Chinese cup – Japanese persimmons
“Chinese-Japanese” 5 x 7 oil on canvasboard
I had a square cornered Chinese demitasse cup and some Japanese persimmons – and thought they looked good together in a primary color sort of way. It seemed like a good get together for a still life. and the colors are even more vivid in person. Somehow they never look as striking on a monitor as they do in real life. If you want to see how much of a difference vivid color makes, take your little finger and cover that small stroke of bright red. The whole painting changes, doesn’t it? That one small area, the size of a fingertip, really has a big effect. Did you try it?
Speaking of which, I had a very good time this morning going around to garage sales and picking up some props for future still life setups – silver plated vessels – colorful ceramics – and I really don’t know where I’m going to stow them – but they sure are fun to look at and to arrange into interesting combinations.
Sunflower – Karen Winters Daily Painting
Solo Sunflower 8 x 10 oil on canvas board
SOLD
When we were driving on a back road off Highway 1, not far from Paso Robles, we came across a row of sunflowers that had been planted along the roadside. These beauties were 7-8 feet tall and each one had a unique character and form. I must have spent 20 minutes there, shooting them from every angle. I selected this one for my first sunflower portrait – a memory of a bright sunny day with an amazing sky that really was that turquoise.
This one I painted in two sessions … one for the underpainting and a second go for some glazing and highlights. Probably the most challenging part was mixing the colors for the shadowed areas. There were so many colors bouncing around in there – reflected russets from the center of the flower, greens from the abundant leaves nearby, plus ochres and even violets – complements of the yellow.
The Way Back Home – Daily Painting
“The Way Back Home” (Central California Coast) – 9 x 12 oil on canvasboard
SOLD
When I saw this location last week it left me with a feeling of nostalgia and bittersweet longing, even though I have never lived in a rural setting. Perhaps there’s something about a lonely country road that evokes feelings of homesickness and curiosity – wondering what wonderful things await just around the bend.
Can you tell I am becoming seriously infatuated with vivid color?
Note: if you find that this image appears exceptionally dark (not just saturated color but DARK) on your monitor, please let me know. I’m trying to tweak my settings so that images scanned through a Mac appear reasonably correct on a PC.
Evening Glory – Daily Painting
“Evening Glory” (central coast) 12″ x 16″ oil on stretched canvas
SOLD
Now you know a little bit about what I was up to from Thursday to Sunday of this past week – I was on a road trip and photo safari to gather references for new paintings. Much as I’d like to stop and paint quietly at each of these locations, we were on a timetable and my little Nikon served me well, providing a wealth of material to use as inspiration for new works.
Thank you all for the feedback you gave on “Beside Still Waters” – as you can tell, I’m still enjoying the use of heightened colors and there’s a very good chance I’ll be exploring this approach for awhile.
This scene was inspired by a drive we took at sunset near Paso Robles, California – our beautiful Central Coast region. Here, hillsides were generously dotted with oak trees, and the grasses literally glowed shades of gold and orange in the waning light. I made notes on the colors just in case the photographs didn’t reveal the true brilliance of the scene. In fact, I relied more on my memory and notes than the photo in doing this painting. So, I’m painting intensely right now. I sense an opportunity coming that doesn’t even have a name yet – but I know I need to have a number of paintings ready. The muse cracks the whip and I obey.
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Cottage – Central Coast California Watercolor painting by Karen Winters
Thanks to EBSQ for picking my painting, “Santa Barbara Cottage” for Art of the Day this past Saturday
This 11 x 15″ painting, when matted, will fit perfectly into a 16 x 20 frame.
Road Trip
“Napa Purple House – sketchbook entry – 4″ x 6” – watercolor and felt tip pen – orig. not for sale – print available
This weekend we made the trek to the SF Bay area to visit with our daughter before she heads back to business school in the fall. We had a great time brunching in the Marina district, visiting Mt. Tamalpais and hiking in the woods, dining on tapas, seeing some Shakespeare, more brunching in Napa and visiting a winery. I sketched and painted along the way, so here’s a quick page from my sketchbook, done at brunch on Sunday. Yes, this house really was painted bright purple with blue accents. It was across the street from a charming cafe, and I was fortunate to get a window seat to sketch this souvenir while chatting and munching.
Beside still waters
“Beside Still Waters” – 12″ x 16″ – oil on canvas
Inspired by the 23rd Psalm, this painting of a row of eucalyptuses and deciduous trees beside still waters was an experiment using a more colorist approach than I have attempted in the past. It’s a potential new direction for me. What do you think?
Pasadena City Hall
“A Bright New Day” – (Pasadena City Hall) 9 x 12 oil – SOLD
A week ago Sunday the members of the California Art Club assembled at Pasadena’s City Hall for a plein air paint out to celebrate the rejuvenation and retrofitting of this revered local landmark. I don’t usually paint architectural subjects, but I enjoy challenges and this one was a good one. Compounding the challenge was the changing light, which is always a factor in plein air work. During the hours that I worked on this – from 1 -5 pm or so, the facade became more radiant and glowing, which prompted opportunities to add impressionistic color.
A week later, after the painting was dry, we returned to the same venue for a show and sale. The City Hall painting went home with a collector, as did this painting of Eaton Canyon, completed on a paintout earlier the same week.
SOLD
To see more Pasadena paintings that are still for sale, go to My Gallery Site.
Brand 36 Show – coming fall 2007
“My Offering – My Confession” – watercolor on paper 22 x 30
I got notification today that my painting (above) has been accepted into Brand 36, The Brand Library and Art Center’s national “Works on Paper” show. Some of you who are regular readers of this blog might recognize the painting as very similar to Ofrenda, which I painted on Yupo in November of 2006. That small painting served as a starting point for this larger work. There were 650 entries, so I’m very honored to have my work chosen for the exhibition beginning Saturday, October 6 and continuing through November 17.
I am very excited about this opportunity to show my work in a new (to me) venue. The theme of the show is “Secrets and Confessions” – that of which you do not speak. I didn’t have anything particularly juicy to confess in an artistic form – other than my unnatural addiction to buying art supplies, which is probably rather common among artists, and not at all salacious. Because the show encompasses the time of the year in which the Dia de Los Muertos falls – I was inspired by the idea of someone visiting the cemetery and to make a confession as an offering. Who is she confessing to? And what is she saying? I will leave that story to your own imagination.
It’s been a very exciting few days for me. Yesterday I enjoyed my first group exhibition and sale with the California Art Club and two of the five paintings I brought found homes with collectors. More about that event tomorrow … time for me to get back to painting …
Roses at Twilight
“Roses at Twilight” (Descanso Gardens) – 9 x 12 oil on canvasboard – SOLD
Last night we went back to Descanso Gardens to meet my artpal Wendee for a picnic and to do a little plein air painting at “golden hour.” I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems they’re making golden hour shorter and shorter these days. I painted for about 45 minutes – I got the block in finished (this was after about 15 minutes) and then went on to start to refine the image, but the light had changed so drastically that finishing it on site was impossible. Wendee will vouch for this, that when I threw in the towel because of the light change, I was ambivalent as to whether or not I could make anything of it at home. But this experience tells me not to give up on a painting just because it’s at an awkward stage (kind of like raising teenagers, so I’ve heard.) So I put it aside and took a fresh look at it this morning in the studio, and I’m content with the results.
Just for fun, I put it in a plein air frame (a scan) to see how it would look. I think it really helps set it off.
This weekend I’ll be showing my Pasadena paintings with the California Art Club at the Pasadena City Hall from 3 – 6 pm. If you’re in LA, please stop by and say hello.
