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.
Painting a kildeer from life in Dana Point California – oil painting study
Kildeer on ground nest – plein air painting
“6 x 8” oil on canvas board
The paintout continues in San Clemente. Today, I had a rare opportunity, very unexpected, to do an oil painting of a bird from life. We were walking along a bluff in Dana Point and suddenly saw a kildeer guarding its nest – only a few feet from where we were walking. The brave little bird stood its ground even though we were very close. I found a place to sit down about 6 feet away and my husband brought me a small 6 x 8 inch canvas panel and a palette and my plein air bag. I didn’t want to take the risk of standing up at an easel and scaring it – and besides, I was closer to it on the ground. For more than an hour the bird sat motionless except to occasionally turn its head. Eventually it stood up and called to its mate for a break. It is a kildeer behavior to take turns incubating the eggs. I have never had the privilege of painting a wild animal (not caged) from life before and hope that sometime it will happen again. Although the eggs were completely under the bird, I took the liberty of showing one partly exposed. They are speckled black and gray and blend in perfectly with the rocky sandy ground where they are laid in a shallow depression.
I won’t be entering this painting in the San Clemente competition although I will have it for sale in my booth. I doubt that anyone would believe it was “plein air” – imagine a bird sitting still for an hour. And yet, it happened!
Fallbrook Ranch Afternoon
“Meanwhile, back at the ranch”
10 x 12 oil
plein air painting of a ranch in Fallbrook, California
Late afternoon light casts long shadows across the pasture of this peaceful ranch in Fallbrook, California. When I was there painting, the peepers had already started their songs in the nearby irrigation canals. Spring grasses have turned to summer gold, perfect for grazing.
This weekend, June 27-28, I’ll be at the San Clemente Art Association Annual Show and Sale on the lawn by the community center. Dozens and dozens of plein air painters will be there, so I hope you can stop by if you live in that vicinity.
Yellow Ribbon -Plein Air Homecoming Oil Painting – San Clemente
“Until You Come Home”
9 x 12
oil on panel
This was the painting that I did for the QuickDraw phase of the San Clemente Art Association annual paintout. A quick draw is a timed competition – from the stamping of panels to the final horn, we had exactly 3 hours to get to a location, paint a painting, get back and frame the painting and turn it in. It may sound like a lot of time but when you take off travel time and setting up an easel and packing up, the time really flies.
The weather has been very gray in San Clemente (think: June gloom) and it hadn’t burned off by 12:30, the start time. With this in mind, I looked for something to paint the day before that would have a spot of color. When I saw this yellow ribbon hung on the balcony of an apartment building, I made it my choice. San Clemente borders Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps base, so I’m guessing that someone who lives in that apartment has a loved one in the service, and the yellow ribbon represents waiting for their safe return from overseas. The apartment is on the corner of Santa Barbara and Del Mar, if anyone knows who lives there. The painting is currently hanging in the San Clemente Art Gallery in the Community Center. If no one takes it home before Friday, it will be in my booth for the Saturday-Sunday show.
I am continuing to paint in San Clemente and Orange and San Diego counties for the rest of the event. I’ve got three additional paintings finished, and more to come by the end of the week.
Rancho Santa Ana Garden Path – California Plein Air Landscape Oil Painting
Garden Path
(Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden)
11 x 14
oil on canvas
We had a great weekend at the Art in the Garden sale at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, in spite of the ever-present threat of rain. In spite of the light turnout, some of my paintings found new homes and I had a chance to set up my easel and paint a nearby path in the beautiful California native plant gardens.
This scene features a blooming California buckeye (in the background, a spreading pine, several clumps of sages and a variety of oak trees. Most of the day was gray, but occasionally the sun would break through.
Now I have a break until the San Clemente paintout and sale, ending on June 27-28 (details to come.) If you live in the coastal OC, I hope you can come.
California Plein Air Landscape – Fallbrook Fan Palms
Fallbrook Fan Palms
12 x 12″
oil on canvas panel
I have been so busy this past week that I just woke up and realized that I haven’t posted in awhile, and I’ve had a hard time getting painting time in.
The show is going well at Gale’s and I had a wonderful turnout for my reception. Many thanks to everyone who stopped by to see my work and say hello. So many friends, family and collectors – it was a day to remember. Special thanks to our children who drove down from Palo Alto for the weekend. We celebrated every moment, and enjoyed seeing UP on Saturday night. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss it.
Monday morning we took my entire show down at Gale’s to make room for her annual Taste of Art show – this year benefitting Pasadena’s Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing for families visiting sick children. I donated a painting of the Casita Del Arroyo Garden, and was delighted to discover that the same couple bought it who bought one of my bridges last year. It was a great party – delectable appetizers and drinks, and good cheer all around for a good cause. Tuesday morning we rehung my show, which will continue now through July 10.
Now I’m framing 25 additional paintings to take to Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens this Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and 7, in Claremont for the Art in the Garden show and sale. This is the third annual juried event and I’m happy to be participating for the 2nd time. The gardens are at 1500 N. College Drive if you live in the inland empire and would like to come say hello. I’ll have original oils and watercolors, framed and unframed, as well as prints and cards.
Because things have been so busy, I am posting a plein air painting that I did in late April, but I haven’t had time to get it photographed. Three or four stately fan palms bordered a path through an open grassy ara. The late afternoon light wrapped everything in a warm glow.
Pretty soon I’ll be back in the groove of everyday painting again. I miss it, but I have to take care of business, too.
California Plein Air Painting – Blue Heron Lake
Blue Heron Lake
9 x 12 oil on linen panel
This is another of the plein air paintings I did a month or so ago on our trip up through Central California. A small lake, with trees leaning down to touch the water. Yes, it was cold out there. Snow on the mountains and the wind whipped down and chilled us to the bone. One of the many other challenges of plein air painting is reflections in water. Every time the wind moves, the ripple pattern on the water changes, and that changes what is reflected and what is not. Still water reflects. Ruffled disturbed water does not. But changing wind currents puts the reflections in different places, see? At some point you just have to settle with one thing. Although this is named Blue Heron Lake, I didn’t see any that day. Maybe I’ll paint one in sometime. I have plenty of reference photos of herons in other locations, including at Descanso Gardens.
California plein air landscape painting – Wildflower Hills
SOLD
California Wildflower Hills
9 x 12 plein air painting
oil on linen panel
See more of my landscapes here
A few months ago, after keeping an eye on the wildflower reporting sites, we took a trip up into the foothills of the western Sierras. The online sources were right – they really were really spectacular this year. I started this painting on site, and have been waiting for the opportunity to touch it up in studio before posting here. Among the challenges at this location was a storm system that cast ever-changing shadows over the golden hills. One minute the foreground was in light and the background in darkness. Five minutes later it was the reverse. At the point of laying in my darks I decided to go with the cloud shapes on the distant hills and leave the foreground hill bright, and then to paint it that way no matter what nature was doing.
Next week, after my show is hung this Saturday at Gale’s Restaurant in Pasadena, I should be back to painting and posting regularly. There are just too many details to take care of right now.
Karen Winters California Impressionism New Works Show at Gale’s Restaurant, Pasadena
If you’ve been following my blog, you know I’ve been preparing for this event for some time.
So, if you’re in the LA area and would like to see my work in person, I invite you to come to my show of California impressionist fine art.
Place: Gale’s Restaurant
Address: 452 S. FairOaks in Pasadena, California
Dates: Sat. May 16 – Friday, July 10
Reception: Sunday afternoon, May 31, 4-6 pm.
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California plein air oil painting – Days End in Fallbrook
SOLD
Days End in Fallbrook
California landscape plein air painting
11 x 14 oil on canvas
At the end of the first day of Libby Tolley’s workshop, which was held in the classroom, I was excited to get outside and find a location to paint. All day the temperatures soared into the high 90s, maybe even 100 degrees, and we were all relieved to paint and practice indoors. As evening came, it had cooled off enough to be tolerable. But on top of that there was a brush fire nearby which filled the air with smoke and gave the sky a warmer than usual color. The color combination was irresistible.
What attracted me to this scene was the beautiful eucalyptus, and the layers of color and foliage disappearing in the smoke back to the distant mountain range. On any given day, the scene may have looked entirely different. A little earlier in the year and the foreground grasses would have been green. On a fire-free day the atmosphere would not have provided the interesting sky effects of warm and cool, intermixed. In the morning, everything would have been lit from the opposite direction. This is one of the things I love about plein air painting – the practice of capturing a very specific moment in time that may never occur again.
While I was there, next to a curb on a culdesac where no houses were built, a man who lived nearby hailed me with a wave and I told him what I was doing. He and his sons came over to watch me paint for awhile, and then I packed my things up. It turns out he’s in the agricultural business and knew a number of places to paint where there are reflective pools of water. Like I’ve said before, I think I could be in the middle of the wilderness and still draw a crowd. It always happens and because I’m a social person, I don’t mind sharing my love of painting.
