One Golden Moment San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival Invitational
One Golden Moment
12 x 16 oil on linen panel
Painted at the 2012 San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival
SOLD opening night
I returned a few days ago from a wonderful week long event at the San Luis Obispo Plein Air Festival. Over the next week or so, I’ll be posting the paintings I did there, many of which have already gone to new homes. Others, however, are still available.
This beautiful eucalyptus tree in Los Osos begged to be painted. Silhouetted in the late afternoon light, a field of flowers lay at its feet. The flowers are a seed crop, and I think they may have been marigolds.
If you are in the Southern California area this weekend, please visit me at the Pasadena Artwalk on El Molino Street on Saturday. I will have a booth quite near the Pasadena Playhouse, with a wide assortment of my current paintings. The address is El Molino Street, between Colorado Blvd and Green Street in the Playhouse district. The show opens between 10 and 11 (I’ll probably be set up early) and goes until 5 pm. This is a great opportunity to pick up a Christmas present – hope to see you there.
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
Before the Harvest – California Central Coast Oil painting
Before the Harvest
12 x 9″ oil on board
San Luis Obispo area
California Central Coast
See more of my California Central Coast paintings here
Interested in this painting?
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I’m getting warmed up for the San Luis Obispo Plein Air festival with this study of some of the agricultural areas, under splendid skies. I love the skies over the Central Coast.
Pt. Dume Zuma Beach California seascape oil painting by Karen Winters
Pt. Dume, Zuma Beach
Giant Coreopsis
18 x 24 oil painting
To see more Malibu paintings, please visit Malibupaintings.com
This painting was done in the springtime when the giant coreopsis are in bloom on Pt. Dume. There are a few small paths you can walk on amid the billowing plants. It’s a spectacular sight.
Eaton Canyon Hike – California impressionist oil painting by Karen Winters
SOLD
“Eaton Canyon Hike”
Eaton Canyon, Altadena – San Gabriel Mountains
9 x 12 oil painting on linen plein air panel
This painting is now sold, but I have more at Pasadenapaintings.com
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See more Pasadena paintings here
In fall, when the sycamores turn, Eaton Canyon reveals its dusky side. We’ve recently had some beautiful cloud formations – it’s an early harbinger of fall. Soon the chaparral will put on its own fall finery. This trailhead starts near the parking lot, skirts the west side of the canyon and continues northward for several miles.
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.
San Simeon – Big Sur California Seascape oil painting by Karen Winters
“Cloudy Day at San Simeon” (Big Sur, California)
12 x 16 oil
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
The southern part of Big Sur, California is at San Simeon, the site of Hearst’s Castle. The dramatic ocean cliffs frame the always changing sea. The day I painted this the sun was peeking through from time to time, but overall the scene was moody, with blowing fog and moving clouds. I actually like these sorts of days as well as the ones with bright sunshine.
Below, a photo of me working on it on location:
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.
