The Water Long Gone – Daily Painting
The Water Long Gone – 8 x 10 – oil on canvas panel. SOLD
As December draws to a close, the dry season comes to an end, rough rocky creeks like this will soon be replaced by swiftly moving streams. Flash floods will occur throughout the mountains and deserts, restoring the native plants. This location is near Ojai, a little creek that passes under a bridge. I hope to return there in a few months after the waters start to flow.
Santa Barbara Glow – Daily Painting
“Santa Barbara Glow” – acrylic on 140# watercolor paper
7.5 x 11 inches
I wasn’t sure I’d have time to do an oil painting today, and to photograph it, color correct it and get it sent to eBay. So it occurred to me that maybe I should try this scene in acrylic instead. I did, and I’m pleased with the outcome, and I think I’ll be adding this medium as a nice crossover between the quick-drying benefits of watercolor and the opacity and painterly qualities of oil.
Most of all I loved the ability to paint over and correct some areas without muddying, which happens in both oils and watercolor, for different reasons. You can do that in pastel, of course, but at a certain point the paper loses it’s tooth and you can’t layer any more. Why didn’t I think of doing this sooner?
Coat of Many Colors – Daily Painting
“Coat of Many Colors” – 7.5″ x 11″ watercolor on paper – Available
Out in the meadow that borders the northern part of the arroyo, there stood a willowy creature, pondering what she would wear. Shall it be the gold today? The yellow? The pale chartreuse? I’m done with the dark green … it’s SO last week. Perhaps the rust?
As storm winds rose, her garment slowly came undone, and I knew before long all her glory would lay at her feet.
Power at Sunset – Daily Painting
“Power at Sunset” – 8 x 10 inches – oil on canvasboard
Last weekend we drove out to Palmdale on business and I rode along because I couldn’t resist the skies full of incredible clouds. On the way home, after the sun had already set, I saw a glowing building and asked my husband to pull over so I could investigate. I gathered from all the high voltage signs that this was some sort of power distribution center, and of course I took a bunch of photos – the strong contrasts of colors inside the building and the dramatic sky were just too tempting. One of these days I’m probably going to get busted for suspicious behavior. But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Two Old Pomegranates – Daily Painting
“Two Old Poms” 5 x 7 oil painting on canvasboard – SOLD
When we were up in the Ojai area a week and a half ago, we drove by a cluster of bright yellow bushes, probably eight feet tall, that had bright red fruit on them. We overshot this sight, so we turned around and made a second pass, pulling over onto the rough shoulder of the road. I jumped out of the car with my camera to take a batch of paintings of ripe pomegranates, hanging on the tree. I wasn’t about to pinch any of the fruit off the bushes, but I did pick up two of the poms that had recently fallen into the ditch, and which had not broken open upon falling. No doubt they had recently come off the tree in the heavy winds.
So they’ve been sitting around the kitchen and today I decided to paint them by the light of my office window.
Into the Morning – Daily Painting
“Into the Morning” 8 x 10 oil on canvasboard
This last week I’ve been waking up dreaming of painting. Years ago, when I produced some shows on dreams for ABC’s 20/20, we learned from experts that ‘day residue’ forms a large part of the content of our dreams. So it’s not surprising that because I spend so much time thinking about painting, as well as painting, that it would slip into my night life as well. A few days ago, I dreamed about visiting a landscape not far from us that I hadn’t been to in maybe 10 years. So, that very morning, my husband and I walked up the trail and I took some reference photos to remember what the light was doing that time of day. No doubt I will return there again soon, to paint on location, now that I know what the place offers. (And I’ll hope no mountain lions will come calling!)
This painting is based on the photo and notes I made yesterday morning. I’ve been experimenting mixing different hues and learning the colors most common in our local hills.
Windy Grove – Daily Painting
Windy Grove – 9 in x 12 in – Oil on canvasboard
In spite of yesterday’s strong winds we found some paintable bits of rural agricultural life very close to Los Angeles.
This painting depicts a stand of protective eucalyptuses bordering a citrus grove. Eucs are commonly planted as windbreaks, to protect delicate oranges or lemons from damaging storms. The mighty eucs were working extra hard on Sunday – groaning and swaying in high winds that drove brush fires in Moorpark, in the Simi Valley.
I’m enjoying painting bits of rural life that are still left in California, in the spirit of the scene painters of the thirties. And I’m really looking forward to painting more of these graceful gum trees.
Based on reading I’ve been doing (Kevin McPherson) and suggestions from Laura Wambsgans and others, I painted this with only three colors and white: ultramarine blue, cadmium red deep, cadmium yellow pale and titanium white.
Now … back to the easel …
Citrus Valley – Daily Painting
“Citrus Valley” – 9 x 12 sketchbook study
Between holidays and business, this week’s paintings may consist of quickie sketches in my sketchbooks. This study, painted in my Raffine book, represents a part of the landscape we visited last Sunday during some high windstorms. The area is near Ojai – inland from Ventura and west of the Interstate 5. Most of the area is agricultural with rolling hills covered with avocado and citrus groves, and many eucalptus windbreaks.
Small watercolor sketches like these (9 x 12) give me some ideas of what I might want to do (or not do) when I translate it into an oil painting.
Daily Painting – Winter Sun
“Winter Sun” – oil on hardboard – 10 in x 8 in
I seldom paint snow because, well, we don’t have a lot of it in Southern California unless you go in search of it in the mountains. And that only lasts a short while unless it’s a particularly snowy year. But I’m hoping that there’ll be some this year so that I can try some plein air painting. It will be oil – I don’t think I could manage too well with watercolor out in low temperatures, although I did that once at Mammoth Mountain and it turned out OK.
At any rate, this is a practice painting in which I started to get some feel for the textures of a winter landscape. I used a wet canvas reference photo to work from. Unless I come up with something I like better (and soon) it will be my Christmas card for this year …
Shell game – Daily Painting
“Shell Game” – Approx 8.5 in. x 6 in. – Watercolor on 140 lb. paper
OK, I lied. I said yesterday that I was mainly working on loosening up with a big brush and soft flowing edges. So what’s the next thing I paint? This.
Actually this is a community project for those of us who are daily painters, suggested by the very talented Laura Wambsgans. I’d love to try one in oils but I stayed in my comfort zone, watercolor. I was planning to break an egg and paint the contents of the shell in a small pyrex cup, but I had no sooner cracked it and set the shell halves down on our quarter-sawn oak dining room table in a shaft of afternoon sunlight that I saw what I wanted to work with.
I found this setup very challenging, but very instructive as well. The dark background is composed of at least a dozen layers of glazes, but no black. I wanted to keep the edges of the shell crisp but I didn’t trust masking so all of those areas were painted around with a very small brush tip. After all the layers were finished I went in with a fine pointed brush to add the “tiger” stripes in the wood which is so characteristic of golden oak. This is one that I wish I had been scanning in stages, but I was trying to push to get it done on time!
