light had changed enough that there wasn’t much point in painting more. A reference photo allowed me to put on the finishing touches at home.
I was talking with pastellist Bruce Trentham while we took a break, and it turned out that we had both seen the same Ansel Adams PBS documentary which aired within the past week. One of Adams’ principles was to create a photograph not exactly as it WAS but how it made him feel. In other words he didn’t just photograph the scene he photographed his personal experience. That experience might have been a feeling of awe, rapture, serenity or other strong emotion. Sometimes he would use special filters to darken the sky unnaturally, the better to express what he was feeling. That, I believe, is one of the differences between fine art photography and just taking “a picture.” And it is the difference between merely copying a scene, either en plein air or in studio … and expressing a personal reaction. And that is why we paint more flowers than were really there (or that close), or we change colors, or soften and sharpen edges and so much more. Did I faithfully copy every nook and cranny of the rocks? Of course not! I got the general shape and enough crevices to say rocks, but more really isn’t necessary nor even advisable.
After the paintout we drove up and down the coast, stopping at several pocket beaches which were swarming with people. Little did we know that it was a hot day in the valleys and everyone had headed for the beach.
Here’s the work in progress shot. To answer a question I received a week ago (sorry, it’s been crazy busy) I use a Yarka easel and an easelmate which is like a wooden box with two “wings” that unfold to hold brushes, paper towels, etc. I have sheet of 12 x 16 glass (mounted to foamcore) which slides into the easelmate when I paint out. Under the painting in progress you can see a small sketchbook in which I did a composition before blocking in my color.
Poppy Garden – sketchbook watercolor
“Poppy Garden” – approx 9 x 12 watercolor
Tuesday afternoon I had the opportunity to join my friend Wendee for some sketching and painting in a nearby garden that is filled with billows of California poppies. Do you detect a seasonal theme here? I didn’t have time for a big painting but I wanted to do a reference sketch that I could take home to use for a larger watercolor or oil painting. It contains just enough information to describe the scene without being too detailed. I can paint the smaller touches from memory. Or leave them out, as the case may be.
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.
Incoming Tide – Dana Point – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Incoming Tide (at Dana Point) 16 x 20 – oil on canvas
SOLD
OK, I’ll say it. This is probably one of my favorite paintings so far, for several reasons. I like the color, the composition, but mostly I like the energy and action of it and how it reminds me of being there. It’s good sized (for me) and was not painted on location but in the studio after a day of studying the waves on location. My reference photo was tempered with my very vivid memory of what the rock looked like, how the waves moved, the feeling of the day, the spray of the surf. And I can hardly wait to get back to the ocean to study some more.
This brings me back to the Jerry Stitt watercolor demo I went to a few months ago. He said instead of painting things, paint what the things are doing. In this painting the rocks are thrusting up, the waves are curling with energy as they rush forward, the water is pulling under the wave, swirling. The spray is flying, whipped by the wind. The distant horizon water is lying flat (at least at this distance.) The clouds have motion in the sky, but not so much that they are competing with the waves for attention. The brushstrokes all seek to express this movement. I hope that the viewer can feel my act of painting this, and in so doing participate in my experience of being there when I observed the scene.
Big Sur Seascape Oil Painting – California Coast – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“California Coast” (near Big Sur) 16 x 20 oil on canvas
Click to enlarge to higher resolution image
When we were first married, young and footloose, my husband and I loved to travel up and down California on photo safaris. One of our favorite places was the coastline. So it’s not surprising that it would be a favorite subject mine for painting, also.
A few days ago we spent hours on beaches in Orange County, just watching the surf and studying how the color changes with the passage of time. The results of those studies will be seen here soon.
Wildflower Wonderland – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Wildflower Wonderland” 12 x 16 oil
This year promises to have an extraordinary crop of wildflowers due to the heavy rains we enjoyed for part of the winter. The desert bloom is under way and will continue for several more weeks.
Spring Memories – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Spring Memories” 12 x 16 oil on canvas
Yes, spring is here – the hillsides covered with fresh green grass, the birds singing in every tree, and gentle breezes replacing the harsher winds of winter. Well, as harsh as it gets in Southern California – which is not much, all things considered.
This particular scene is a pathway in Descanso Gardens. But it could be just about anywhere in So. Cal this time of year.
Still, we welcome springtime as does everyone else. The wildflowers have already begun blooming and I’m looking forward to some poppy painting soon.
