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