Sierra Madre Sunset – San Gabriel Mountains landscape oil painting

Sierra Madre Sunset
11 x 14 inches
Oil painting

Sierra Madre is a charming little town nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. I love to spend time there, shopping, dining and just hanging out. The community is very supportive of the arts and I like walking in the pretty neighborhood. This painting shows the time of day I like it the best, when the mountains turn from brown to orange to pink with the setting sun.


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Breeder’s Cup Bronze oil painting

Breeder’s Cup Bronze
9 x 12″ oil painting

This weekend is the Breeder’s Cup race at Del Mar Racetrack.
This painting is of a Breeder’s Cup statue at Santa Anita Racetrack, where the races were held in 2016.


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Arboretum Fountain – California plein air landscape oil painting

“First there is a fountain, then there is no fountain, then there is”
11 x 14
oil on canvas panel

Click image above to enlarge


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Last weekend I did a plein air painting at the Los Angeles Arboretum, which was a nice change of pace. I have a reciprocal membership with my Descanso membership, so I’m looking forward to doing this some more this fall.

This is a view of the San Gabriels that I haven’t painted before. I was enjoying blocking in the fountains, but after awhile they were turned off, so I had to do the rest from memory. If you remember a certain 70s Donovan song, the title of the painting will make perfect sense.

Some other curve balls thrown by Mother Nature. When I started blocking in the painting there was not a cloud in the sky. An hour and a half later, the sky looked like this. By the time the sun had lowered and the interesting shadows started, the clouds were all gone. So this is sort of a compressed-time view of the scene, as plein air paintings often are. You just have to adapt to the changes in a sort of Zen way – acceptance of the moment without stress. Here’s me, below, wildly gesticulating with brushes, no doubt. I hope I didn’t get any paint on that nice lady watching.

Santa Anita Racetrack – Arcadia equine

Before the Race
12 x 16 inches
acrylic on panel

I don’t paint in acrylic too often and I’m thinking that I have overlooked a very versatile medium. I painted this scene recently of the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia because I needed another painting for a show featuring the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Gabriel Valley area.

I didn’t have time to do an oil painting – because it needs to be shown this Friday afternoon in Bradbury, near Duarte. For show details, visit my events page
But acrylic gives a more opaque look than watercolor, and allows the same sort of brushwork that I’m used to with oil.

The Bowers Museum show was rewarding in every way. One of my paintings got an Honorable Mention award and sold to a new collector who also took one of my Falllbrook landscapes. One of my spring wildflowers went home with another couple. It was fun to meet new artists and enjoy the company of some of my regular painting buddies.

This weekend, Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th, I’ll be showing a large number of California impressionist landscape and seascape paintings at the Eagle Rock Plein Air Art Sale at 2222 Laverna Ave. in Eagle Rock.

Here’s a google map to the location

Show hours are 9 to 3 daily, and I will be there most of the time and probably painting. A significant percentage of the proceeds go to support the Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful and its projects. Come learn about drought tolerant landscaping, buy some art, support a great cause and have a good time.

It’s on the grounds of the GLAD center – Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness. Plenty of free parking!