Newport Back Bay California Estuary Landscape Painting
“Back Bay Afternoon”
12 x 16 oil painting on canvas
Back Bay, Orange County(Upper Newport Beach Preserve)
See more of my Newport Beach paintings here
I’ll be bringing this painting with me this weekend to SoCal PAPA’s annual “Paint the Parks” show at the Katie Wheeler Library Gardens, 13042 Old Myford Rd, Irvine, 92602. I’ll have about 19 other paintings as well – featuring Orange County scenes as well as other landscapes and seascapes around California.
When California Hills Turn Gold – California Impressionist Landscape Oil Painting by Karen Winters
SOLD
“When California Hills Turn Gold”
9 x 12 oil painting on plein air panel
See more of my landscapes here
See more of my paintings on my website
The winter season has almost departed and the bright fresh green of springtime is starting to leave some of our hills. Soon they will all be shades of brown and tan, creamy white with wild grasses with hints of violet and sienna. This transition is as predictable as the fall return of Santa Ana winds and the carpet of poppies that covers the foothills of the western Sierra.
Pride Mountain Vineyard – Napa California Vineyard Oil Painting by Karen Winters
“Pride Mountain Vineyard, Autumn 2010”
9 x 12 vineyard oil painting on plein air linen panel
Private Collection (sold)
This painting is sold, but you can see more of my vineyard paintings here
Last autumn, while visiting our children over Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure of visiting this wonderful vineyard on Spring Mountain near St. Helena, above Napa Valley, California. The wines were superb and we thoroughly enjoyed the tour which was given by a very knowledgeable and entertaining man who was also a refugee from the advertising business, like me. The day was magical in every way. We picnicked on a hillside overlooking the vineyard fall color. Bread, wine, cheese, sausages, more wine, fall color, crisp air … ahhhh.
This commissioned painting evolved out of that delicious fall inspiration. I’d love to go back there again to paint in another season – maybe while the grapes are still on the vines.
Show reminder: The California Art Club 100th Annual Gold Medal show continues at the Pasadena Museum of California Art – through April 21. Check the museum website for days and hours. Be sure to see my painting, “Gaviota Springtime.” It’s in the side room where the smaller works are hung.
Gaviota Springtime – California Art Club Gold Medal Show – California Landscape Oil Painting by Karen Winters
“Gaviota Springtime”
11 x 14 oil on plein air panel
Central Coast California
SOLD
Saturday is the opening night for the Centennial of the California Art club’s Gold Medal Show. I’m very happy to have my painting, “Gaviota Springtime,” included in this historic exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The early members of the California Art Club include such legendary painters as William Wendt, Edgar Payne, Benjamin Brown, Franz Bishoff and many other early California impressionists. The CAC commitment to fine representational painting continues now into its second century, and I am honored to be a part of that tradition.
View all of the paintings in the California Art Club 100th Gold Medal Show.
The Gold Medal show will be on display until April 24, and the museum is closed Monday and Tuesday, weekdays.
Central California Sierra Foothills Oil Painting “The Hay Barn” by Karen Winters
“The Hay Barn”
6 x 6 inches
Central California Sierra Foothills (western side)
Original Oil painting on plein air panel
SOLD
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
While attending a California Art Club paint out in the Sierra foothills a few years ago, I came upon this scene of an old hay barn framed by eucalyptus with wildflower hills in the background. I thought the setting was a perfect representation of some of my favorite California things. Eucalyptus, of course … wildflowers in the hills … and rural agriculture. This small study will be a starting point for a larger painting on the same theme.
Morning at the Cove – Baywood Park, Morro Bay California Impressionist Plein Air Painting by Karen Winters
“Morning at the Cove”
8 x 10 plein air oil painting on linen panel
Cuesta Cove, Baywood Park (near Morro Bay, Los Osos area)
California Central Coast
SOLD
This plein air painting was done last weekend while I was up in San Luis Obispo attending the opening of the California Art Club “Gems of the Central Coast” show at the San Luis Obispo Art Museum. The morning after the reception, some of my painting friends and I went over to this picturesque area. When I began to paint, the tide was in and the water was very still, allowing a beautiful reflection of the eucalyptus grove. By the time an hour had passed, the wind came up and the reflection was gone. Such is the plein air life!
Peaceful Pasture – Equestrian Miniature California Landscape Painting
Peaceful Pasture
(Central California)
6 x 6 inches, oil painting on canvas
SOLD
Last weekend we spent some time up in San Luis Obispo for the opening of the California Art Club’s “Gems of the Central Coast” show at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art. We had a great time seeing old friends and making some new ones, too. Once you get out of Los Angeles you really begin to appreciate the rural beauty of the state and the quiet moods of hills, pastures, marshes and mountains. Driving up the 101 we saw many ranches with scenes just like this.
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
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Western Sierra Wildflower Landscape Painting – Earth Rainbow by Karen Winters
“Earth Rainbow”
(Western Sierra Wildflower Oil Painting)
9 x 12 inches
SOLD
See more of my California wildflower paintings here
When morning light touches the wildflower strewn meadows of the Western foothills of the Sierra, the poppies and lupines seem to light up from within – the blue violets and golden yellows competing for the sun’s attention. In the distance the valley oaks are putting on their spring foliage. The leaves emerge as a sort of pinkish beige, then eventually green up as the weeks go on. This season of color is all too short, but glorious while it lasts. We’re hoping that all the rainfall will bring another good year to this special part of California.
Wedding Painting – Canadian wedding oil painting in Canmore by Karen Winters
Canadian Wedding
18 x 24 oil on canvas
A custom commissioned painting
See a selection of my other wedding paintings here
This was perhaps one of the most complex wedding paintings I’ve done. Rather than painting live on location as I usually do, I was approached by a charming bride who asked if I could paint a wedding that had happened a year ago. They had a few dozen photographs to work from. There were a few challenges that we identified, but none that I thought were insurmountable, so I happily accepted the assignment.
1) The wedding took place in Canada under gray skies that looked as though they threatened rain. The pictures of the wedding party had a distinctly somber overcast look. But the couple commissioning the painting wanted to see the Canadian Rockies in their sunlit glory which meant painting the piece with an imagined color palette, rather than from the literal reference photos.
2) There were a variety of candid snapshots of people at the event, but they were all shot from different angles – sometimes just from the knees up – and relatively close up, not from a distance as they’d appear in a landscape.
3. The couple wished for an idealized view of the wedding without the distraction of chairs used during the ceremony so I had to create a virtual scene, in perspective, as it might have been, distributing the a representative sample of attendees through a 3d space and including some special features like picnic tables used for the party, a table featuring a time capsule, and so on.
One of the other problems I needed to solve was how to focus attention on the wedding party without making them large, in the foreground, and having to paint tight facial likenesses (which the couple did not want.) I used a slash of light through the middle ground to illuminate the bridal couple, while keeping other wedding-goers more in shadow.
I designed the painting in Photoshop and got the bride’s approval through all the design steps. Then came the fun part – painting it. I shipped the painting to the family last week and received a lovely and enthusiastic note of approval from them upon seeing it in person for the first time.
A wedding painting (even many years after the event) is a unique piece of art certain to become a treasured family heirloom, passed down through generations. And it makes a great wedding gift for “the couple that already has everything.” For more information on how to commission a painting or have me as a live event painter at your wedding
Click this link to write me.
Sierra Oil Painting – Sierra Daybreak – Owens Valley. California landscape painting by Karen Winters
Sierra Daybreak
6 x 12 inches
SOLD
Oil on canvas laid on panel
Light peeks over the rim of the White Mountains to the east of Owens Valley, at the base of the Sierras. If you turned and looked westward, you would see Mt. Tom, almost touched by alpenglow. It was cold and clear that November morning. Thankfully I had a hot thermos of coffee with me. It was autumn, and the dry grasses and wildflowers were ruddy looking at sunrise. A perfect complement to the cool blueviolet mountains.
More Sierra Nevada paintings here
Interested in this painting?
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