monday plein-air painting gets me outside, plus a lot to catch up on in the studio. we've been out to paint the amazing wild-flowers blooming at figueroa mountain - an impossibility, I think - all those colors: cadmium orange poppies, cobalt blue/violet lupine and cadmium yellow light daisies. not to mention all the tinies: whites, pinks, yellows and lavenders that get lost in the intense greens.
there have also been some great days at the beach, the botanic garden, santa paula airport and some travels up north. my husband and I did a great road trip on highway 1 all the way from san luis obispo to eureka in humboldt county - stopping in carmel, bodega bay, little river, fort bragg, and loleta. many great painting spots along the way. stopped in san francisco on the way home and saw the extraordinary pierre bonnard show at the legion of honor. very inspiring with his amazingly brilliant use of color.
doing some work for upcoming SCAPE shows, including gaviota coast fundraiser at bacara, surfrider foundation and the wildling museum.
haskell's wave, oil on panel, 9"x12"
the following are all about 2-3 hour paintings, done on site. the idea is to get the composition, light and color and then develop the painting a bit more in the studio.
low tide, campus point, oil on panel, 8"x10"
study for low tide, haskell's, oil on panel, 8"x10"
foggy morning study, hammond's, oil on panel, 6"x8"
final completion in the studio:
creek @hammonds
oil on panel
10"x16"
coming up at the santa paula art museum -'art and aviation'. they sponsered a couple of paint-outs at the santa paula airport -great historic and antique aircraft and a great place to paint.
line-up, santa paula airport, oil on panel, 10"x16"
tiger moth
oil on panel
6"x8"
I've been fascinated by contrails lately - it's a change of seeing the sky. certainly not the stately, energetic clouds of early 20th c. landscape painting.
'plane air' landscape, oil on canvas, 26"x26"
one of the paintings from figueroa mountain, after I completely changed the format of the composition:
spring bloom, oil on panel, 6"x12"
I have also been working a lot with gouache - such a great medium - where I can work quickly on site, in a smaller scale. I can continue to develop the paintings until they are "right" in the studio, where I work more with a photograph, primarily as a reminder of the values and light.
sb botanic
gouache on paper
4"x6"
datura, gouache on paper, 4"x4"
I continue to have this fascination with beached boats - and seem to run across them wherever I go. some have been relegated to useless, some are true shipwrecks and others just waiting on the shore.
waiting, catalina, gouache on paper, 4"x4"
high and dry, gouache on paper, 4"x4"
beached sailboat, gouache on paper, 4"x6"
