Winging Home – Karen Winters Daily Painting
“Winging Home” 16 x 20 oil on canvas (Zuma Beach – Malibu)
SOLD
Today was a wonderful day in so many ways. The reception took place as planned and I had the opportunity to visit for awhile with friends old and new. My college roommate, Bobbi, came with her husband and mom and we have vowed to set aside some time to catch up on all our lives. Some of our clients came to join in the fun as did new friends like Holly the creekhiker who I’ve been enjoying through her blog. Our son Michael came up to spend the day with us and that was great, too. Labelle Kel is in Chicago at Northwestern, but she was with us in spirit. We had a very good turnout and I think that everyone had a good time, too. I know I sure did.
I didn’t paint today since we were busy meeting and greeting everyone, so tonight I pulled out a reference photo of Zuma Beach generously offered by my good friend Wendee who is designer and teacher at Art Center. I am indeed blessed to have so many talented and creative friends. My roommate Bobbi, mentioned above, is an outstanding writer and PR consultant; Holly is a marvelously talented glassworker and TV producer, and our friend Jeannie Poole, who also visited today, is a wonderful musician who has composed and conducted symphonies.
And I am eagerly looking forward to Wednesday when a group of my paint out friends will be having their weekly paint out at Descanso and making the trek up the hill to visit our little gallery.
Now, about this painting.
I confess that the last time I painted a seascape in oil I was about 14-15 years old and in high school. I took oil painting lessons for a few summers and occasionally painted on Saturdays until the academic schedule got too tough, and then I gave it up. I have often wondered what would have happened if I had rigorous training back then, rather than casual hobby type lessons. The road not taken, sigh. College came, and marriage and work and a family and so many good things. And there have been many summers between then and now. But I have rediscovered my bliss and intend to follow it all the rest of my days. Who is “winging home?” I am. Back to what did and always will bring me joy – painting.
Are you following your bliss? (as Joseph Campbell would have said.) If not, what are you waiting for?
On Descanso Pond – La Canada
“On Descanso Pond” 5 x 7″ oil on gessoed board
SOLD
There is a large pond (or a small lake) at Descanso Gardens where migrating birds stop to rest. Turtles swim in the water and herons are commonly seen wading in the distance along the far shore. A large white goose seems to be the king of the roost. Today I painted this small landscape while visitors passed by the gallery.
I’m very happy with how it turned out, and at the suggestion of my co-exhibitor Laura, I think I will use it as a basis for a much larger painting. If this dries quickly I might even bring it back to our reception on Sunday – party time – noon to four!
We had many pleasant talks, and I especially enjoyed my time with a very precocious young lady of 3 or 4 who was very interested in mixing colors. We discussed the names of everything on my palette and I mixed a few colors to show her how it all worked. At the end she picked out a sunflower from my cards to put in her room. I like the idea of that sunflower greeting her every morning when she wakes up.
I was delighted also to meet a lovely betrothed couple who are going to have their wedding in Greece. I am quickly discovering that one of the very best things about doing the show is all the interesting new and friendly people I get to meet. Painting and good conversation – could there be any better way to spend a day?
September Clouds
“September Clouds” – 11 x 15 watercolor on paper – plein air
I couldn’t imagine a more picture perfect day than the one I had today. Although there was the suggestion of a weather front on the way, the cumulus clouds merely circled our little valley, putting on one of the grandest display of cloudage that I’d ever seen. So I set up my easel outside of our gallery and devoted the day to cloud studies. The colors and patterns changed literally by the moment and sometimes I’d start painting one cloud and finish with details from another. Overall, it was an excellent opportunity to explore the many shapes and hues that clouds provide in a landscape. Creating soft edges and hard edges, painting wet in wet, charging pigment into semi-wet paint, doing dry brush, utilizing oozles and glazing, lifting pigment and creating texture with sponges, clouds give you the opportunity to try it all. These clouds were painted around noontime.
Also, one of the real joys of being at the Descanso Gallery is meeting all of the nice people who come by to chat about art and the gardens. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do on a crisp pre-fall day.
Golden Days – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Golden Days – a highway near Lompoc – 12 x 16 oil on canvas
SOLD
This painting will be used in the movie “So We Bought a Zoo,” starring Scarlet Johansen and Matt Damon – Christmas 2011
Windswept – by Karen Winters
“Windswept” 18 x 24 oil on canvas
This new painting was finished just a few days ago, and will be in the show at Descanso Gardens, now just two days away. It’s my favorite painting, so far, for a few reasons. For one, it’s the largest oil painting I’ve attempted and probably represents the most dynamic design. The larger size meant using larger brushes and standing back farther. Although I did the block in part sitting down, all the finishing was done standing, which was a different experience for studio painting. I almost always stand when painting en plein air, but not in studio.
The best part was the inspiration for this piece. A month or so ago we visited our daughter in San Francisco where she was doing her summer internship between the two years of her MBA program. We went up to Mt. Tamalpais for the day and had great time wandering through a redwood grove. On the way back we got caught up in the traffic returning over the Golden Gate bridge, and our movement came to a standstill. When I’m a passenger in a car, I almost always have my camera at the ready, and this time, I happened to see a tree clinging to a cliffside we passed. The light was striking it in a particularly dramatic way and I was immediately started thinking of creative possibilities. (It was not a cloudy day – I made that part up.) So because we were frustrated and inconvenienced, this shot became a possibility. Speeding by at 60 mph, it wouldn’t have been.
This incident reminds me of the value of acceptance. Acceptance of things the way they are, rather than how we would like them to be. Possibilities are all around us if we are not fixated on achieving specific results.
For example, you run out of the color of paint you want as you are beginning a painting. Use a different color and see what happens. Water dribbles in the wrong place on your watercolor. Is it an error or a doorway to a new shape that you might not have tried? You leave your pencil sharpener at home and have to sharpen a tool with an exacto knife instead – creating a different sort of edge. I’ve heard stories of artists who suddenly develop an allergy to their medium of choice, and have to switch to another, leading to breakthroughs in their careers. These stories are abundant in art and other endeavors.
Have you had this happen to you? How did it change your art or, even more so, your life? How did acceptance of something unexpected or even unwelcome make a difference for you?
Red Tulip – Daily Painting – Karen Winters
Red Tulip 11 x 15 watercolor on paper (quarter sheet)
Here’s another new one for the show – a red and golden striped tulip from Descanso Gardens, catching the last rays of the day. And speaking of rays, I’m happy to report that our heat wave has broken. We had dinner on the patio last night and it was 68 degrees at 7:oo or so – what a change from just a week ago when it was close to 100 at that time. Very weird.
I spent today organizing my files to make prints and I was astounded to discover that I have more than 162 pieces in my catalog – and that’s just the ones that I have a positive feeling about. There must easily be three or four times that many. Today was the process-athon. Tomorrow begins the making print and framathon. Eventually comes the sleepathon.
At least (I think) I can take some comfort in the fact that I will never have this kind of intense startup again. There will be more paintings to paint and frame, but the learning the ropes part, the knowing where to go to get this or that supply – that should hopefully be a bit more predictable and relaxed.
Eaton Canyon Trail – Pasadena
“Eaton Canyon Trail” 9 x 12 – watercolor on paper
The show prepping continues as I went to the frame store this morning and got some gorgeous plein air gilded frames. I put the paintings in them and loved the effect. Tomorrow is watercolor framing day and time to take a break with a visit to another art group in the region. I don’t know what the program’s going to be, but I’m sure it will be educational and entertaining. Today’s painting is in the same theme of looseness, wet into wet and negative painting. I’m having a very good time with it. Can you tell?
Coneflowers
“Coneflowers” 9 x 12 watercolor on paper
Tonight was the meeting of our local art association, and we were privileged to see a demonstration by Fealing Lin, a remarkably gifted watercolorist who came to the US from Taipei as a dentist and reinvented herself as a fine artist. Her style is loose and free but it’s wonderful to see what she does with color. Unlike some watercolorists whose looseness seems mannered and almost formulaic, Fealing’s paintings are spontaneous and each presents a unique solution to a creative problem. She emphasized the importance of saving the lights and really pouring on the color, wet in wet.
I was so inspired by the demo she gave that I came home and painted this quick sketch of coneflowers, trying to get into that spirit of controlled spontaneity. Oh, yeah, and it was after dinner and a glass of cabernet. Hmmm. I think that helped.
If you’re in the Southern California area and would like a picture postcard invite to my show starting next week at Descanso, drop me a line at karen@karenwinters.com
Gloriosas in Excelsis
“Gloriosas in Excelsis” – 11 x 15 watercolor on paper
Not for sale. Prints available.
Gloriosa daisies (aka Rudbeckias) are among my favorite casual flowers. I love roses, of course, and alstroemerias, and lilacs, Shasta daisies, penstemons – ah, so many flowers so little time. But gloriosas are wonderful workhorses in a garden setting, as in this center planter at Descanso Gardens. They are long lasting either growing in the ground or cut, and if there isn’t too much cold weather they can even be cut back and coaxed to bloom a second year. Gloriosas are related to black eyed susans and coneflowers and they are outstanding in bouquets. I am still painting like crazy in advance of the show, even though I have more than enough paintings to choose from. But I know I won’t get a great deal of painting done during the month that I’m gallery-sitting, so I’m sort of putting a few in the bank ahead of time.
Hot hot hot
Hot Cannas – 11 x 15 watercolor on paper
SOLD
As I get ready for the show in a few weeks, I’ve been painting numerous large florals which I might offer for sale matted, but unframed. This is one of them, which I think fits the climate pretty well right now. We’re having an extreme heat wave in LA at the moment, with high temperatures from 109-110 where I am. It feels even hotter with the humidity being served. The air is chewy, sort of. If you go outside at midnight it’s still in the 90s – it’s that hot. In that spirit, I painted some cannas that thrive here as long as they’re planted in a wet soggy area. I grow mine in a bucket – literally with their soil underwater. They like it that way – they’re bog plants.
