Chinatown, Los Angeles oil painting – California Art Club Plein Air Paint Out
Chinatown Afternoon
11 x 14
plein air painting
oil on canvas panel
• SOLD
Good times just don’t get any better than this. The California Art Club, which is celebrating its centennial this year, invited all members to a big paintout in Los Angeles’ historic Chinatown. Although rain had been threatened, morning brought fair skies and the promise of a picture perfect day. We arrived around 10 am to a very well-organized reception, complete with coffee and pastries – and then we were free to roam the streets of Chinatown looking for the best angles.
CAC members were there at the gracious invitation of the Chinatown Business Improvement District and we were impressed by their hospitality, including the delicious artists’ reception which refreshed us at the end of the day.
To paint, I found an angle just off the main plaza on Broadway, looking toward two of the most colorful buildings. As I explained to people who passed by and stopped to chat with me as I painted, I’m more of a tree and mountain sort of gal (as you blog readers know) – but there’s something about the ornate facades of these beautiful historic buildings that just steal an artist’s heart. In the late afternoon the warm sun makes everything radiant. At that hour, once again, it’s the Chinatown I remember visiting as a child, throwing coins into the fountain to make a wish, buying candied ginger and imported seashells from faraway shores.
The smell of the sea, joss sticks, firecrackers, oolong tea, fried shrimp … the sounds of music emanating from every shop, the babble of conversation in Spanish, Chinese, English and the tinkle of wind chimes … the cool breeze riffling the hanging lanterns and flags … a visit to Chinatown is a sensual delight not to be missed. If you’re an Angeleno and you haven’t been there lately – it’s time to discover it again.
And speaking of things to discover … if you’re an artist living in California, come join us in the CAC and become a part of a grand artistic tradition.
Idyllwild Memories Oil Painting – California Mountain Landscape by Daily Painter Karen Winters
Idyllwild Memories
9 x 12 oil on canvas
SOLD
For information about other Idyllwild paintings, please write.
Idyllwild, California, has always been one of our favorite places to retreat. We began visiting when we were first married, and always loved the beautiful mountain sunsets. Once we stopped our car and watched in awe, while classical music played from a nearby cabin. This is a recreation of that spectacular scene, when the sky was awash with color and all was right with the world. I still like to return, in memory, to that golden time.
Thousand Oaks Conejo Valley Sunset Oil Painting – Karen Winters
Sunset Splendor
Thousand Oaks at Satwiwa Park
9 x 12 oil on linen panel painting
SOLD
Last weekend we enjoyed a beautiful sunset out in Thousand Oaks, in the Santa Monica Mountains near the Satwiwa Village Cultural Center and Boney Mountain. Slight rainfall has made the landscape green with a down of annual rye grass, but the wildflowers have not yet emerged. The sycamores (not seen here) are already pushing out small green leaves. The color was just stunning in the Conejo Valley as twilight came.
Today my dear husband and I are celebrating 35 years of marriage. What a wonderful adventure it has been, and will continue to be. He is my best friend and love, outstanding father to our two grown kids, supporter of all my wild dreams and ambitions, and romantic sharer of sunsets (like this one.)
Peace Rose Painting – Botanical Art – Karen Winters
Peace Rose Painting
8 x 10 oil on canvas
SOLD
Here’s another in my rose series – this time a close up in a more realistic style. I love impressionism, but I wanted to challenge myself to do a more realistic painting from life, and this was the result.
Now for the taggage
5. When I was growing up we moved so many times (I can remember at least 6 elementary school and class changes) that books became my most constant and dependable companions. National Geographics – some of them decades older than I was – were among the most interesting. Almost without realizing it, I learned countless names of animals, plants, seashells and wildflowers from the colorful plates that accompanied each edition. When a magazine would come that was filled with paintings from some great museum, I would look at it for hours. (Yes, I was a bit of a bookworm. Still am.)
My mother was a plant lover and from her I learned the names of all the roses she cultivated: Chrysler Imperial, Love, Cherish, Honor, Peace, Mister Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth, Sutter’s Gold. Each colorful name brought stories to mind. When I visit the Descanso Gardens Rosarium and look at the labels of the roses in bloom, it’s like seeing old friends … ever new, ever fresh, ever young.
Below: starting this painting on a toned canvas.
Cabo San Lucas – Los Arcos Oil Painting Seascape
Cabo San Lucas Seascape Oil Painting
16 x 20 oil on canvas
I’ve been working on a large commission of this same scene (in a 24 x 30 inch size) for a lovely client … and still have a few areas that I’m finishing up. In order to have something to paint over this past weekend at the bookstore, and to experiment with a few things, I painted the same scene in this 16 x 20 size. I don’t usually paint the same painting back to back, but this was a very useful experiment, and it also provided a little “performance art” for the people who came to the show.
So, for those folks who stopped by and picked up business cards during the show, thank you for visiting the show and now, my blog … and here’s how the painting turned out.
I have been tagged numerous times by different people in the 25 things game, and I’ve been so busy I haven’t gotten around to making the list. So instead I’m going to list a few things a day until the list is complete. I hope that counts!
1. I really don’t like heights. I don’t mind airplanes or tall buildings or big wide mountaintops but I feel very uncomfortable on tall stepladders or walking along trails with sheer cliffs or driving along ravines. Maybe I just don’t like heights when there’s the opportunity for falling.
2. I never owned a dog until 10 years ago, and I’m sorry we waited so long! I’ve turned into a real dog lover ( as well as a cat lover) and will happily pet and greet every friendly dog I encounter.
Yellow Rose Botanical Flower Painting
Yellow Rose
6″ x 6″
oil on canvas on board
SOLD
See more of my floral and botanical paintings here
If it’s not too late, I’m going to head over to the nursery today to see if they still have a few bare root roses left to plant. I do love roses and grow them in my yard. My favorites are Climbing Peace, Just Joey and Sally Holmes. But no matter the variety, every rose delights me and offers creative possibilities. At the Descanso Rosarium, there’s an amazing collection of roses from around the world – from the oldest shrubs to the newest hybrids. You’ll find climbers, rugosas, floribundas and more, intermingled with irises and drought-tolerant perennials that provide additional texture and color. If you are in Southern California in the spring, you just have to see it (and smell it) to believe it.
Reminder: If you’re in LA, join us tomorrow fro 7 – 9 pm at Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse for a meet the artists event. See new artwork and chat with local painters, photographers and authors. Angeles Crest Highway at Foothill Blvd. in La Canada (CA 91011)
Peaceful stream – California impressionist oil painting
Peaceful Stream
6 x 8 inches
oil on canvas
This small painting evolved as a study as I experimented with some ways to work with texture and color in clouds and reflected water using a springtime color palette. Although I do most of my paintings of specific places, sometimes I work with the landscape in a more abstract way. This is not a painting of a specific place but is inspired by landscapes and skies I’ve seen all over our state. The challenge is to unify the colors in sky and land in a convincing way.
Newport Back Bay Sunset – California Landscape Painting
Newport Back Bay Sunset
5 x 7 inch
Oil on canvas panel
This small study was painted to make some design decisions about a larger painting of Newport’s Back Bay, where we visited last week. At sunset the colors of the sky are reflected in the marshy area. The trees probably weren’t this close together (the opening to the sea is larger) but I reserve the right to tinker with the composition whenever I choose.
The rain has mostly stopped here in LA, and that means that later this afternoon we should see some dramatic skies with the clouds breaking up and leaving. If it’s not too cold I might try to get ut and paint a bit.
OK, away from they keyboard and back to the easel for me! I’m working on a large (24 x 30) commission and I need to keep on-task.
California snow landscape oil painting – Red Cabin – Mt Pinos
“Red Cabin at Mt. Pinos”
12 x 16 oil on canvas
Available
We had another good rainstorm here in Los Angeles, which translates to snow in our higher mountains. I had been saving this painting for the next snowy occasion , so here it is. It’s a new one, of a cabin in the woods on Highway 95, through Fort Tejon National Park, northwest of L.A. on the slopes of Mt. Pinos.
I hear there’s another storm coming in a day or two. After that one passes we’ll probably make another snow trip, perhaps closer to home into the Angeles Crest National Forest.
Snow is interesting to paint because, being white, it picks up all the colors of the environment. When you look at this painting, there’s actually very little pure white in it. But it’s unmistakably snow, right?
Newport Beach Painting – Sunset Surf – California impressionist marine seascape
More of my Newport Beach Paintings
Sunset Surf (at Newport Beach, CA)
8 x 10 oil on linen on board
SOLD
During those times of year when the landscape has shed its fall color, and before spring color appears, sunsets continue to charm the colorist in me.
Newport Beach is one of my favorite subjects for painting – from Balboa Island with its charming shops and village ambience, to the spectacular sunsets of the beach and back bay.
While visiting the Laguna Art Museum recently for the Wm. Wendt exhibit, I saw some paintings by Laguna painter Frank Cuprien and was captivated by the way he captured the luminesence of the surf when the day was drawing to a close. When I saw a Newport sunset with those same opal tones, I was tempted to give it a try.
Try this: This is a small painting, a study, just 8 x 10 inches. To see it as it is meant be seen, enlarge the picture then stand back from your monitor about 8-10 feet, if you have the room. It looks different, doesn’t it? Whenever I am painting up at the Descanso Gallery, people come up to see what I’m doing, standing about 3 feet from the painting. I think that I can read their minds sometime as they see the expressionistic brush strokes, which look coarse in close up. So I walk them back a short distance, as in a living room or dining room and then have them look again. They are almost always surprised at the difference.
This is one of the inherent problems with showing work online when your viewer is sitting right next to the monitor. So … give it a try, stand back and see the difference.
To see more of my seascapes, visit my seascape gallery page.
