On The Truck Trail

"On The Truck Trail"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
I was invited to come and take reference photos on the ranch of some good friends here in the valley. They live on one of the original ranchos in Santa Barbara county and their Grandfather was one of the the 3 main founders of Solvang. While there we drove on lots of the little truck trails crossing their hillsides...yep, it's a large ranch. I'll be painting many scenes from there in the future.
$115.00

Oak Trail

"Oak Trail"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel

Had to skip a small painting yesterday to work on a larger studio piece. I was too tired to work on one last night so I did this one this morning. I'm using the pink background mountains because I might have a larger commission to do for a collector based on those colors. More fun with oak trees! hahaha. I'm really enjoying the various colors you can paan oak tree with...lots of fun these little paintings.

$100.00

Nipomo Field

"Nipomo Field"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
At the recent show in Nipomo at the Dana Adobe I spent time enjoying the field next door. Large trees in the distance and all of the grasses in ochre and greens. Fields surround the old town of Nipomo and farming is still a major deal up there. It's nice to take a drive through the backroads there and explore. Great way to spend some time and some film too.
$100.00

Eucalyptus

"Eucalyptus"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
A study in eucalyptus trees with afternoon light. I am playing with adjusting late afternoon light and pushing that look and "feel" of that particular time of day. I like afternoon light but it is hard to capture if you are painting plein air. I am concentrating on it in the studio to speed thing up out there in the field. I'm using up the last of my Lukas paint on a lot of these small paintings. I've got an order in to try out some Utrecht paint. I've been wanting to do that for a long time now and finally got around to ordering some of their paint the other day. Yesterday I ordered some new large canvases for gallery work to be done. I'm going to try out some Fredrix Red Label canvases. Lots of trying things out soon.
$100.00

Moon Rising

"Moon Rising"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
The moon has been coming up so early lately and the night getting dark later. I like seeing the moon rise early when the sky is still bright...totally messing up my sense of time though. Thought I'd do a painting of this time of day since I have been seeing it so much this month. Tried to go out and see the Shuttle and Spacestation floating by but never could find it. It was supposed to be a mere "point of light" viewable for only about 2 minutes in the western sky but it evaded me.
$100.00

Hills Above Cachuma

"Hills Above Cachuma"
5" X 7" Oil on Panel

Another scene from my hike up in the hillsides above Cachuma lake in the Santa Ynez valley. I was fortunate enough to go there as the spring wildflowers were in full bloom. They created a wonderful carpet of color on the light brown grasses. My goal here was to capture the closer flowers, and using aeriel persepctive, push the distant ones back. This would add the depth to the painting that is seen here.

$100.00

Along Old Friends

"Along Old Friends"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
I'm really glad I painted this one. I love the results and even though this is a small painting this is to date my favorite one of this size. It started out as just a painting to try a different sky color and experiment with the colors and handling of the background trees. One good thing led to another and the foreground was finished up. I love the colors used in this one and the "feel" of the painting. I'll actually go with a larger version of this soon which I'm looking forward to painting. I enjoy paintings that start as one thing and then become something of their own by the end. A wonderful alla prima painting effort.
$115.00

Morning Oaks

"Morning Oaks"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
These oaks have been coming out pretty nice so I'm thinking of doing a large piece which I will need for the gallery. Makes sense to me that if things work small they will work large. Right now the oaks are looking really good with all of the mustard we have blooming in the valley. The bright yellows and greens make for a great contrast with the dark olives of the oaks. I had to run up to Santa Maria a few times this last week and the mustard and oaks along the freeway were incredible. I love it at this time of year.
$100.00

Foxen Canyon Moonrise

"Foxen Canyon Moonrise"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
I often feel I neglect painting more oak trees in my work so I've decided to do more in the future. There was a painting I've seen by Granville Redmond that he did in the Barbizon style. Unlike his work in later years veering towards impressionism, this painting was as representational as you could get, almost photographic, and the oak trees in that painting are the best I've ever seen painted....past or present.
$100.00

"Chalk Hill"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel

This painting gave me the opportunity to try a variation with the sky. I layed on a gradient layer of blue and then went back over that with small specks of cad yellow light. I applied the yellow as you would in the stippling manner. The overal feel it gives is of a warmer and lighter tone near the horizon which also produces an atmospheric look. I think it's pretty cool and will use this technique on more paintings.

$100.00

Summer Skies

"Summer Skies"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel

Oddly enough...this was painted not so much for the skies as it was to work on grasses more. These grassy hills are behind where I live and the distant mountain range are the Figueroa Mountains. A few years back we had a fire that drove slowly across these mountains for months...it started in July and was finally declared extinguished in Sept or October.
$100.00

Foothill Eve

"Foothill Eve"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
Trying to capture the evening light across the mountains and trees in this scene. Evening light is always a great way to bring some drama into a painting and I enjoy trying to capture it. I don't like to push it too much. I like a somewhat subdued approach to scenes of this nature....let nature tell it's story instead of the painter.
$100.00

Summer Grasses

"Summer Grasses"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel

A study of grasses in summertime nudging the edge of a hillside oak. I like using yellow ochre and love it's wonderful earthy tone to warm a scene up. Once I discovered how nice it makes earthy greens for oak trees I began to use it a lot. You can get some wonderful variety in warm greens using yellow ochre.
$115.00

Over Chalk Hill

"Over Chalk Hill"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel

This scene is practically right in my backyard...it's my neighbors backyard. I saw this scene in late afternoon yesterday as some of the clouds were blowing out of the valley headed for the San Joaquin valley inland. We always get great clouds here blowing in from Pacific storms out at sea. It's always a treat to see them heading across the valley moving inland especially in late afternoon light.

Summer Trail

"Summer Trail"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel

Did I mention I love to paint trails, hahahaha. This little meadow with it's trail running across to the trees in the distance is a scene I like to paint. There is something about a trail running off into the distance that attracts my eye. Where they lead to, where the trail will take you...it's very much in line with the choices and decisions you make in your life. Pick a plan and stick to it...you stay on the trail and try not to stray off the path. I see a trail as my choices and my path to where I want to go in life.

$100.00

Sunset

"Sunset"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel

I painted this scene tonight inspired by my neighbors oak tree on his hillside. I see this tree all the time and it has been a feature in many of my paintings. The fun thing about this painting is I did it from memory in the studio using the tree and hillside as just a base for the painting. I added the background and tinted sky as a whim...just wanting to paint in what I felt about sunsets here and not be a slave to the exact sunset of tonight. I've done this before and it is a great way to keep your memory and imagination working as a team and not having to rely solely on your visual process to creating art....and it's fun.
$115.00

Santa Rosa Hills

"Santa Rosa Hills"

5" X 7" Oil on panel

I saw this scene looking across the Santa Rosa hillsides when I left the Wildling Museum BBQ at Rancho Arbolado. We were parked on a flattened section of one of their hills getting ready to leave and I looked over at really liked the distant hills. The trees were cut in certain areas leaving varying shapes all along the hillsides. The dwindling sunlight gave it this pale look and it was a very nice contrast to the darkened foreground....I like that stuff!