Arroyo Seco Trail, Colorado Street Bridge painting, revisited
“Arroyo Seco Trail”
9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas
SOLD (commission)
I like to paint new things, as a rule, because it’s fun to interpret new subject matter and challenge myself – but from time to time I get a request from a client to paint a new version of a previous painting. In this case, a gentleman saw the painting I used on my postcard of my solo show this spring (sold during the show) and asked it I would paint another version for his daughter as a Christmas present. The family used to live in Pasadena and had fond memories of the Arroyo Seco and their walks together. I was happy to do this for him. Of course, no two paintings are ever exact copies, due to different shapes of the canvas as well as differences in creative interpretation. He was delighted with this treatment and I hope that his daughter will be, too.
Saturday I had a great time with the California Art Club during a paint out at Randy Higbee’s gallery in Costa Mesa. We were painting models dressed as gods and goddesses from Wagner’s Ring Cycle.
Soaring – California Landscape Oil Painting – Karen Winters
“Soaring”
16 x 12 oil on canvas
We’re finally getting rain in Southern California – a welcome change from the excessive drought of this past year. I hope that it is sufficient to sink down deep and nourish the parched root systems of all of our plants. They could use a good long drink. I’m optimistic that it will bring rushing water to our local canyons and snow to the mountains, for purely painterly reasons. Landslides we can do without and I suppose in keeping with the old adage that you have to break eggs to make an omelette, you have to suffer the consequences of rain to benefit from the bounty. Now it’s time for me to get back to the easel, finish up my Christmas commissions and get busy on some new work.
This past weekend was enjoyable in every way. Every night I had a different reception to go to where my work and the work of fellow artists was being shown. Friday night provided a good turnout at Carter Sexton Gallery on Laurel Canyon Blvd. near Magnolia. The paintings will hang until the beginning of January. Saturday night took us to the Segil Gallery in Monrovia, where I was thrilled to see that my Arroyo Reflections painting sold during the reception. Sunday night was a treat in every way at the California Art Club show at the Women’s City Club of Pasadena. Seeing old friends and making new ones is always delightful and among the reasons that I love being in that show.
Next week, I will be exhibiting a collection of paintings with the Pasadena Society of Artists at the Artists Choice Exhibition (ACE) in Silver Lake. [Citibank Art Space 2450 Glendale Blvd. (Northeast corner of Glendale Blvd and Silverlake Blvd.) There will be salons associated with the event where you can meet the artists – date TBA – and the closing reception will be Saturday, January 16, 2010 – 6pm to 8 pm.
I will also be showing and selling new work at a mini Descanso Gardens show December 19-20 (Sat-Sun) from 9 am to 4 pm, in the Birch Room, close to the entrance of the gardens.
The Knitting Basket Still Life Oil Painting – Karen Winters
“The Knitting Basket”
SOLD (commissioned work)
11 x 14 oil on canvas
This painting was a pleasure to paint for a client as a Christmas gift for a family member, portraying the items the person uses in pursuit of her favorite hobby, knitting.
Although I had not painted knitting before, I felt confident that I could do it, because, after all, painting basically comes down to seeing shape, color and value. You don’t think about painting a ball of yarn, a straw basket or a soft bit of knitting, you think about how light interacts with a surface, how the form turns and how the colors work together.
The first challenge was assembling the materials that would represent the colors the knitter liked best and the type of yarn she liked. A local fabric store made that part rather easy. The second hurdle was a little harder. I decided that I didn’t want to just position a few needles with a ball of yarn, but that I wanted a sample of knitting to go with it, as though the knitter had been interrupted in her work. Because the painting is to be a surprise, the client could not ask the person for a sample – so I had to remember what my grandmother had taught me so many years ago to produce the small sample. Surprisingly, the technique came back to me right away.
Next came the challenge of arranging the still life into what I felt was an interesting relationship of diagonals and curves – both in the needles and the spokes of the basket … incorporating the rhythmic line of the knitting as well as the individual strands of yarn that connect the balls of yarn to the piece of work. Because the yarn had to be blue, I chose supporting elements that would be in the orange and brown range for a complimentary color scheme.
Finally, came the fun of painting the setup – from the block in to refinement of shapes to final details.
Here’s a closeup of one part. I used a very small sable brush in the last layers to suggest the wispiness and softness of the fibers of the yarn.
The Red Barn – California Landscape Oil Painting
“The Red Barn” – near Visalia, Calif
9 x 12 inches, oil on linen panel
This painting was an experiment using a very limited palette of primarily viridian and burnt sienna. A little yellow ochre was used in the sky, and a dash of cadmium red highlighted the top of the barn, but all of the rest was done with those two complimentary colors (viridian and burnt sienna)
The barn is on a ranch near Visalia, California, a Sierra foothill area known for cattle ranching as well as fruit orchards.
I have a busy reception weekend coming up and I hope you can join me at one of three new shows where my work will be displayed.
Friday night – reception 7 pm – Carter Sexton Art Gallery –
5308 Laurel Canyon blvd.
North Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA 91607
(818) 763-5050
This is a group show featuring California landscapes.
Saturday evening reception 5 – 7 pm Segil Fine Art Source gallery
Holiday Small Works Show
110 West Lime Avenue
Old Town Monrovia CA 91016
(626) 358-5563
Sunday evening reception 5 – 7 pm – dinner following with reservation
California Art Club Associates Show “Precious Gifts”
Pasadena Womens City Club – Historic Blinn House
160 North Oakland Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101-1714
(626) 796-0560
Oh, and Sunday from 11 – 1 I’ll be painting at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena on Oak Knoll Road (S. Lake turns into Oak Knoll) – if you’re in the area.
Fishing on the Kern – California landscape oil painting – Karen Winters
“Fishing the Upper Kern”
14 x 18 oil on canvas
Not for sale – gift
This painting, a gift for our son, was painted from a photo reference he took last summer on a backpack and fishing trip to the Upper Kern River, near Johnsondale, California.
We have rafted on the Kern many times and might again, some day. I’m not crazy about class 4 and 5 rapids any more, but the little ones are just fine. I understand that this part of the river is in the Golden Trout Wilderness. I don’t know how many golden trout they caught, because the wild ones are pretty wily.
Scotland Oil Painting – Blackfaced Highlanders
Blackfaced Highlanders
14 x 18 oil on canvas
Gift, not for sale
This painting depicts one of our family’s ancestral homelands – the Isle of Skye looking toward the mainland of Scotland on the southeastern part of Skye. Many years ago we had the opportunity to visit there and, looking up the records in the Clan Donald museum, located the place where my 9g grandfathers and mothers lived and worked in the 1700s. The blackfaced sheep is one of the most common in the UK, and they still graze on these lands once occupied by crofters. Nowadays tourism is also a thriving industry.
In the 1730s, there was a large migration from that part of Skye to America, primarily to the colony of North Carolina, where our forbears, the McIvers, settled and married McKinnons, McClouds, McKenzies and many other immigrant Scots. If you come from that area, we are probably distant cousins.
This painting is a birthday gift to our daughter.
Espresso Pot – Still Life Daily Painting – Karen Winters
Java Jolt
5 x 7 inches oil on canvas panel
There was a time when I could drink espresso any time, day or evening after dinner and fall asleep like a baby. Well, a sleepy baby, not a cranky crying baby. My espresso drinking days may be over unless I can find a decaf drip. I would imagine Starbucks has something of that sort, too. Christmas Blend ground for expresso sounds pretty darn good, in fact. With steamed skim milk and a dash of hazelnut flavored syrup. Yum.
Anyway, this is our old espresso pot which has seen better days, but has been well loved and used. It hung by the handle off of a pot rack and hit the floor once, but it kept working just fine although a bit misshapen. This little painting started out as a study to see how i could render the different facets of the aluminum vessel using an Anders Zorn palette of white, black, yellow ochre and cadmium red.
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California Impressionist Plein Air Landscape Painting – A Very Good Year – Falkner Winery
“A Very Good Year”
8 x 10 oil on archival canvas panel
Plein air painting – Falkner Winery – Day 2
This is the second of the three plein air paintings I did during the paintout. Because I like to put some sharp detail into my paintings, and because that can be difficult to layer when painting alla prima, sometimes I like to let a painting set up for a few days and then add those finishing touches. For esample, I added some of the eucalyptus leaves overhanging the vineyard back in the studio. I had planned for it on site but knew that it would be easier to control on a surface that wasn’t soaking wet.
California Landscape Oil Painting – Temecula – Vineyard Afternoon
Vineyard Afternoon
(Falkner Winery, Temecula, California)
9 x 12
Plein air – oil on linen panel
SOLD
There’s something about the afternoon light in the Temecula and Fallbrook areas that just makes me melt when I see it. I love the soft peaches and gold tones that come around magic hour … and when it kisses the vines just so, it begs to be painted.
This is the second plein air painting I did on Day one of the Falkner Winery Invitational, courtesy of the Pasadena Art Gallery Association. I was an invitee of Segil Fine Art Source, and there were painters from Galerie Gabrie and Tirage as well. Some folks even came from as far away as Oregon for the event. We had a great time painting all day and enjoying fine vintages like “Luscious Lips” at our reception.
The weather couldn’t have been more cooperative – a morning fog burning away by 9 am, revealing beautiful blue skies and rolling hills of green and amber vines. By three o clock the haze moved back in, as you can see in this painting. I’m thinking this might make a good study for a larger painting as well.
More paintings to come ( I did three in total – two on day 1 and one on day 2. I called it quits early so I could spend some time visiting with friends old and new. )
Carmel Point Lobos California Marine Seascape Oil Painting – California Art Club Blinn House show
“Gift from the Sea”
Pt. Lobos Tide Pool – Carmel
18 x 24 oil on canvas
Over the weekend I got the good news that this painting, Gift from the Sea, which I painted over the summer, has been juried into the California Art Club’s Blinn House show at the Women’s City Club of Pasadena. This is the first seascape that I’ve submitted to the biannual show (the others have been landscapes or portraits) and I am delighted and honored that it was chosen for this exhibit.
The theme of this show is Precious Gifts, and I have entitled this painting “Gift from the Sea” both as a tip of the hat to the Anne Morrow Lindbergh book, which I have enjoyed reading repeatedly over the years, and as a tribute to the bounty that the oceans provide, both in resources, recreation and natural beauty.
The reception will be Sunday, December 6, from 5 – 7 pm at the Historic Blinn House, 160 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena, CA
The Carmel area holds special significance for us at the Winters household because it was one of the places that we went on our honeymoon. Whenever we return there it brings back wonderful memories. It’s a location that I will always enjoy painting and was certainly a popular location among the California impressionists, notably Guy Rose.
More art show news tomorrow, and I’ll be posting my plein air paintings from the Falkner Vineyard Invitational Plein Air paint out after that.
