Christmas Eve after the Thomas Fire

December 4 was the beginning of the Thomas Fire, outside of Santa Paula. It raged from behind the Fillmore area, into Ventura, the Ojai area, the coastal enclaves of Faria, La Conchita and into Carpinteria. In the meantime consuming much of the Los Padres National Forest back country, Sespe, Matilija and the Santa Ynez River watershed behind Montecito and Summerland. Wind and 7 years of drought conditions, kept pushing it along through the Santa Barbara front country and the Montecito foothills. It has become the largest recorded fire in California History. As of this writing, they are looking at full containment around January 7.
Life took detours or changed forever for much of the population. I look out at a bare Montecito Peak - like a moonscape - just dirt and ash.
A lot of things were put on hold, a few carried on and life is slowly coming back to it's senses for Christmas. But a sober Christmas indeed.

Santa Paula Art Museum bravely stayed open with the "Art about Agriculture" show. I could not attend the artist's talk, as by then we were in evacuation mode. Please show local support by stopping by the museum and seeing the show.


Sullivan-Goss Gallery pushed on with a smokey First Thursday opening for the 100 Grand Invitational Exhibit. 








small fir
gouache on archival board
3"x4"

This year I had one of my paintings printed for Christmas cards:










low creek
gouache
3"x3"




The Westmont 5"x5" Invitational will include the following piece for their fund-raising online auction. This will open in January.

lake
gouache on board
5"x5"




Art is a refuge in times of hardship and uncertainty - it carries hope and beauty.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a New Year without Fire, ash and smoke.

December Daze

The beginning of the end of 2017 - so much time spent getting ready for the Rose Compass exhibition at the Wildling. Choosing, editing, adjusting, finishing, matting, framing, printing and trying to keep our momentum going. As we get closer to the February open date, it's getting really exciting. A huge effort on many levels - it should be a great show with interesting and beautiful work and a real message about our water resources and the Santa Ynez River watershed. Here are some outliers from my work of the last year:

from figueroa mountain 
gouache
3"x5"

the lake below, oil on panel, 9"x12"

tamarisk - santa ynez river at live oak campground, oil on canvas, 60"x40"

Finally Fall

Here it is, end of October and we're just coming off 103 degree weather. Much cooler at last now that we are nearly at Halloween.

Closed up the cabin for winter, hoping for another good snowfall year.

Last full moon at the lake - smokey, cloudy:

moon, dusky night, oil on panel 8"x10"


Went to visit family in Humboldt. Terrible fires in Napa and Sonoma counties - Santa Rosa is a tragedy - all the smoke changed the timing of my visit. Did get to sit and look at the view from the house and get a little gouache done.

King's Peak from Honeydew, 5"x7"


Back to Monday painting, Libby and I went to Paradise Camp. The River is completely dry, and sycamores are barely turning color.

Riverbank Sycamore, oil on panel, 9"x12"



Working hard to finish work for "The River's Journey" - we got good coverage in the PleinAir Today Newsletter, October 18th online newsletter: www.art@streamlinepublishinginc.com

"1 year, 6 women, 92 miles" is our tag-line. You can also get information from the Wildling Museum's website:
www.wildlingmuseum.org and of course our website: www.rose-compass.com

Some of the latest work for the project:

dry riverbed, Alisal bridge, gouache, 3"x10 3/4"

yurt view, Cachuma lake, gouache, 3"x5"

flowers and bees, Lompoc, gouache, 4"x4"


I'll be showing a painting in the annual juried Santa Paula Art Museum "Art about Ag" show, opening on November 11.

old dairy barn, Loleta  oil on panel, 10"x20"


And coming up in December, the annual "100 Grand" invitational holiday show at Sullivan-Goss, as well as the "5x5 invitational" at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum.

Fall equinox

Yes, Fall is in the air, even though today it's in the high 70's. Doing some studio time catch up and getting outside a bit. Re-visiting the Arroyo Burro open space and a Monday trip to Dos Pueblos Ranch.

This weekend (almost over) is the ArtWalk at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. I have 3 oil paintings in the show, which features the Oak Group as the main attraction.
Also did a fun workshop with Meredith Abbott, painting still-life. 
Here's work from the field:

honey locust, 9"x12" oil on panel

locust tree, arroyo burro 9"x12"

black cows, DP ranch, 8"x10" oil on panel

september smoke

spending a couple of weeks in the Sierras - fires burning in Sequoia and Yosemite, thunderstorms, lots of chainsaw noise followed by enormous thumps of falling logs as crews clear dead trees from the last many years of drought.
it's unnerving, but managing the forest is important for the health of the forest.



There's been time to catch up on The River's Journey project as well - I'll post more on the Rose-compass.com site.
Can't resist the small buildings:

'women'
santa rosa park
gouache
4"x6"

bees and flowers, lompoc, gouache, 4"x4"

SYR, from santa rosa road
gouache 
3"x5"

farm horse, gouache, 2"x4"

where did august go?

thought the dog days of summer were behind us now, but we are suffering through a late summer heat wave. August was busy with seemingly endless home projects and thankfully, some painting time. Finally got up to the mountains - hot, smokey weather, but a chance to catch up on unfinished work for the Rose Compass group. The Whittier fire was a big event and affected the watershed in a big way, especially around Cachuma lake.

burn to the lake, gouache, 3"x5"

dry river bed, alisal, gouache, 3"x10 3/4"

I currently have two paintings at Palm Loft Gallery - open until September 17th.

Bye July

spent the last weekend in July in Carmel as part of a workshop with Marc Dalessio - an artist I have long admired and who doesn't do many workshops on the west coast. He is a real master and brought his way of looking at things and building a painting. Always something new to learn. A new palette of color, learning to mix more color with those basics, looking at composition and design of the picture, and how values work against each other - these were just a few things to consider.
we were working in a new preserve area, Palo Corona Ranch, right near the coast, so fog was an issue the first day. we got lucky with sun coming out early the next 2 days.
these are what they are, as done on site. I haven't gone in to fix anything yet.

old barn, 9x12 oil on panel

road up the hill, 9x12 oil on panel

barn view from above, 9x12 oil on panel

view to the sea, 9x12 oil on panel

dry grass trail, 9x12 oil on panel

open space

good to be back out painting locally - it's cooler, with morning marine layer, near the beach and inland with all the fires - now in clean-up stage - it's downright hot and muggy. so rather than going to the watershed, we checked out a new spot, arroyo burro open space park. 

We started early and fog moved out as we worked, so I tried to get 2 quick studies done.

hazy morning, arroyo burro,  9"x12" oil on panel

mid-day, arroyo burro, 8"x10" oil on panel

summer mid-july

summer and it's attendant behaviors - fire, heat and wind. 
spent some time in the sierras - a bit of painting time and just being in the forest. some quick oil studies at 9000' in the high country.

old forest service cabin, kaiser ridge
oil on panel 
5"x7"

old man tree
oil on panel
5"x7"

early moonrise, smokey sky 
oil on panel 
5"x7"

pine point, from the lake
oil on panel
5"x7"








and a small gouache of a local boat rental shack:

boat shack, 
gouache on paper
4"x6"





I have some work up in the annual Semana Nautica art show at the Cabrillo Arts center, juried by Ralph Waterhouse. I won an honorable mention for 'beached boat'.
This show will be up through July 30.

beached boat, gouache on paper, 3"x6"

low tide, haskell's beach
gouache on paper 
3"x4"

mendocino coast, gouache on paper, 4"x4"



The Easton Gallery will close at the end of the month - current show on view until July 30 

summer solstice

longest day of summer - bit of a hot spell with some leftover morning fog. enjoyed an overnight trip to cuyama - very warm and very different landscape from earlier in the spring.

salisbury ranch poppies, gouache, 3"x5"


I'm also continuing to work on the river project - focusing on some larger oil paintings.

moonrise at cachuma, oil on canvas, 15"x30"

gloomy june

travel and time away from home often mean time away from the studio and painting outdoors. a week in the sierras, opening the cabin, was mostly work - only one small gouache to show for it.

snow bank
3"x6"




this is another image I keep coming back to - old tree stump with a young fir tree growing next to it. I've painted this at least 6 or 7 times.

some some great shows on travel as well - san francisco had the matisse/diebenkorn show at sfmoma - a fantastic, inspiring exhibit, and early monet at the legion of honor (full of surprises and beautiful painting). 
a trip to denver had some surprising, elegant work by mark bradford, a great clifford still exhibit and some wonderful landscapes by both well-known and lesser-known early 20th painters.

coming back to the studio, i had time to work on a couple of starts from last month:

pool at white rock, oil on panel, 8"x10"

ranch view, oil on panel, 8"x16"


still currently on view:

out of place, westmont/ridley-tree museum

easton gallery, final exhibition