University of Redlands Plein Air Painting – Admin Bldg and Rose Garden
Redlands Roses – 9 x 12 oil on canvas panel – Available
Here’s another painting from the Redlands paintout in Riverside, part of the centennial celebration, a view of the Admin building featuring the sculpture “American Deposition” and the Chancellor’s Rose Garden. This was painted on October 20, between 1 and 2 o clock when the sun was quite high in the sky.
Sunny Afternoon French Chateau European Original Oil Painting – by Karen Winters
8 x 10 oil on canvas panel
Here’s one from the archives as I’m getting ready for a client project tomorrow and running late. We have another client who manages castles and estates in Europe and often shows us pictures of the surrounding area. This little painting is a little bit of fantasizing about that beautiful part of the world. What a treat it would be to do some plein air painting around the Mediterranean.
Goldie
(detail)
Goldie 9 x 12 oil on panel
Today’s painting is a portrait of an anonymous golden retriever I’ll call Goldie, although she looks like a Molly, too. The portrait is actually head and shoulders but I thought I’d take a picture of a closeup of the face since that’s the part I worked on the most. The background is really a bit greener than it appears here, which I think is a nice balance to the warm tones of the fur. Pretty soon I’ll attempt a painting of Ripley (our American bulldog) in oil.
![](http://www.karenwinters.com/blogimages/goldie.jpg")
(The whole painting)
Tuscan Sunset – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Tuscan Sunset – 5″ x 7″ oil –
SOLD
I like to paint sunsets. At that time of day the colors can be stronger and the lengthening shadows add interest to the composition. This is romanticized impression of a scene in Tuscany.
I am busily getting ready for the Montrose Artwalk this Saturday. If you’re in LA, please stop by. If you’ve been to the show at Descanso this one will contain mostly new work only some of which have been previewed here on this blog. Montrose is adjacent to Glendale in the Crescenta-Canada valley, northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Impressionist waterlilies – daily painting
Pink waterlilies – 9 x 12 inches – oil on canvas
I had such a good time painting the reflections on “Drifters in the Stream” that I decided to paint another “reflections” painting but this time with brighter subject matter. These bright waterlilies provided exciting subject matter to practice with.
Saturday night’s opening at the Pasadena Women’s City Club (Blinn House) was a wonderful event and I was so honored to be able to participate with a painting in the show. The show features 40+ paintings of streams, rivers and harbors and I was happy to see many of my painting friends there. We also had the distinct pleasure of meeting Lewis MacAdams, poet and co-founder of Friends of the LA River. His enthusiasm for stewardship of the river was contagious and we found ourselves captivated by his “word paintings” as well as his wealth of information about this beautiful resource. It’s just another beautiful place to paint in LA.
There aren’t any waterlilies in the LA River (that I’m aware of) but there are fish such as tilapia, catfish and carp and abundant crawfish which the herons and egrets adore. Steelhead salmon used to run in the LA river, although those days are past. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the river could be restored to the degree that it was possible again? To the untutored eye, the LA River seems to be completely encased in concrete — yet there are miles and miles of stretches where the river has a natural sandy bottom and where plant life abounds. Yes, I am a natural history geekette as well as a paint and botany fan. I could listen to stories of our local environment for hours and thankfully my dear husband feels the same way – we are both inveterate information junkies.
Haystack Rock – Daily Painting
5″ x 7″ oil on canvasboard
Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, Oregon.
Painted in a plein air style from a reference provided at Wet Canvas.
Sunset Oaks – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Sunset Oaks” 12 x 16 oil on canvas
SOLD
This studio painting, based upon plein air references is a companion piece to Evening Glory (sold) which can be seen in the sidebar to the left. Painting “oaky goodness” as my husband and I refer to it, is one of my favorite things to do. Our coast live oak trees are simply magnificent any time of year. The dried grasses glow in the sunset giving yet another reason why we’re called The Golden State.
This painting will most likely be included a week from tomorrow at the Montrose Artwalk from 9 – 4 on Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. Look for me near the Citibank bank building.
The Open Pomegranate – Karen Winters Daily Painting
The Open Pomegranate – 5 x 7 inches – oil on canvasboard
Yes, I know it is a little radical compared to yesterday’s more sedate persimmon and plumbago composition, but sometimes a girl’s just got to cut loose and do something different. I had purchased a few pomegranates to put in a still life arrangement and then I got the idea to break it open and see how I could convey the feeling of that juicy flesh and seeds scattering in all directions.
This was a great deal of fun to paint, as you can probably tell from the enthusiastic brush strokes. And I can’t really say what tomorrow will bring …
Persimmon and Plumbago – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Persimmon and Plumbago – 8 x 10 oil – Available
I was coming into the house from the driveway today and saw that our plumbago shrub was covered with blue-violet blooms. It immediately struck me that those colors would be a good compliment to the yellow-orange persimmon I painted last night, and which had survived the ordeal, no worse for wear.
There is something to be said for working in a series. I found the persimmon easier to paint today than last night
So I set up another still life in the same stage, this time a wider shot incorporating a bit of drapery. I don’t often draw folds, let alone paint them, so this was a good experiment for me, and I’m satisfied with the result.
I used the same colors as yesterday for the persimmon, plus UM blue and some alizarin crimson for the plumbago.
Persimmon Passion – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Persimmon Passion 5 x 7 oil
Painted from life and still soaking wet. That’s why you’ll see little shimmery dots in the photo of the room light bouncing off the paint. With Descanso and the Redlands show behind me, I’m busy again getting ready for the art walk in our neighboring town of Montrose.
Painting still lives is a very relaxing discipline. They don’t move and under room light I don’t even have to worry about the sun disappearing behind the clouds. I like to paint them alla prima, wet into wet, all in one sitting. Our son tells us that persimmons are very delicious but I never eat them, I just paint them until they start to look old and then, unfortunately, they’re too old to eat also. Maybe next time I should get some to paint and some to munch. Just for fun I took a picture of my setup. The painting looks huge but it’s only because I’m close. It’s only 5 x 7 really. I have it in a cardboard box to eliminate exterior light so that the “key” light, coming from the upper right, is the only one that is consistent.
This was painted primarily with cadmium orange, cadmium red, sap green, a little ultramarine blue and white.
