RON GUTHRIE

Coast Guard Deployment

2011-11-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

I am a member of the Coast Guard Art Program, COGAP, and was recently asked if I’d like to be deployed for 4 days on their newest National Security cutter, the USCGC Stratton, of course I said yes. My assignment is to photograph the crew in their duties as well as images inside and out of the ship for future paintings to be submitted to the Coast Guard Art Program. I will board the ship in December and spend the next 4 days collecting reference photos for future paintings of this ship and crew.

USCGC Stratton under construction in Pascagoula, Mississippi

The Stratton is the third of four mega high tech 418-foot Legend Class cutters to replace the dependable but aging 378-foot Hamilton Class cutters built in the 1960’s. The National Security cutters perform alien migrant interdiction operations, fisheries protection, search and rescue, counter-narcotics and homeland security missions. On it’s first patrol out the sistership USCGC Waesche interdicted 2 vessels within a 48-hour period containing over 25 million in cocaine being smuggled to the US. The new National Security Cutters have the range to patrol from South America to the Bering Sea. The new cutters carry two helicopters and 2 long and short-range boats. The Legend Class cutters are real beauties!

USCGC Stratton getting underway

I have known about this new project for about a month now but had to wait for my travel orders to be cut before announcing it. Mary Ann Bader, COGAP coordinator, has been great to work with in setting this all up with the Executive Officer of the Stratton. I’m looking forward to being on board the ship and recording as many images as I can for future works. I’ve been going over my photo equipment in preparation for getting as many reference photos as possible in the 4 days I’ll be with the ship. I’ll be posting some of these images when I return from the deployment in December.

Captain Dorothy C. Stratton

Director of the SPARS, the Coast Guard Womens Reserve during WWII

French Companion In Use

2011-08-28T21:03:00.000-07:00

I built this French Companion from scrap wood leftover from other art projects. A French Companion is a very cool addition to my French Easel set up and really makes painting that much easier having all of the room to set things. Before I'd have brushes on the side or laying in the drawer behind the easel so I was always walking around to the back while painting. Now I have plenty of room to set everything right in front. The best bonus is that once the painting is done all I have to do is fold the lid and fold up the easel, no messy paint from a flat palette getting everywhere and eventually onto my clothes. I love this thing. If you don't want to build one just buy one...they are usually on sale at online art suppliers for around $60. It's worth every penny!

Small to Large Again...

2011-08-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

"Chamberlin Ranch Oaks"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel

I used this small painting I painted about a year ago to use as a reference for a larger 16X20 just recently. In going larger I wanted to add more color and detail to the foreground. The goal was pretty simple and even though I had to drop off the smaller painting to a show before the large one was done all seemed to work out. Good thing too since the small painting sold at the show. I think the larger painting worked out very well and has a fresh look to the same scene. There were some good changes to the newer version and the additional colors and detail in the foreground make it stand on it's own merit.

"Oaks At Chamberlin Ranch"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas

Featured Artist September

2011-08-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

In September I will be the Featured Artist at Galerie Gabrie in Pasadena, CA.If you are near Pasadena please stop in at the gallery anytime in September and check out my work. Jasminka Gabrie, the gallery owner, will be happy to have you at the gallery. Gallery Gabrie has work from some very wonderful artists so make sure you stop in and enjoy your visit!

If you would like a show card mailed to you please send me your address.

California Art Club Show

2011-08-13T17:32:00.000-07:00

I was sent notice a few weeks back that one of my paintings has been juried into the upcoming California Art Club show that will be at the Altadena Country Club. The show, "At The Foothills Of The San Gabriels" will run from Sept. 1 through Jan. 10 will have an artists reception on September 11, 2011. If you'ew in the Pasadena area please come to the Show Reception !!

Small To Large

2011-07-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Original small painting, 5x7

I did this small painting a while back..last Winter I think. I always liked how it came out and while looking for some other painting I bumped into this one again. After looking at it for a few minutes I decided to try and use it as a reference for a much larger version. Originally it was painted in a vertical format but I wanted to try an do more of a horizontal/rectangle format. In the end I liked that larger version of the painting and was happy I tried to stay close to the look of the small painting. Too many changes would have made the larger one a totally different painting so I'm glad I stayed with what inspired the larger painting.

The smaller version shown with larger 24x30 painting

The larger painting went along really well and was finished alla prima in 3 hours. The only thing in the larger painting I really changed was lightening the grass and bush. I also added trunks and small branches to the bush this time. It's a nice typical fog clearing morning in the Santa Ynez valley.

California Art Club Show

2011-07-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

            I was fortunate enough to get two paintings into the CAC show down in South Pasadena. This was a great looking show, lots of killer work in it, and a nice gallery too, The Fremont Gallery. If you click on that link you can get the info on the show but it ends this Sunday so you'll have to get over there quick to see it.
           I apologise for announcing this so late but I have been going round and round trying to update my website with no success. For some insane reason there is a glitch in either my web authoring program (Netscape Composer), my FTP program (Ipswitch) or my web hosting company (Earthlink) and damned if I can figure out which one it is because everything looks fine. About the only thing I can see fault with it my page title in my source code online is and it is on my Composer files and FTP files...that doesn't make sense....and yes, I've dumped my cache in IE so it's not that. Got any ideas???

          Anyway...here is the show card...and yep, they used one of my paintings for it, too cool!

Finally!

2011-07-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

          Well, I've been more than tardy with posting on the blog here. I used to have 2 main galleries I was in but one had to shut down due to the economy. That shut down left me with just the one but it's a great one to be in. Naturally, when they say jump I ask how high. I'm going to be the featured artist for the month of September there so I've been working on larger paintings. Galleries like em' big....and a lot of them too. I've been fortunate to have made sales during the year...sporadic, but none the less sales and right now any sale is good news.

          Living a life of selling art enough to pay most of the bills and have some left over to buy art supplies to keep going is not a fun one but it could be worse. My last job had me working 10 hour plus days and that left little energy to paint at night. I'm thankful for any sales. Being an artist is a tough life and if you like living large you're in for a big dissapointment. Luckily I came from "meager" so I understand and can handle "meager", haha.

          Last November I was in our Artist Studio Tour here in the valley and sold a few of the little paintings...5x7 and 6x6. That led the local art museum in the next town over to ask to carry my little ones in their gift shop. That's worked out well, once in a while a small check arrives and I get to drop to my knees with arms raised a shout "YES!". I trust more than a few of you out there have gone through that experience...it's pretty nice when it happens....wish it happened more.

          Since last Spring I have made frames, searched for better frame prices...always doing that, experimented with new frames which has led me back to my usual frames, haha., made it to a couple of artist friends shows which was fun, repaired my French easel which broke a support for the back leg, built a French Companion for my French easel...so easy to build. I also lost my best little camera for taking shots of the artowrk...it sort of works but not...can't take a pic with it so I had to buy another one on eBay to replace it...newer, larger megapixels and totally sucks for getting good shots of the artwork. I miss my older camera so bad I'm about to buy another one if I can find it. It's 5 or 6 years old and that's' like 20 with the ever constant changing technologies. I used to laugh at the fact that if you bought a new digital camera by the time you got home and unwrapped it they would have already come out with a newer one with more megapixels!...no joke.

         So....I'll try posting more here on the blog. Sorry to anyone who has been checking it. Life and other obligations can sometimes get in the way and you have to prioritize...been there, doing that now.

Painting the Foothills

2011-03-14T07:58:00.000-07:00

"Foot Of The Figueroas"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas
The Figueroa mountains line the northern half of our valley. My backyard is pointed right at them so I get to see them throughout the year in various light and shadow. I grew up right below the San Gabriel mountains living less than 2 miles from their base. Always having large mountains within walking distance has sort of stuck with me and I think I'd go crazy living anywhere away from the mountains.

A Meadow Painting

2011-03-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

"Afternoon Meadow"

6" X 8" Oil on panel

I'm just about to start another large painting but before doing that I painted this small painting this morning. I wanted to wipe off the remnants of paint left on my palette from a previous painting and didn't want to waste all of the paint so I used a nearby panel to paint this one. Just a small meadow scene of what the summer months will bring once all of this rain is long gone. I like the rain but lately it has come spaced just long enough that just before the ground dries up in comes another few days of rain.

Poppies And Eucalyptus

2011-03-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

"Poppies And Eucalyptus"

9" X 12" Oil on Canvas
Can hardly wait for the poppies to start covering the ground in so many places around where I live. The other day I drove on the road down to Santa Barbara and already many flowers were starting to bloom at the roadside. The wildflower display in the Santa Ynez valley and the mountains bordering it can be pretty impressive.

An Earth Palette

2011-02-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

"Valley In Blue"

9" X 12" Oil on Canvas

I have been reading up on using an earth palette lately and wanted to give it a try. I thought forcing myself to use just 3 earth colors would push my mixing skills up a notch and teach me some new color mixes to try out. I used only Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Paynes Grey along with white. I enjoyed learning to mix greens and blues using grey and no doubt this will add to my mixes in later works so it was a good experiment to go through. Pushing yourself by using a limited palette is a great way to force you to learn something new and step out of your comfort zone a bit.

Greens are commonly bought by many painters but I have been mixing mine from my primaries for years now. Using these colors above was a great way to experiment with new green mixes, very pale green tones which will work perfectly for distant greens. This should increase my ability to use more convincing colors to promote depth into my work. Also, the range of greys and neutral tones found with these 3 colors is eye opening to me and will show up also in future paintings.

Nipomo Eucalytpus

2011-02-13T22:08:00.000-08:00

"The Sappling"

20" X 24" Oil on Canvas
I've been working on larger pieces lately and at the same time experiencing massive problems with my computer when trying to start up. This is a newer computer using Vista and I'm still going through the problem more often than not. Aside from those woes, I've been able to concentrate on larger works since the new year. I'm really enjoying working larger but they do suck up more time to produce...still a lot of fun.
This one was painted from a reference photo taken in a stand of eucalyptus trees in Nipomo, CA that I love to visit. This young little tree was catching the most wonderful light hidden in between it's older brothers. The young leaves showing off their great shades of bright greens in the background of muted darks and the pale ochres of the grasses. Hard to resist not painting this one.

Hillside Bouquet

2011-01-17T14:53:00.000-08:00

"Hillside Bouquet"

6" X 8" Oil on Canvas
Winter naturally brings on thoughts of Spring so I suppose that's where the thought process began for this piece. A gentle hillside meadow covered with random Spring flowers, some green left in the grasses before Summer takes over. A very common sight along the mountainsides of the valley here.

A High Desert Painting

2011-01-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

"Hills Above Little Rock"

8" X 10" Oil on Canvas
The view here is overlooking the small town of Little Rock up in the high desert not far from Lancaster. Whenever I can get up that way I like to drive through the desert, stop and explore...take in the desert air. The last time I was there I stayed till the sun went down to get some nice reference photos...took my painting gear but it was too windy and cold for that.

Valley Grasses

2011-01-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

"Valley Grasses"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
A quick one painted this morning. I like the summer colors in late afternoon light and miss seeing them now that Winter is here. I used this painting to play with color and try a few things out...nothing serious just little things. Fun little painting to work on today.

In The Arroyo

2011-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

"In The Arroyo"

22" x 28" Oil on Canvas
A large painting of the sycamore trees down on the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena. This is an area that was painting by many of the early California Impressionist painters around and after the turn of the century. It's a great spot to get away from the city for a few hours even though you are just a short hike away from cement and red lights.

Eaton Canyon Meadow

2011-01-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

"Eaton Canyon Meadow"

22" X 28" Oil on Canvas
I grew up hiking around in Eaton canyon which is just above my parents old house in Pasadena, CA. This small meadow is on the north side of the riverbed that runs down the length of the canyon. I think it is a great place to go and smell the sage and other aromas in the canyon. I remember my Dad taking all of us boys in the family hiking there once and we ended up hiking up to Henneger Flats...boy was that a story.

Spring Blooms

2011-01-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

"Spring Blooms"

9" X 12" Oil on panel
This is the first of 2011 paintings. I started this painting 1 hour before midnight on New Years eve but finished it today Jan 2 due to a cold I've had and preparing for the rains that have now arrived again. We've got two trees down from the high wind in the early morning hours so I'll be playing with the chainsaws as soon as the weather breaks. Not the greatest start for the new year but I'm still in a good mood.
This is a larger version of a painting I did earlier at 5x7. I liked the foreground poppies and the spark they brought to the smaller painting. I also like painting with a knife occasionally so this was an appropriate one to start the new year off with since the flowers were mostly knife work.
Happy New Year to everyone.

Summer Above Los Olivos

2010-12-18T13:49:00.000-08:00

"Summer Above Los Olivos"

8" X 10" Oil on panel

Sitting here with gallons of Winter rain from a Pacific storm pouring outside. I started this one while waiting for the much predicted storm to arrive. I finished it this morning after spending the earlier part of morning clearing a clogged drain that had created a lake up near the higher parts of our property. Happens everytime...I need a bigger pipe up there. Anyway....it's nice to see a bit of summer on the easel to remind me why I should appreciate the much needed water here in California.

Midsummer Trail

2010-12-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

"Midsummer Trail"

8" X 10" Oil on panel
Getting back into the groove after this years studio tour and a foray with a very large painting. Actually, after the tour there were a lot of things to take care of so between that and the larger work things had gotten delayed in painting small works. I'm hoping to get back to work on those paintings. Maybe I'll post the large one in here tomorrow. because I've got another large canvas waiting to go....busy busy busy...not to mention the holidays, hahaha.

2010-11-15T01:32:00.000-08:00

Originally this was a 5" X 7" painting. I liked it and decided to paint a larger version that you see here in 16" X 20" size. This is a nice looking 3" wide Larsen Juhl fframe that I'm trying out with this painting.

I haven't painted anything for about a week now due to having to get ready for the Studio Tour this weekend (Nov 20 & 21). This last week was spent deciding which paintings to show and what frames to put them in. Some are fine framed the way they are but others are being switched around. There is a lot of deciding what paintings work well on certain walls and next to certain paintings. Tomorrow I need to varnish but I'm low on varnish so that means a 30 mile trip one way to pick some up. Then it's back here to varnish. The rest of the week will be framing and hanging, getting the studio cleaned up for company and helping Linda get nametags and other items ready....I'm telling you, by the time the studio tour happens we are nice and worn out, hahaha. I was recently down in Ventura harbor and managed to take a zillion reference shots. I uploaded them late last night when we got back and there are some really nice prospects in there...now I just need to window to get started painting.

Skark's Parlour

2010-11-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

"Shark's Parlour"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas
Just finished up on this sportfisherman berthed down at Santa Barbara harbor. I loved the glow of the white, yes, white cabin walls in the early afternoon sun. I tried to capture that color along the back wall of the cabin and transom while showing the bright day's light left on the sunlit sides of the boat. I am pretty happy with the job of capturing that glow so I feel this painting has me on the right course in my paintings. I'm a happy camper!

Autumn Trail

2010-10-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

"Autumn Trail"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
We've had rains, chilly weather and leaves blowing everywhere so summer has passed and we're headed for the winter holidays. Southern California, not being noted for snow, will have this look in many places...brown grasses slowly turning green as winter passes.

New Hazard

2010-10-26T21:38:00.001-07:00

"New Hazard"

12" X 16" Oil on Canvas
This is one of the fishing boats down at Santa Barbara harbor that I see a lot on my visits there. A great looking older boat with lots of character. Here she is seen tied close to the fuel dock across from the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Blackfin.

Farming Corn Off 99

2010-10-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

"Farming Corn Off 99"

12" X 16" Oil on Canvas

This is a painting I recently decided to touch up. I wasn't satisfied with my foreground so I decided to add more detail there. I also did some additional work to the trees and the barn so I'm pretty happy with it at this point.

Portuguese Bend

2010-10-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

"Portuguese Bend"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
I was painting the wild mustard down in Portuguese Bend a few years ago. Portuguese Bend is located near Long Beach and has some great painting spots. I painted just off of this road which was lined with lots of wild mustard...a fun day.
130.00

Summer Eve

2010-10-20T15:08:00.001-07:00

"Summer Eve"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
Fall is here and the warm summer grasses will soon be replaced by green grasses. I'll miss the warm tones of summer which I love to paint. Weather-wise I look forward to cooler temps and the smells of winter. Fireplaces will be burning and the night air has it's chill...I love it.

$130.00

Morning Near Santa Ynez

2010-10-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

"Morning Near Santa Ynez"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
This is a typical scene of a hiking trail you can find near Santa Ynez in spring. I've hiked above Lake Cachuma and seen the wildflowers in bloom and it can be quite a sight. I always love seeing the California poppies in spring and summer. We have them sprout up here in our yard and they will line both highways heading down to Santa Barbara.
$100.00

2010-10-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

"Lupine Afternoon"

18" X 36" Oil on Canvas
Worked on this large one over the weekend. Good idea too since it rained this weekend and not much was going to get done in the way of yardwork. The Fall leaves are everywhere and I need to mulch! I kept the lighting low trying to promote the highlights at the tops of the trees as they caught the late afternoon sun. This was a very nice painting to work on.

Sketch

2010-10-13T13:44:00.000-07:00

"Evening Serenity Thumbnail Sketch"

pencil on scratch paper about 2, 1/2 inches high.

This painting, like a lot of my paintings, started out with this small thumbnail sketch in pencil on a piece of scratch paper. I took a look at it a second ago and the drawing is about a little less than 3 inches high. Nothing fancy, no values or detail...just the "map" of what I wanted in my painting. Most of the details are in my head. Some of the details are left vague on purpose so I can make changes and fit in what works for the painting as I go along....sometimes it is nice to be surprised at what the painting creates for the artist. Too much planning can take out a lot of the enjoyment of painting and make it more of a chore so I let some things come as the paintings feel or mood dictate.

Here is the finished painting. I'm pretty happy with it and even though it isn't a small painting it is more what I work on in my normal painting day. Some of the idea for this painting came from the small studies, sketches and works that are on this blog. The small paintings are very important in trying things out, working out ideas and then commiting to larger works.

"Evening Serenity" 24" X 36" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas

On The Easel 10.11.20

2010-10-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

"Evening Serenity"

24" X 36" Oil on Gallery Wrap Canvas
To date this has to be my largest painting with eucalyptus trees. This was so fun to paint it isn't funny. I went with a different sky color approach using a mix of Cerulean Blue, Titanium White and just a bit of Cadmium Yellow Light. This combination gives the sky a greenish/blue color. Too much cad yellow and you get a green sky so when I say "a bit" of cad yellow it is a bit. While letting this one sit for a day or two I did a couple of small ones on my pochade easel. Came back to this one and did a few touch ups and I'll let it sit for another day before calling it finished.

In The Fall

2010-10-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

"In The Fall"

5" X 7" Oil on panel
Fall is here and the leaves are falling like crazy now. The mulching begins, hahaha. Decided to just go with the season here and show some color. Painted alla prima this evening.
$100.00

California Poppies

2010-10-08T10:46:00.001-07:00

"Spring Poppies"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
There is a field just outside of town that at one time was owned by Ray Kroc of McDonalds fame I believe. I pass by this field a lot. It has been used to grow flowers, alfalfa and other farm crops. They used to have a small barn type building that was used as a store to sell locally grown produce but it was torn down a couple off years ago. In between crops wildflowers will pop up and I've seen poppies growing in there. I painted this scene looking west in that field and added more poppies than are most likely there but it looks good to me.
$100.00

A Tall Eucalyptus Tree

2010-10-07T22:39:00.000-07:00

"Majesty"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas

Painted this one up to show at my upcoming Studio Tour. I like the vertical format with the eucalyptus tree running off the canvas. I also like the nice contrast between foreground tree and eucalyptus trees back in the distant haze...I like that effect. I also painted this one to gear up for a very large one I want to do that I was talking to my friend and talented artist Christine Brallier about....I've still tinkering with that idea in the back of my mind.

Rocks Study

2010-10-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

Rocks Study

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
I worked on this little study early this morning to gain more confidence painting larger rock formations. To me, rocks are really hard to paint. Not the small boulder type rocks but large formations such as this to me seem daunting to paint. I've decided to work out how to paint them on the smaller panels before moving to a larger canvas. Initially I blocked in the darker shadow value and then added the highlight. After that I began painting in the craks and crevices with a liner brush. What was interesting is that the rocks looked horrible once I was in the process of adding the details with the liner brush. I was so frustrated at one point that I decided it was going to get wiped off. Once I made that decision I felt more relaxed to experiment...to continue on adding detail until it was too painful to waste time putting off dragging my rag over the whole mess. Then a strange thing happened...it started to fall together...to resemble sunlit rocks with strong morning shadows. Whew!
This is on textured masonite which accounts for all of the texture lines but that was ok since this is only a study for a larger painting with some large rock mass in it. The rocks aren't the best here nor were they meant to be. This is only a study on a very small panel. Still, to me they resemble rocks the way I'd like them to look. What I got out of this painting is the confidence to attempt a larger painting with rocks. That was more important than a finished painting here.

Summer Moonrise

2010-10-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

"Summer Moonrise"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel

Using the same mixed palette from the previous painting below I did a quick painting of the same theme. This time adding the trail and altering other elements of the scene. I like the variation between the two paintings and I like the higher background on the panel. I also like the addition of the rocks placed randomly on the foreground. The mountains around Santa Ynez seem to grow rocks so this is actually a more fitting view of the Santa Ynez Valley floor along the foothills.

$100.00

Evening Moonrise

2010-10-04T09:02:00.001-07:00

"Evening Moonrise"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
This painting was done last night as a 1 hour sketch. It stretched a bit longer than that because I was creating the scene fro my head composing along the way. I see changes I'll make on another piece today. Our summer is practically over soon so the warm ochre tones will give way to grey skies and eventually green grasses. California will get that Ireland look here in the valley come spring. I'll miss the ochres.

$100

Threesome

2010-09-30T12:02:00.001-07:00

"Threesome"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
Trying to cram the mighty tall eucalyptus trees onto a 6x8 panel, haha. Sometimes painting is too fun and the things you come up with in your mind just have to be painted. The only regret here is that the size of the panel can somewhat limit just how majestic these trees can look...I'd like to one day but put together a 3 foot by 6 foot stretched canvas to go really large for these guys....that would look cool.
$130

Truck Trail

2010-09-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

"Truck Trail"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
Decided to paint an early morning scene of a truck trail similar to the ones above a camp near Cachuma Lake. These trails reminded me of truck trails near a summer camp I went to in the San Bernardino mountains with the Boys Club years ago, Camp Norris. They headed off to Jenks Lake or the riding stables. We would hike along them or ride in the trucks sometimes. Good times back then.

$130.00

Skiff Sketch

2010-09-28T22:29:00.001-07:00

A Skiff

6" X 8" Oil on panel
Out my norm again....painted this little skiff to learn to get better at them. At heart I'm a boatnik and have been for years. Lately I've been looking up skiffs and drooling. This one is based on the Tri-werx skiffs built by George Williams of Falmouth, MA. Classic looking workboats. This is not a good representation of a Tri-Werx skiff in that the bow is too rounded looking here...almost like a fiberglass boat or even a Mexican Panga.. A TriWerx has a much sharper looking bow...great looking boats....I'm not sweating it because this is only cause to do another painting.

Eucalytpus Study #2

2010-09-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Eucalyptus Study #2

6"X8" Oil on panel

#2 is actually a stretch since I've painted eucalyptus trees many times. I like their shape and their colors. They are stately trees and they have such a dominate size over the landscape...just a lot of fun to paint these big guys. This study is probably more for the more tonal feel of the paintings background. I like tonal works but I don't paint many of them. This was a way of enjoying that process.

$130.00

Color

2010-09-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

Color Study

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
I had some ideas about color that I wanted to try out so this is the result of last nights color study. I like trying things out on small panels like this to see what works and what needs work. I've been using Utrecht oil paints lately and am pushing some of the color mixes with it to see how it handles. Utrechts Cadmium Yellow Light has turned out to be a really great yellow to work with. The Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson have worked out perfect too.

$130.00

Gaviota Seascape

2010-09-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

"Gaviota Bluffs Vista"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
A scene on the bluffs at Gaviota looking west out to the Pacific ocean. The skies were hazy, almost storm like that morning and barely cleared in the afternoon. Still, it was an enjoyable day spent exploring the bluffs and working my way down to the water. A recent storm had washed lots of interesting things up on shore.
This painting is on masonite panel prepared with an acrylic gel that gives it the extra texture. I like the look of it but it is heck to photograph. The lights pick up the texture way too much for showing online but the painting looks great in a frame.

$130.00

Yellow Moon

2010-09-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

"Yellow Moon"

12" X 16" Oil on canvas
Was wanting to try out a very pale background so I came up with this one. A simple landscape with a moonrise going on. Contrast is a bit off so the moon stands out a bit more on the actual painting. Fun little painting to do.

Farm Off 99

2010-09-17T01:51:00.000-07:00

"Farming Corn Off 99"

12" X 16" Oil on Canvas
Saw this sight on my recent trip up north. We took Interstate 5 and at various parts of it route 99 runs parallel to it. This farm was just below Willows and pretty close to the freeway. The clouds have a lot more subtle variations of color but aren't showing up well in this pc. I think if I did a larger painting using this one as a reference I'd push the atmosphere more in the mid and foreground. My reference photo had much stronger contrast to it and I back that down some but I'd like to see it backed off even further. I also tried for a simpler version of foreground grasses too...not my usual type so I'm going to let it sit a few days and see how that looks to me then.

Grey Morning Near Lompoc

2010-09-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

"Grey Morning Near Lompoc"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas

I've driven many times to Lompoc which is about 30 miles from here and the closest Home Depot! I live in the center of a funny triangle...Lompoc to the West, Santa Maria to the North and Santa Barbara to the South...or, Home Depot to the West, In N Out Burger to the North and art supplies to the South. Here in Solvang we have Ace Hardware, Rite Aid and a Subway Sandwich place and that's it.
Anyway...in the Winter months I see scenes like this along the highway headed for Lompoc. Very grey days and great fading-in-the-mist eucalyptus trees. Only painters like that kind of weather. This one was done alla prima in about 3 hours tonight. A very fun painting!

Quiet Time of Day

2010-09-14T14:01:00.001-07:00

"Quiet Time of Day"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
This one reminds me of the light along the hills north of Santa Barbara in the early evening hours. I didn't set out to paint this one like that. I painted the sky and hillsides but got busy running errands before I could finish it. I started another larger painting but stopped on that one too for the same reason. I came back to work on the larger piece but decided to finish them up in order and came back to this little one. My original vision was gone for the painting and I ended up painting in the rest of the scene as you see here.
The reddish tint in the foreground grasses came from a walk I had with my daughter yesterday in Eaton Canyon. There was a lot of smaller plants that had this great red color to them lining a lot of the valley floor and I loved the contrast of those plant colors against the dark oak trees behind them.

$100.00

Rancho San Carlos De Jonata

2010-09-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

"Oaks at Rancho San Carlos de Jonata"

15" X 30" Oil on Canvas
Worked on this one over the weekend. I saw this scene while being given a tour of this Ranch just north of Solvang and Buelton, CA. Luckly I have become friends with the owners of the Rancho, a wonderful couple, and they have offered to let me come to visit and paint or take pictures. I was driven through the various areas of the ranch and told of it's history which is super interesting if you like history like I do. I need to go there again for some evening shots.

Evening Light Study

2010-09-07T13:14:00.001-07:00

"Evening Study"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
This is a study on varying light and will serve the purpose of being my reference study for a larger painting later. I painted this last night in the prospect of adding more dramatic light to the trees. This is a small 5x7 and although I could have worked more detail into it or spent more time refining the overall look it is just a study and what I was looking for was answered already here. What I will change in the larger piece will be to include more dark shadows in the upper tree areas hit by the last light. Adding the shadows will add more volume to the tree and promote the brighter lit foliage there. The study works well and supports the idea that it is always better to work out something in your head on a smaller canvas then go larger.

$100.00

Afternoon Moment

2010-09-06T12:27:00.001-07:00

"Afternoon Moment"

5"x7" Oil on Panel
I suppose to the eye this painting is about the foreground eucalyptus tree or the trail but it isn't. I painted this one to work on that distant mountainside. I wanted a late afternoon glow on it and I wanted it to be very distant looking...playing with the atmosphere of that part of the painting. I like the soft and very faint transition up to the sky colors.
What made the mountainside appear very distant was keeping the darker shadow colors in a lighter value. The mountain is basically a pink mix of titanium white and alizarin crimson. The shadows are the same mix with a bit of ultramarine blue added which makes it a light violet if you don't go too heavy with the blue. Looks cool.
The fun part of the tree is the last thing done to it...adding the trunk. I'm getting better at keeping the edges of the trunk loose which has taken me a while to get better at. It's working, hahaha.

$100.00

Night Colors

2010-09-06T00:56:00.001-07:00

"Night Colors"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
Venturing once again into painting the colors and light of the night. Night scenes are always fun to get creative...adjusting colors and letting them play off of each other. The light is probably the most fun of painting a nocturne. I like to keep certain parts very dark and then pick a spot to let the light shine through...a luminous area of the canvas to allow the viewer to "see" through the darkness. Charles Rollo Peters did just this at times on the adobe walls in his nocturnes. The rest of the painting would be shrouded in mysterious darks and pale color. We have a mission in town, Mission Santa Ynez, and Peters painted a nocturne of it. Very cool!

Meadow Trail

2010-08-30T08:02:00.001-07:00

"Meadow Trail"

5" X 7" Oil on panel
Just a quick study I did when working on the last painting to work out the foreground grasses and plants. This was a very helpful sketch for that painting.

On The Easel

2010-08-26T23:28:00.000-07:00

....On The Easel Aug 26, 2010....

Just finishing up on this one. It's 15" x 30" on stretched canvas. The oak tree was up in Nipomo and looked pretty stately so onto the canvas it went. I like the look of a nice old oak tree especially the larger ones and this guy fit the bill perfectly. This tree is right next to the Dana Adobe property, just south of it, so if you're ever in Nipomo go have a look at it. Now onto the next painting.....

Santa Ynez Evening Trail

2010-08-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

"Santa Ynez Evening Trail"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
This actually is not a new painting. This one sat next to my easel for a long time. It didn't have the eucalyptus trees painted originally, just that back row of yellow green trees and looked boring. I decided to take it back to the easel and add the eucs for a little more contrast in the overall painting. I love the trail leading into the painting and I think the added trees give the painting a little more depth as well as some stronger contrasting colors.
I like the painting much more now so I'm glad to have given this little guy time to sit while I glanced at it over and over trying to decide how to improve it. I'm happy with it at this point.

Oak Study

2010-08-24T11:44:00.001-07:00

Oak Study

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
Just a simple little painting focusing on an oak tree. Couldn't come up with an idea to paint last night before bed. I couldn't sleep and I wanted to paint something. I had an idea for a larger painting but I needed stretcher bars for a specific frame I have. It was way to late to go out to the garage and start cutting wood though. So, I ended up painting this little study to play with colors of the oak tree. I had some nice looking colors just before this version but I played with it too much. Somewhere before you turn it into mud you have to call it quits. I ended up with this which is ok. I like having a larger canvas to do my messing around. I'd like to do more branch work and mess with shadows but at this size it gets too small for my taste. Fun little painting though.

Artist Canopy Sign

2010-08-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

I am going to be one of the artists exhibiting in an art fair in the small town of Los Olivos this weekend. My old sign for my canopy has had it so I decided to make one since there is little time. I took a piece of stretched canvas and some stretcher bars, masked off an area on top to put my name and painted a scene borrowed from my previous painting "Evening Approach" which is posted below. The painting and top area were painted first and then the lettering painted on. While all of that dried I made a small frame out of some scrap lumber I had in the garage and cut down to size.
Here is the sign all finished up and in the frame....

Here is how the sign will look in the canopy...came out pretty nice....

I've been getting ready for this show so I haven't had much time to paint any little ones lately. Lots of framing, varnishing and general hysteria going on. Had some touch ups to do on some bigger paintings and all else that goes on with a show. I'm on the committee for this show which has also had me in several...no, countless meetings. I am glad it is finally going to happen and will be over...have to get ready for another show in September...then a Studio Tour in November.
If anyone is in Los Olivos, CA this weekend come up and see me. I'll be on the north end of town complete with cool looking canopy sign!

Painting The Evening Light

2010-08-11T14:46:00.000-07:00

"Evening Approach"

5" x 7" Oil on Panel

SOLD
I wanted to push the evening colors in a scene and work more with distant mountain colors at sunset. This scene was created just for this purpose. I like the warmth of evening light and felt like experimenting with them in this painting. This was really an enjoyable study and I'll work more on this in the future. I like the slight color shifts in the distant mountains and feel I can work more with those too. Moving from cool colors on the right hand side of the mountains to the warmer pinkish tones on the left side was a kick. I've done this on the past but not with so much deliberate color work. I love that diffused look of the highlights there.

The new Utrecht paints are working out great and I'm having fun exploring with some color mixes that I began with the Winsor Newton paints. I bought just the basic colors that I use, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale (Light), Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. I also bought a tube of Paynes Grey but I could have just kept using mud for that. These colors really do most of the work for me. I do switch off and on with Cerulean Blue for skies and some foliage. The less color you use the better color harmony you end up with. Try using the same colors for your color mixes and you won't end up with some really stark color that stands out above all the others....unless you are trying for that.
Fun little painting.

The one paint in this one that I don't normally use was orange. I mix my own but on this one I grabbed an old tube of Shiva Cadmium Orange. That tube has been with me since college back in the early 80's....let's see...I bought that tube when "Cheers" was still in prime time, when Duran Duran was still in the top 40, when there was no Back To The Future 2 or 3...that's how long ago that Shiva paint was bought by me and it is still in great shape. I like Shiva paint. I think now they mainly create Gouache. As you can see the orange was used to promote the evening light on the trees and it worked very well.

Eucalyptus Study 2

2010-08-11T11:44:00.000-07:00

"Eucalyptus Study 2"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
I finished up another painting late last night and cropped part of the base of a tree as a detail image. As I looked at it I thought it would make a good painting focusing on just the base of a eucalytpus tree. I grabbed another panel and did this painting in about an hour. I wish I could paint these little ones faster. Sometimes they go pretty quick but other times, the majority of times, I spend way too much time doing these...almost as long as a 9x12 painting. I like the trunk here and that was why I painted this one. Thes euc trunks can be white, cream, red, pink...it all depends on the light of day. Overall it was a very fun painting.

$100.00

Meadow Study

2010-08-10T15:16:00.001-07:00

"Meadow Study"

5" x 7" Oil on panel
Titled because there is no actual place, this was done from imagination to play with meadow grasses and a trail. Fun little painting but I think I'm keeping too tight with 5x7 sizes. I don't like the idea of using really small brushes to add detail in these smaller works. I'm pretty much sold on 6"x6" being the smallest size I really enjoy working on. I've been doing much larger sizes and maybe my feelings about small 5x7 pieces are a result of working large lately. I've got a busy schedule right now too so fiddling with small brushes is getting on my nerves, hahaha.

$100.00

Nocturne Oak

2010-08-06T18:16:00.001-07:00

"Oak At Night "

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
I was talking to some friends at a show last night and the subject came up about nocturnes. When I decided to get something onto this panel I figured why not go with a nocturne. I always enjoy painting them...something about playing with the different amounts of light and color is always just too much fun. Plus nocturnes have a mysterious look to them. Whistler was onto something! hahaha.

Wide One

2010-08-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

A Framed 12" X 24"

Just wanted to show off my new frame for this painting. I can't paint today because we had a water pipe connector bust on our well pump last night at 10:30 pm...meaning all of the hardware stores were closed. I was able to stop the leak last night but needed to finish up all of the pvc repair early this morning. I'm already tired and have to now get ready for a show reception down in Santa Barbara in a few hours. I'm the show coordinator for this one and phone calls & emails are still going around. Show days are no fun until you are walking back into the house kicking off your shoes headed for bed! hahaha.
The good thing is a couple will be there who bought 3 paintings of mine 2 years ago. They stored them here at my house because they were headed back east to do business so I get to drop the work off to them now that they are back. Yahoo!

...just for scale

2010-08-05T00:53:00.001-07:00

Just for scale...
This is a better pic of one of the 6"x 6" paintings in it's frame. I put the business card in there to give it some scale which was suggested by a good friend. I've grown to love the 6x6 masonite panels. They give you a bit more room to play with compared to a 5"x 7". I bought a large 4'x8' sheet of untempered masonite and cut up my initial 5"x 5", 5" x 7" and 6"x 6" panels on my table saw. Trust me, you get a heck of a lot of panels from a full sheet of masonite. I think I had cut about 60 or 70 panels...told you it was a lot.

You need untempered masonite to paint on. It is lighter in color than tempered masonite. Tempered masonite is impregnated with oil to make it water resistant. Tempered masonite is also much darker in color. If you paint on the tempered masonite the oil will eventually leach it's way through your gesso and into your paint so buy untempered masonite....put on at least 2 coats of gesso...I put on 3. For most of my larger masonite panels, 8"x 10" & up, I glue on preprimed canvas. I will only paint up to 12"x16" with masonite because it starts to get heavy in sizes over that. When you add your frame the weight starts to become a consideration when hanging it...especially on drywall which is what almost all new houses have. I sold a 12"x 36 painting of sunflowers and the combination of larger masonite and a thick wood frame was a bit much...man, that puppy was heavy!! I hope their house is still standing.

Why panel?....well forn the one main great reason...it is so easy to frame panel compared to stretched canvas. You lay it in the slots on the back of your frame and use a brad (framers points) stapler to lock the painting in place. Takes 10 seconds. With stretched canvas there is always that part of the canvas sticking out too far in back if the rabbit on the frame is shallow. Rabbit? The slot you stick your painting into in the back of any frame is called the rabbit. Some frames have a deep rabbit & some have a shallow rabbit. Depends on how thick your frame is. Shallow rabbits make your stretcher bars stick out in back and do all the contact with the walls....not the frame. You have to consider this stuff when ordering frames. Also...you have to predrill pilot holes for your screws that will hold the brackets to keep the painting in place. When you paint on panels none of this applies....which is why I love panels!

Framed Small Paintings

2010-08-04T17:30:00.001-07:00

Jerry's Artarama, an online art supply store that I use, had a great sale on these small wooden frames. I think they were like $6. per frame. I ordered some to see how these little 5x7's and 6x6's would look. I was happily surprised at how nice they look once they were framed. The wood frames are a natural wood finish with just a light varnish on them. They look very nice in these guys.

Ridge Trail

2010-08-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

"Ridge Trail"

6" X 6" Oil on Canvas
Finished this up last night in between working on some canvases that do not fit their frames. Running back and forth to the garage, sit and paint, run to garage, check frame etc...no fun. I like this type of scene and as always enjoy adding a trail in there. Tried to add taller grasses in this one too but now wish I had just went another third to their size...I'll leave that for the next painting.

$115.00

Breaking Storm

2010-08-02T01:26:00.000-07:00

"Breaking Storm"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
This storm was from last Winter as we drove down to Santa Barbara on Coast Hwy 101. This storm lasted about a week or two if I remember correctly. This was the last day of any rains from it and everyone was glad to see it finally roll over the mountains and let the ground dry up. The day before we had made this same drive and it was raining so hard here that we slowed to barely moving. A lot of cars pulled off the road and just stopped to wait it out. As we arrived in Santa Barbara the radio announced flash flood warnings for that very area. Lost of water coming in off the Pacific Ocean.

Here is a shot of the painting being completed. I was using my small pochade box to paint it on since I have yet to rig up something for very small paintings on the big easel.

$115.00

Road to Foxen Canyon

2010-07-30T13:05:00.001-07:00

"Road to Foxen Canyon"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
This little downhill is actually a paved road but I wanted dirt...and it's my painting so you know how that goes. On the left-hand side at the bottom of this road is the Firestone Vineyard...yep, the tire company. On the right-hand side and up just a bit is the Fess Parker Vineyard...yep, Daniel Boone...well, Disney's Daniel Boone. He recently passed away and that was a shame because he was a very well respected man around here. Mention Fess Parker and you bring a lot of smiles to a lot of people. I like this view over Foxen Canyon. If you ever get a chance to drive through Foxen Canyon it is well worth the trip.

$115.00

Moonrise Near Adobe Creek

2010-07-29T00:51:00.001-07:00

"Moonrise Near Adobe Creek"

6"x 6" Oil on Panel
Another view over my neighbors field. The distant mountain range are the Figueroa mountains. In the mornings I can see the grasses on them but by late afternoon they turn some very wonderful colors of blue....the clouds pink up and it makes for a very nice time of day.

$115.00

Gaviota

2010-07-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

"Gaviota"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
Above the bluffs lining the coast near Gaviota are these wonderful grassy fields. I was there not long ago and enjoyed the bright sun and wonderful colors of the coastline. Eucalyptus trees grow up on the bluffs and bring some nice dark shades of color to the pale greens of the grasses.
$115.00

Summer In California

2010-07-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

"Summer In California"

5" X 7" Oil on Canvas
I've just arrived back from Oregon and wanted to get a new one posted on here. The trip to Coos Bay went well and I managed to get a few posted while on the road but our time was pretty much spent driving and taking care of things we needed to get done up there. I'm hoping to get caught up with my usual life now that I am back home. This painting shows what I think I saw a lot of while on my trip...brown summer grasses that California has plenty of.

$100.00

Goleta

2010-07-08T23:35:00.000-07:00

"Goleta Skies"

9" X 12" Oil on Panel

While driving back from Santa Barbara I saw these massive clouds from a storm blowing in from a Pacific ocean storm over the mountains near Goleta. I grabbed my camera and snapped pics to work from later. I added just enough foreground too give the skies some scale and was happy with my end result.

Clouds Over Chalk Hill

2010-07-08T07:13:00.000-07:00

"Clouds Over Chalk Hill"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel
I've painted this scene a few times since it is looking over my neighbors hillside. The clouds in this one came from a pretty good storm we had. As soon as it had stopped raining I ran out to snap pictures of the clouds as the blew out of the valley.

$130.00

Carrizo Plain Bloom

2010-07-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

"Carrizo Plain Bloom" 6" X 8" Oil on Panel

This scene is of the Carrizo Plain which runs parallel to the San Joaqin Valley. You can see the San Andreas fault here quite easily since there is very little erosion from the slight rains here. The fault has been photographed from the air here many times because it is so evident running along the east side of the plain. Very cool place.

On The Easel

2010-07-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

"At The Foothills"

24" X 36" Oil on Canvas
I've been working on this piece for the last 3 days. This is a scene at the foothills along the north side of the Santa Ynez valley. The mountains are the Figueroas and are about 10 minutes from my house. I did this painting from a reference photo I took in the evening about 2 years ago. I love the warm earth tones you get in the evening, probably my favorite light. This painting is at the stage where I have called it "done" which means it will sit for the next 2 or 3 days and I'll take another look to see if there is some part of it that could use a touch up.

Moonrise

2010-06-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

"Moonrise"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel

I wish I could have taken a better pic of this painting but I have a large painting sitting on my easel and it's in the way. I take my pics there because I use daylight bulbs at the easel and they help take better pics without having to adjust the colors too much. This sky looks much better in person and I was really happy with the outcome of this one.

$100.00

Santa Ynez Twilight

2010-06-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

"Santa Ynez Twilight"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
Who could resist taking a long walk on a nice winding trail through the grasses in the valley in evening light. Great sunset skies and maybe a deer or two out grazing. We have deer who jump over our neighbors fence to eat her roses. She bangs cake pans at them to scare them off. The deer look at her like she's crazy, haha. There is a farm close by that grows hay and you can see the deer "en mass" out there in the evening having their banquet.
This painting was done primarily to play with painting in the trail. I like adding thick pure paint to create the texture suggesting the loose kicked up dirt...the little specks of highlights...I think I'll paint one with a big trail in it. Did one a while ago so maybe it's time to do one again.

Lupine and Oak

2010-06-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

"Lupine and Oak"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel

A study using some colors I tend to enjoy using quite a bit. I like nice rich dark greens and ochres. The distant mountain is a very nice greyed down violet which even though it isn't a large area on the canvas it really intensifies the depth in this little painting. I'm starting to find the challenge of painting a large scene in a very small canvas pretty fun.

Sap Green

2010-06-22T15:31:00.000-07:00

"Sap Green Sketch"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
Horrible title but basically this is a sketch I did to try out some old sap green paint I had. I was recently discussing it with a fellow painter and realised I hadn't used it in over 17 years. I was a bit rusty with it but it's in there and eventually things started coming back on using that particular color.

Evening Skies

2010-06-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

"Evening Skies"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
A sketch done to work out sky colors and adding soft pinkish clouds that happen with evening scenes. I like these clouds when I see them and wanted to do some since I hadn't in a while. The vertical format is also fun working with.

Going Large

2010-06-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

On The Easel This Morning.....

Just wanted to show what some of these small daily paintings lead to. This painting is still being worked on and is not finished. Not all will be used as a reference sketch for larger pieces but some have. This one is one of them. This is a big 22" X 30" piece. I really liked the color combination of the background and dark oak tree. It's a simple composition but to me that simplicity was what enhanced the painting. This one is about mood, atmosphere and color. I'm still working on the grasses and the highlights on the oak tree so it has a few more hours headed it's way.
If you look to the right of the larger painting you can see the smaller original sketch that I worked from. I added some additional background oaks to promote some distance since this would be much larger and have the room for it. I wanted the feel of those oaks being just over the sloping hillside so there are no trunks on them. Overall and with a little more tweaking this should end up pretty well.

***Click on the image for a larger view***

Glazed

2010-06-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Previous painting now glazed...5" X 7"

Occasionally I like to look over my drying paintings and pic one to experiment with glazing. I wasn't crazy about some of the colors in this painting so it made a good choice for doing a bit of glazing on. I use me medium mixed with just a dab of Indian Yellow and simply brush it on over the entire painting. To darken it up a bit you can add some red or alizarin crimson but AC is a very intense pigment and you barely put any of that color note into your mix or it will overpower the Indian Yellow. I like the aged look it brings to your painting and it is a great and very easy way to enhance the color harmony of a painting.

By glazing your original colors still show through but with a nice warm glow. Although you can't really see it well here, the blues in the sky are still blue in the painting but now are just warmed a bit. Sometimes a painting is too stark, pale in color or just too strong in colors and glazing is a way to dull down that overall look. You can brush on very light coats of glaze and then let dry a few days and come back and apply another coat of glaze to slowly bring your painting to where you like it. You can also try glazing with other colors too. It's a very old technique and brings a fresh look to your body of work.

Days End

2010-06-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

"Days End"

6" X 7" Oil on Panel
I painted this one late last night before bed. This is a scene looking across my neighbors field to the ridge across the way just before sunset. I wanted that orange-ee glow on the trees. I think I got some of it but could have pushed it some more. I also wanted to get much looser on the foreground grasses. When I finished this piece I stepped back and noted not only it's plein air look but also immediately felt it reminded me of a Ted Goerschner painting but with less Goerschner color. I'm in no way up to par with Goerschner but little things about this one reminds me of his work. I think in that trying to keep loose and work fast I departed a bit from my norm which is good because it is good to venture out at times and see what happens. Most of the paintings on this Blog, these small works, are for that very purpose. Trying different color combinations, brush work, ideas, composition experiments. That's how you evolve.

Mustard on Chalk Hill

2010-06-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

"Mustard On Chalk Hill"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
At the end of our street is a field that looks south across the Santa Ynez Valley. The view from the Chalk Hill area is one I have really grown to love. When the weather changes I am never far from my camera. The changes in weather or in seasons usually bring awesome vistas over the valley. This scene was back at the beginning of Spring when the mustard began to bloom here in California. This years mustard was incredible and even the drive along the freeway was a steady stream of mustard and other wildflowers.

Meadows Edge

2010-06-11T15:19:00.001-07:00

"Meadows Edge"

5" X 7" Oil on Panel
At an Army reunion back in July I made some nice hiles around the Kansas countryside since we were staying at a ranch of one of the guys I served with. This little meadow bordered his ranch and the neighbors ranch. I was out eploring with my friend and taking reference photos. The area we were at was called the Flint Hills and had some awesome properties. If it weren't for tornados Kansas would be a great place to live....they probably feel the same way about earthquakes.

Full Sail

2010-06-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

"Full Sail"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
Ok...graduations are over and the yard is good and mowed...time to get back to painting. I did this one after family that had been up for graduation was over. The last of them left this afternoon so once things were back in order here I managed to get this little painting on the easel. I wanted to paint water and went for this sketch. I added the boat because the composition looked boring. Had this been a larger piece I would have made the water rougher and kept it just primarily a water scene. I really need to brush up on water and this sketch was a good start.

Sundown Trail

2010-06-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

"Sundown Trail"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
This is a study on low light and contrasts. Sometimes you are just out to experiment with your paints...test ideas on a canvas or panel, trying ideas in your head and nothing more. This little study was done with little time to paint do to conflicting errands and family commitments. It's good to try and paint everday and most of the time I do but some days you are left with an hour or two in the wee hours when everyone has gone to bed, haha, so you have to make use of it before even that time has gone.

Oak Sketch

2010-06-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

"Oak Sketch"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
I painted this one this morning just to put something up on this blog. I've been busy working on a larger piece and it's been a while since I've worked very large at all. It takes a little while for me to paint large the way I paint small, hahaha. I was using the new Utrecht paints I had recently bought on the large painting but wanted to try them out on one of my daily small paintings to see how they handled. I was already more than happy...almost giddy, with the great greens these Utrecht paints make. I'm using Cad Yellow Light, Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson to make my greens and these honestly work as good as Winsor Newton paints....mainly, the WN Cad Yellow Pale. Using the Utrecht colors I was able to easily mix my favorite greens and they were rich colors....I'm very happy with the Utrecht paints so I'm really glad I gave them a try. Another nice thing is they are pretty affordable paints.

Nocturne

2010-06-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

"Nocturne Green and Blue"

6" X 6" Oil on Panel
Wanted to try a nocturne again. Nocturnes are always fun to paint. I wish I had taken a better picture of this one because the grasses don't show as well here. Still, it's a good image of what was painted. Funstuff!

On The Truck Trail

2010-05-31T23:16:00.001-07:00

"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

2010-05-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-26T11:59:00.001-07:00

"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

2010-05-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-24T11:41:00.001-07:00

"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

2010-05-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

"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

2010-05-12T10:13:00.001-07:00

"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