october sierras

spent a week at the cabin in the central sierras - closing up for winter and enjoying the peace and quiet. weather is still warm and mild, though there was a hopeful bit of rain.
went out to catch some of the local fall color - brush, willow and aspen, ferns and sedges - hiking about with a small, portable kit.

lower line creek, 3"x3" gouache on paper 

attic window view, 3"x3" gouache on paper

bracken fern, 3"x3" gouache on paper

aspen patch, 3"x3" gouache on paper


Also started on new work from a day trip to the santa ynez river with the 'rose compass' group. we will be posting our work on a new website soon. there are 6 of us working toward a show at the Wildling Museum next year about the Santa Ynez river watershed.

Currently at the Wildling is a beautiful exhibit from the SCAPE group, "Places of the Heart" which will be up until the 23rd of October. Juror Eric Merrill chose a very strong show. 

I have a small painting from Figueroa mountain included:

spring ridge view, 8"x8" oil on panel  sold


And, two paintings, an oil and a gouache at Gallery 113 for the "Los Padres Forest Watch" show, done earlier this spring:

figueroa spring, oil on panel 6"x12"

view from figueroa, 3"x4" gouache on paper

september heat wave

we have gone beyond 'indian summer' at this point. 95 degree weather, ferocious sun-downer winds and an odd tropical front that blew us off the beach last monday. goleta slough normally has a decent flow of water moving in and out, but now is quite depleted, even when the tide is up.

low water, goleta slough, 9"x12" oil on panel

east beach wetlands, 3"x 4 1/2" gouache on paper 
from earlier in the month, watching all the water birds including an osprey, enjoy the beach.

lake and clouds II, 3"x 4 1/2" gouache on paper
finished up from last trip to the cabin


This weekend (september 24-25) I have a oil painting in the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum's annual 'Art Walk' - Artists of Distinction'  indoor show. Also 7 new gouaches on the wall at Easton Gallery.

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.