Thursday, April 23, 2015

Firestone Vineyard

"Firestone Vineyard"
18"x24" Oil on Canvas
It was time to do another vineyard scene so I searched through my reference photos and found some vineyard shots taken at the Firestone vineyard in Foxen canyon. The main house on the vineyard is just off to the left of this scene. I didn't include it because it is a wonderful older house that I feel needs it's own painting using it as the main point of interest. I was told the house came from Santa Maria and was brought down to the Firestone location years ago. The colors are a bit off, I think, from my actual painting and this photo. The difference is due to my lack of being a better photographer....you could write volumes on taking good photos of paintings. This photo is close though. This painting would look good in a gold frame or even a nice dark wood frame.

I'm actually not a big fan of vineyard painting. I'm not crazy about the bright greens and yellows of the vineyard against the muted colors of the hillsides around here....I know, I'm crazy. Just a personal feeling about it and I'm allowed that. I'd rather catch the sublime colors of the landscape in the evenings or mornings on the central coast or try to get better painting the ocean. Still, I'd like to paint better vineyard scenes so more of these will happen. I think I'm in search of a way to paint them and marry them to my sublime look of the hillsides and oaks. Painting has so many challenges to it. The vineyards are now in their full bore growing time with lots of new green leaves so I will hunt down some new scenes to paint.

2 comments:

Marian Fortunati said...

What a nice visit. I haven't dropped by in a while and thoroughly enjoyed your ruminations.

Of course I always enjoy your paintings. -- So if you're not fond of vineyard paintings, why do you want to paint them?

Ron Guthrie said...

Hi Marian,
How nice of you to drop by to this old blog of mine. I'm honored Marian! You know, your work has really excelled over the years. I've seen a couple of paintings you've done that were coastal pieces and you really blew me away!
I am painting some vineyard scenes at one of my gallery owners request. The ones I had here at the studio sold during studio tours and the others are at the gallery in Pasadena. These, I hope, will go to the N. Carolina gallery.
Thanks a bunch for stopping by Marian!!