Meadow Study

"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

"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

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

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

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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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.