end of summer

Here it is - the end of summer in the air, shorter day length, time change just around the corner.
Spent a week at the cabin and 5 days in Loleta. The stars really aligned for this and we had a great trip from the Sierras to Humboldt County, visits with family that live nearby and a wonderful birthday celebration.
I was fortunate enough to attend a 3-day painting retreat with Jim McVicker in Loleta, CA. The workshop was held at the Morris Graves Foundation - a true jewel and magical place in the foothills above Loleta - a beautiful lake surrounded by 150 private acres with old growth forest.
A lovely small group of people and time to paint all day. Jim is an amazing painter and a kind, easy-going teacher.  Watching him paint was a real lesson.

It's daunting to be in a new environment and paint on the spot. The darkness of the trees, the incredible reflections and changing surface of the lake, the foggy-change-to-blue sky, the variety of greens - I could have used a week in such a beautiful place. But I am grateful to have had the experience and the time I did.

so here are some of my efforts:

dark water, 9"x12" oil on panel

I made a big mess of this, starting just before lunch, and coming back to changed light. Tried to rescue it and even though it's dark it seems to work now.

duck weed, 9"x12" oil on panel

bright contrast of yellow-green duck weed floating/moving on dark reflective water

morris graves house, 9"x12" oil on panel

view from across the lake, still needs work - good comments in our critique about this painting from Jim, so I know where to go with it.

the lake 9"x12" oil on panel

taking advice from Jim about stronger color and bolder strokes, watching as he pushed the blue reflections on the water really helped.

There is one more I just barely started - of Morris's small house that he lived in while the bigger residence and studio were being built. I'll get to finishing it (from memory) soon.

closing august

The end of summer is in the air - along with smoke and haze from several big local wildfires. I have some new and familiar work up at Marcia Burtt Gallery in the 'On Paper' show. Great reception last friday for the varied and interesting exhibition.
Work will be coming down soon from the Easton Gallery, though a few pieces will remain on view.

I am part of an exciting new project with 5 other local women artists - Connie Connally, Holli Harmon, Libby Smith, Nicole Strasburg and Pamela Zwehl-Burke. The working title is "a river's journey". We are scheduled for an exhibition at the Wildling Museum in October 2017. We all work in gouache and have chosen this as a medium that links our work. We are looking at the Santa Ynez River watershed - from Jameson Lake to the ocean at Surf Beach. There is much to observe in between - the wilderness, Cachuma Lake, the farmland and vineyards, towns, ranches, recreational and agricultural use of the river as it makes its way through the Santa Ynez Valley - particularly in this time of extreme drought. We plan to work on site in as many places as we can, bring images into our studios and create our own interpretation of this incredible landscape. Stay tuned.

We started at Lake Cachuma, which was very depressing yet still beautiful. Just a channel of water that runs through layers of vegetative strata.

cachuma receding, 4"x3" gouache on paper

behind the dam, 3"x4" gouache on paper


after a week of burning along the river, the Rey fire moved into the back country. Libby and I went to East Camino Cielo to see what it looked like - a lot of low drifting smoke and amazing lines of red fire-retardent along the ridge lines.

drift smoke, rey fire, 4"x4" gouache on paper

august summer

squeezed in a few monday paint sessions with my pal Libby between her travels and mine, then off for some time in the sierras.

bird refuge, oil on panel 8"x8"
a morning study. overcast and chilly when we started, then the sun and wind came up. 

lake los carneros, oil on panel, 8"x8"
another view from the same spot - simplifying the composition and colors.

not as much time to paint at the cabin this time - a couple of un-resolved oils and these two gouaches as well as a couple starts I'm still working out.

sunlit small fir, gouache on paper, 3 1/2"x 4"

clouds and lake, gouache on paper, 4"x6"

more july

Yet another heat wave followed by mornings of marine-layer grey. I've been working both in the studio and outside in oil and gouache. Tough to work outside with water media when it is so hot and dry.

Some of my gouache pieces will be in the invitational show "On Paper" at Marcia Burtt's Laguna street Gallery. This show will open on August 26 and run through October 2. Great group of artists to be included with.

coastal agaves
3"x4"

to fernald point, 4"x4"
overcast morning walk - my usual route

early moonrise, sedgwick 4"x4" 

that nearly full moon that comes up when the sun is still hitting the hillsides with bright light. 
this was done after an oil study painted on site.

spring, from figueroa mountain, 3"x4"

view looking down a canyon toward the coastal range beyond.

sedgwick pond, 3 1/2"x4"

this one was done on a small, lightly gessoed, balsa-wood panel that Rick Stitch gave me to try. Interesting surface for gouache.


some recent oils from monday plein air painting sessions:

7/18 lake los carneros - ocean view, oil on panel, 8"x8"

7/25 lake los carneros - mountain view, oil on panel, 8"x8"

bluffs looking toward IV, oil on panel, 8"x10"

midsummer july

summer time for travel - from the desert (Scottsdale, AZ) to the mountains (Sierras) and the sea (back home again). So much beautiful landscape and endless things to discover. Not as much time to paint in the middle of it all.

Opening reception for the Santa Paula Art Museum, 'Art of Aviation' show was fun - I will also have a piece in the nearby Aviation Museum.

The SCAPE show for the Surfrider Foundation (at the Faulkner Gallery) is filled with paintings of the local coast, including six of my pieces - 4 oils and 2 gouaches. This will be up until the end of the month.

I'll have a small gouache in the Palm Loft Gallery for the Carpinteria Bluffs fundraiser, opening this coming weekend.

And if you happen to see the latest issue of California Fly-Fisher magazine, I am the featured artist on the "Art of Angling" page. Pretty fun! 

Here are some new gouaches from my time in the mountains:

meadow edge, 4"x4"

sad to see so many dead trees - victims of drought, beetles and fungus.

old/new
3"x4"





i've painted this old stump and the new fir coming up next to it many times - something about it always gets my attention.

sierra post-office, 4"x4"

great old building serving the local population near the cabin.

june gloom II

we had a wonderful long 'girls' weekend in Pine Mountain - good company of 4 other women artist friends, good food and a good dose of sunshine.
we worked every day, morning session and after lunch.
all the other gals worked with gouache and I stubbornly kept at it with oils, wishing all the time I had brought my gouache kit. oh well.

fern lake morning, 8"x10"

lake path, 6"x8"

sagebrush, 6"x8" 

tall pine, 6"x8"

bright morning, 6"x12"

june gloom

Drippy, gray skies working their way through June. 
Had a great escape to the Sierras with a diversion to Humboldt county for a few days for family celebrations. Nice to see a different landscape and do some painting in a different environment.

loleta alley, gouache, 2 1/2"x 3 1/2"

forest view, oil on panel, 10"x10"

new trees, oil on panel, 8"x10"


NEW EXHIBITIONS:

I have some recent work currently on view at the Palm Loft Gallery, Carpinteria in the "Make Hay While the Sun Shines" show including this small gouache as well as Sedgwick Ranch House and Barn from previous posts. Show runs from June 11 - July 17.

hay bales, gouache, 2"x3"


Coming up next month at the Santa Paula Art Museum is the "Art and Aviation" juried show,  July 16 - October 16. I have 'plane air landscape' - my continuing fascination with contrails and how they create a modern skyscape - something Turner or Monet would have never imagined.

oil on canvas, 26"x26"


And also coming up in July - I was accepted into the California State Fair Fine Art competition (180 works chosen from 1200 entries) - pretty exciting. This will be on view in Sacramento from July 8 - 24.

pinnacles path, oil on panel, 16"x20"


some new gouaches currently in the Easton Gallery show:

low tide, above haskell's, 2 1/2"x 3 1/2"

contrails, 4"x 4"