Paso Robles Pathway – Central Coast California impressionist ranch oil painting
Paso Robles Pathway
8 x 10 oil on plein air panel
Painted for the 2012 San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival
SOLD
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
Interested in this painting?
Click this link to write me. See more of my paintings on my website
Not far from Paso Robles, in San Luis Obispo County, rural roads wind through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve ever seen. This ranch was tucked into the hills and surrounded by big, beautiful oak trees. A few cattle were grazing in the distant pasture.
This painting bears the official stamp of the San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival, 2012, on the reverse side.
Six of my 2012 SLO paintings have already found new homes. If you’re interested in having one for your own, don’t wait. I’ve updated my website to include these new works, so you don’t have to wait for them to be posted here on my blog.
San Luis Obispo Flower Fields – California impressionist painting – Central Coast
San Luis Obispo Flower Fields
9 x 12
oil on linen plein air panel
SOLD
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
This is one of the paintings that I did for the San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival, sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.
It was painted the first day of the paint out, bright and early Monday morning, along a rural road. A photographer for SLO City News saw me painting by the side of the road and spent some time taking pictures of the work in progress. It was a nice surprise to find out that it made the cover of the paper …
Sycamore Shimmer – California landscape tree oil painting by Karen Winters
Sycamore Shimmer
8 x 10 oil on linen plein air panel
SOLD
Interested in this painting?
Click this link to write me. See more of my paintings on my website
See more of my sycamore paintings here
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
This painting was painted for the 2012 San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival and hung in the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.
The official festival stamp is on the back side. Sycamores are among our most beautiful California trees, and in the fall they are especially radiant as the colors change.
The active brushwork indicates the way the breeze stirs the leaves of the tree. The use of transparent color creates a luminosity that makes the leaves glow as though light was shining through them.
Pasadena’s Pride – at the Pasadena ArtWalk Saturday
SOLD Pasadena’s Pride
(Colorado street bridge oil painting)
14 x 18 oil on canvas
See more Pasadena paintings here
I’ll be exhibiting about 30 paintings Saturday, October 13 at the Pasadena Artwalk on El Molino Street from 11-5.
This one day annual event attracts large crowds from all over Southern California.
Look for me in booth 9, just a little north of the Pasadena Playhouse, near Zona Rosa coffee, on the west side of El Molino, between Colorado Blvd. and Green Street. There’s plenty of parking nearby.
I’m down to the wire on framing and packing … See you there!
Western Watershed – San Gabriel Mountains oil painting by California impressionist Karen Winters
“Western Watershed – San Gabriel Mountains”
SOLD
9 x 12 oil painting on plein air panel
See more of my Pasadena area paintings at http://www.pasadenapaintings.com
Click this link to write me. See more of my paintings on my website
The last remnants of spring storms course through the upper Arroyo Seco, which separates La Canada from Pasadena. Just weeks before the sandy riverbed was overflowing with a coursing river. Now, the willows and sage will take over, until winter rains come again.
Malibu Monuments – Malibu Creek State Park oil painting by Karen Winters
Malibu Monuments
20 x 24 inches
oil on canvas
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See more of my Malibu paintings here
Malibu Creek State Park as seen from a high overlook – on one of the highways leading into the area. In the early springtime, the grasses are just starting to green up. These peaks are well known landmarks in the area.
At the Hacienda – Mission San Antonio de Padua Plein air painting by Karen Winters
“Meanwhile, at the Hacienda”
9 x 12 oil on linen panel
plein air painting – painted at Mission San Antonio de Padua
California Central Coast area
During the California Art Club paint out at the mission, I came upon this small guest house which intrigued me as a painting subject. In the late afternoon light, I could imagine it as an old California adobe, cool inside in spite of the surrounding heat. Some early model chickens miraculously appeared where a late model car had been.
California Mission San Antonio de Padua, landscape oil painting by Karen Winters
Mission San Antonio Morning
(San Antonio de Padua, California Central Coast, northwest of Paso Robles)
9 x 12 inches
Oil on linen plein air panel
In early June 2012, I joined a group of other California Art Club artists to paint at Mission San Antonio de Padua, a California mission that is the most “untouched” of the chain. Although some outbuildings and residential quarters have been added, the setting is very much as it might have been hundreds of years ago. This side of the building, the facade where one enters the church, remains much as it was in the early years. By mid day this was all in shade, so morning is the time to catch it. We were up before dawn getting set up to capture the light. We were warned several times to watch out for rattlesnakes. It’s easy to become so focused on what you’re painting that you might not notice one that’s emerged from a hole while you are painting. I didn’t see one, thankfully, but I was certainly careful where I stepped.
California impressionist wildflower painting by Karen Winters
“Those Fields, Those Hills”
9 x 12 oil on hardboard plein air panel
See more of my landscapes here
Springtime in Southern California brings the awakening of wildflowers to the hillsides. Some of the dried grasses of winter remain, but the cheery California sunflowers brighten the scene. This hillside was not strewn with wild mustard, as many are, but had a profusion of small beige and white flowers, plus helianthus californicus, the California sunflower.
The large tree is a pepper tree. The foliage of its soft branches seem to drift and sway in the wind, not unlike a weeping willow.
Tejon Ranch California Oak Landscape Plein Air Painting – Welcome Shade
SOLD
“Welcome Shade”
9 x 12 oil on plein air linen panel
Painted at the Tejon Ranch, May 2012
See more of my oak tree paintings here
In the middle of a warm spring day, just about high noon, a mighty Tejon Ranch oak spreads its limbs to offer shade to all who visit. Cattle, mostly, but most likely some other critters, too. This majestic tree was silhouetted against the rolling hills and mountains of the ranch. Wherever you look, beauty surrounds you, making it a real treat for plein air painters – even during the part of the day when the light is less than dramatic. (That’s why we get up at dawn and stay painting until moonrise, when we can.
Below, a photo of my work in progress. There were occasional gusts of wind which threatened to topple my umbrella. A road hazard sawhorse came in handy. Sometimes you’ve just got to improvise.
