Belmont Shore Pier – Long Beach Marine Seascape Acrylic Painting
Belmont Shores Pier
12 x 16 acrylic
Currently on exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art
in a California Art Club group show celebrating the Long Beach Bike Festival
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The past month has taken me to San Luis Obispo for a paint out with the California Art Club, then home for a few days, then out to Phoenix to paint a wedding reception for a lovely couple. Along the way we took in the sights of red rock country as well as some beautiful desert areas.
Last weekend, the California Art Club held a reception for artists participating in the Long Beach Bike Festival, and I was pleased to find out that the above painting, Belmont Shores Pier, was accepted along with 19 others to be displayed at the Long Beach Museum of Art until May 24. Maybe we’ll take the Metro Blue Line down to see the show and I can sketch some of the riders on the way.
This coming Sunday, the California Art Club will present the opening reception for the exhibition of Ring Festival paintings at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The reception hours are from 5-7 pm. Parking is $5. I will be there with my handsome model, who you will see is actually a much younger man than one-eyed Wotan.
Now, I’m working on commissions and painting for several other upcoming competitions and welcoming new clients to my studio. This painting, “San Gabriel Sunset” went home with a new San Marino collector today – it’s a surprise for a loved one.
Long Beach Lighthouse Sunset – California impressionist Oil Painting – California Art Club Show
“Rest at Rainbow Harbor”
(featuring the Long Beach Lions Lighthouse For Sight)
9 x 12
oil on canvas
In May 2010, I exhibited 2 paintings with the California Art Club Long Beach Bike Festival Art Show at the Phantom Gallery, 170 N. Promenade in Long Beach.
I’d been been painting for this show for several weeks, and the guidelines were that the paintings needed to portray landmarks of Long Beach, and at least one of our submitted paintings should feature a bicycle, in honor of the Bike Festival.
This painting combines several of the themes. The Lighthouse for Sight, one of three in Long Beach, was built by the Long Beach Lions Club and is a reminder of the importance of saving vision – one of the important charities that the Lions support. It sits atop a hill that bicyclists ride around. It reminded me of Glastonbury Tor in England, where a tower sits atop a hill, encircled by terraces. A bicyclist takes a moment to rest at the top of the hill, before continuing his ride.
When I learned that the harbor is named Rainbow Harbor, I gave myself permission to “push” the color more than I might usually do. Like I need an excuse to get colorful, right?
California Seascape Malibu Oil Painting – Radiant Shore
Radiant Shore
Malibu coastline
18 x 24
oil on canvas
I’ll be taking this new painting to a Malibu art show this Sunday at Headwaters corner at Topanga and Mulholland (11-5 pm) for the spring show of the Allied Artists. The craggy rocks of the shoreline glisten in the light of the setting sun as the incoming tide surges through the nooks and crannies. I love how the colors intensify as the sun nears the horizon. Once again nature presents us with the perfect complementary color scheme of warms against cools, red-yellow-orange against blues and violets.
These days I’m trying to balance my time between getting handout materials ready for my solo exhibition at the Bowers Museum, keeping up with commissions and sales (shipped three yesterday) and thinking ahead about the California Art Club paint-out in San Luis Obispo for the week of April 17. Life (and art) are good, and all-absorbing!
Leo Carrillo Beach Oil Painting – Pelican Rock – Malibu seascape art
SOLD
Cormorant Rock, Malibu,
Leo Carrillo State Park Beach
5 x 7 oil painting
At Leo Carrillo Beach, I came across a rock that had a flock of cormorants roosting briefly before their next fishing mission. Their silhouettes against the fading sun intrigued me, and I thought they made a nice composition. A wedding was underway just the other side of a big rock structure, a beautiful sunset setting. I thought at first they were pelicans, but I was mistakden.
This limited palette painting was fun to do. The rocks take on different colors depending upon the lighting conditions and time of day, which presents a lot of creative possibilities.
California’s Brown Pelicans have been in the news recently as sick and dying birds have been found a distance from usual home. Their feathers are often discolored with some unknown substance. Whether is the result of red tide (algae bloom) or some other pollutant is unknown. A similar die-off happened around February of 2009. One supposition is that weather and oceanographic influences may disrupt the pelicans usual feeding patterns, causing them to starve and weaken. El Nino conditions may be a contributory factor. These birds were on home turf and looked well-feathered and plump. I love to watch them flying just over the waves, single file.
Big Sur Oil Painting – California Garrapata Beach seascape
Garrapata Beach, Big Sur
16 x 20 oil on canvas
The state park on a beautiful clear day with just a little mist hovering over the distant headlands. A look so typical of the area. I’ll bet that this location has been the scene of many marriage proposals, it’s so beautiful.
Last weekend, I attended the artists’ reception for the Pasadena Society of Artists ACE Exhibition, and was delighted to learn that my painting of the LA County Fair, “Fun Zone,” had won an Award of Merit. This has been a really exciting week for me – first learning that I am a new Artist Member of the California Art Club, and now this honor from PSA. I can hardly wait to find out what surprises this new week will bring.
Karen Winters at the Pasadena Society of Artists ACE Awards
Scotland Oil Painting – Blackfaced Highlanders
Blackfaced Highlanders
14 x 18 oil on canvas
Gift, not for sale
This painting depicts one of our family’s ancestral homelands – the Isle of Skye looking toward the mainland of Scotland on the southeastern part of Skye. Many years ago we had the opportunity to visit there and, looking up the records in the Clan Donald museum, located the place where my 9g grandfathers and mothers lived and worked in the 1700s. The blackfaced sheep is one of the most common in the UK, and they still graze on these lands once occupied by crofters. Nowadays tourism is also a thriving industry.
In the 1730s, there was a large migration from that part of Skye to America, primarily to the colony of North Carolina, where our forbears, the McIvers, settled and married McKinnons, McClouds, McKenzies and many other immigrant Scots. If you come from that area, we are probably distant cousins.
This painting is a birthday gift to our daughter.
Carmel Point Lobos California Marine Seascape Oil Painting – California Art Club Blinn House show
“Gift from the Sea”
Pt. Lobos Tide Pool – Carmel
18 x 24 oil on canvas
Over the weekend I got the good news that this painting, Gift from the Sea, which I painted over the summer, has been juried into the California Art Club’s Blinn House show at the Women’s City Club of Pasadena. This is the first seascape that I’ve submitted to the biannual show (the others have been landscapes or portraits) and I am delighted and honored that it was chosen for this exhibit.
The theme of this show is Precious Gifts, and I have entitled this painting “Gift from the Sea” both as a tip of the hat to the Anne Morrow Lindbergh book, which I have enjoyed reading repeatedly over the years, and as a tribute to the bounty that the oceans provide, both in resources, recreation and natural beauty.
The reception will be Sunday, December 6, from 5 – 7 pm at the Historic Blinn House, 160 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena, CA
The Carmel area holds special significance for us at the Winters household because it was one of the places that we went on our honeymoon. Whenever we return there it brings back wonderful memories. It’s a location that I will always enjoy painting and was certainly a popular location among the California impressionists, notably Guy Rose.
More art show news tomorrow, and I’ll be posting my plein air paintings from the Falkner Vineyard Invitational Plein Air paint out after that.
Malibu Lagoon – California seascape oil painting
Malibu Lagoon
11 x 14
oil on canvas
This is one of the paintings I’ll be bringing to the Allied Artists Art Show and Sale this Sunday, October 18 at the Malibu Nature Preserve, 33905 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu.
It will probably be one of the last big outdoor shows of the season, so I hope that you’ll have a chance to come out and enjoy the weather at the coast. I was up in the Sierra last week, but we got rained out, so I hope to return again in a week or two, as we did last year.
Pasadena Skyline Oil Painting – Pasadena California City Hall complex
Pasadena Skyline
11 x 14 oil on hardboard panel
SOLD
Although this painting is sold, I have more Pasadena area paintings at this link:
See more Pasadena paintings here
I am also happy to paint on commission.
Click this link to write me.
Cabo San Lucas Los Arcos – mini painting
Los Arcos – Lands End – Cabo San Lucas
5″ x 7″ miniature oil painting
SOLD (commission)
This painting has a romantic story to it. The young woman who commissioned it, who I’ll call Stacy, is going to be married very soon. As a wedding present to her fiance, Stacy is going to give him five original paintings of different places they have been and want to return to. She saw my large commissioned painting of Los Arcos online and asked if I could paint a small version of it for this multi-part gift. I love romantic notions, so of course I was happy to oblige. I can hardly wait to hear how her husband likes it.
If you have a special occasion coming up, or are thinking ahead about holiday gifts, this is a good time to put in your order for an original painting. I get busier as the holidays approach.
Now for the less than cheerful news …
For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you hear the names Angeles Crest, San Gabriel Mountains, La Canada Flintridge, Pasadena, Altadena, La Crescenta and other location names quite frequently. I live in La Canada, now the flashpoint of what has become the infamous “Station” Fire which is raging through the Angeles Crest forest in the northeast part of Los Angeles County. It is named the Station fire because it began near a forest ranger station up Angeles Crest Highway.
We are fine, since we live a mile or so from the forest/residential interface, but the mandatory evacuation area came within about 2000 feet of our home. Today, the skies are blue above La Canada, a far cry from four or five days ago. For us, at least, I think the worst has passed. But we have many friends and neighbors in the surrounding areas who are still in the path of the conflagration. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
It is comforting to see the snorkel helicopters and other fire fighting aircraft in the skies above us, hauling water and fire suppression materials to hot spots.We are SO LUCKY that this happened in August, not during Santa Ana conditions. In a strange way, I am grateful that this happened at all. I heard an interview with a fire chief who said that if this happened during Santa Ana season literally hundreds and hundreds of homes would be lost (including ours, I’m sure) and there’s nothing they could do to stop it.
Counting my blessings in La Canada,
Karen
