The Douglas Preserve

"Morning Shadows at the Wilcox Property"

18"x24" Oil on Canvas

This painting of mine is now at the Reinert Gallery in South Carolina. I shipped it there not long ago and am hoping it goes to a good home. This painting was painted here in the studio and came out quite well. Of course it helps a lot when you have a great view to begin with. The Douglas Preserve, which is also called the Wilcox Property in Santa Barbara is a beautiful place. If you are ever in Santa Barbara please do yourself a favor and visit this local haunt....it is really breathtaking. I will go back here and get some more reference photos, maybe do some sketching too. We'll see! 

Eaton Canyon

 Eaton Canyon Sunset

12"x36" Oil on Wood Panel

 

I painted this back in 2012. I felt it was done and set it aside to dry. After a while it had gotten covered up by a few other paintings that were drying but then never framed so there they sat blocking this painting from site.

I liked this scene and wanted a dramatic afternoon sun scene with lots of oranges and pinks but I wanted something else too. I wasn't trying to just capture the landscape or even the color...I wanted to capture the feel of the moment...the atmosphere of it all. Painting atmosphere is a whole other deal in painting. In the progression of things painters tend to paint the scene in front of them but in doing so seem to miss the effects of light and all the stuff floating around in the air that creates atmosphere. It took me a while to see that "stuff" and it took me even longer to learn to paint it well. It's all about painting the right values, not the color, but the light and darkess of the colors. To this day I still prefer to paint atmosphere because it is really a good challenge and to me makes for a better painting. 

I think gallery owners would say no, paint color and pizazz, it catches peoples eyes and gets their attention....it's easy to sell. Those paintings really do all of that and would make a subtle atmospheric painting pale in comparison. I just can't help painting them.   

The detail of the painting above shows my attempt to capture that late afternoon sunlight filtered by the air of the canyon. Getting the light and air in front of that distant mountain ridge and balancing that look against the lower hills in the center of the painting was critical. If that didn't look right to me then there was no sense in painting in the foreground at all. Slightly darkening the tree mass to the left was a way of getting better contrast to the middle area hills....it also balanced the darks of the trees to the left side of the painting. These overlapping planes give the painting depth and adjusting the values in each plane created the illusion of atmosphere. If I continue to work with atmosphere and get it right then I think I'll be turning out some monster paintings. So, you can paint a desert or you can paint a desert in sweltering heat and make your viewers feel the sweat rolling down their forehead and long for a glass of cool water. 

California Condor Painting

My neighbor Jim and his mammoth California Condor painting

Well my neighbor Jim has finally finished his large undertaking of painting a lifesized California Condor. Out here they pretty much know each condor there is. This condor is AC3 which stands for Adult Condor #3. Unfortunately this condor was found dead in a tree and had died from lead poisoning....it goes like this, lead in bullets, people shoot rats, squirrels they die, condor eats them since a condor is a scavenger and the lead in the bullets leaches into the condors system and it kills them. It's a sad way to die for such a majestic bird.

What to do with the painting....Jim isn't sure yet. I will go back to his house soon and put the painting on sawhorses so he can sign his name to it. He's pretty proud of the painting. For a guy who has never painted before he did a fine job of it. What someone can do with determination! Bravo Jim! 

Time Off

       I haven't been painting at all lately...for about a week I think. Not that I haven't had the drive it's just that so many other things have been going on. It's good to get away from the easel. I find that even though I'm not painting I'm still thinking about it or at least planning for it.
      We've had company and a lot of yard work that needed attending. When I was gone we had some winds come through and blow down two big branches from one of our pine trees so that meant getting out the chain saws and going to town. I can finally say I'm getting way better at sharpening a chain saw. Wish I was better at getting rid of moles and ground squirrels....they think they own this place.
      I've been trying to put together a frame I want for a painting of Eaton Canyon I did a while ago. The painting was done on 12"x36" birch panel. I want an oak frame and itching to make one that has a Craftsmen look to it. I've collected pics of Craftsmen frames to get ideas...at this point I just need to get some oak to build it. I'm also in the process of scanning, photo taking and reframing all art stuff....I'm tired of the time off from painting so I hope to be painting again soon. By the way, when not painting you tend to look at other paintings by other artists and that always leads to the "I suck" attitude and the only way to fix that is to get back to painting and try and do better work....feeling that way is something I really hate! 

Coast Guard Cutter Print

 "USCGC Blackfin"

16"x20" pen & ink

Years ago I made a pen & ink drawing of a Coast Guard cutter. The drawing is done using the stippling technique...a pen & ink technique where the drawing is composed of just dots of ink...there are no straight lines....just dots. I use Koh In Noor rapidographs to do this. Rapidographs are mechanical pens that have a steel wire in the barrel that allows only one drop of ink to come out each time you press down on the paper....it's prefect for stippling.

Anyway, I was just looking at the drawing again thinking about a woman who had asked me if I had prints available of that drawing and at the time I hadn't even scanned the drawing. I used to make my early prints here in the studio. Each drawing had to be scanned in sections then put back together in photoshop...lots of clean up to the scans and then I'd print a test scan. Printing was done on an Epson 1520 wide format printer I had bought with archival inks so the prints would last. I printed on good quality hot pressed watercolor paper. I'd print about 5-10 prints and then sold the prints as people ordered them. When I needed more I'd buy more WC paper and print up another batch. Making your own prints was a lot of work and "a lot of work" is a major understatement.

I did get around to scanning the drawing but that was on an older scanner that wasn't that good to begin with. Scanners, for those of you who have only bought one in the last 10 years, used to suck on ice! Software didn't work with operating systems, bad scanning quality, lots of  "noise" in the scan...ghost lines...ugh! I'd like to rescan the whole thing now with my newer killer scanner I have. It's a scanner/copier/printer combo but scans better than any scanner I ever had in the old days!  In the detail photo you can see the scan quality...not that good, ugh!

I was thinking about finally getting to making some prints but there might be a few snags...one, my old printer and printer drivers might not work with my newer computer. I also might have a major problem finding archival inks for it since I bought the printer way back around the late 90's....you know how fast the computer world is. It's a dinosaur at this point. Damn progress!  I'll have to check some things out before I even attempt this.
 

Pick and Just Paint

I was thinking the other day that I spend way too much time going through reference photos before deciding on something I want to paint. I always start out thinking I want to paint a vineyard scene and then end up going through everything I've snapped shots of in the valley....in the end I haven't settled on anything.
I suppose I'm developing a diminising attention span. I'm not sure.

Sometimes I can talk myself out of painting a subject because I think the gallery won't take it or collectors wouldn't be interested in that subject. Even though I know the answer is just paint what you want I still will have second thoughts. I used to paint for fun only....fun was king. Then you get suggestions and they screw you all up. After just staring at this screen for 5 minutes and thinking about it maybe I sould listen to the voices....paint what you want.

I think the worse thing to paint are subjects or areas that you have no interest in. I think that is why I don't plein air paint as much as I thought I would. I've gone to several locations with other painters and walked around in search of something I wanted to paint only to find myself settling on something dull to me. What I came home with was a crummy painting and a high level of frustration. I like a good subject, plenty of time, good weather and when that's working it all clicks. Painting in the studio is a breeze....hot coffee, good tunes, no wind or bugs and no lighting problems. I find it much easier to concentrate and rarely do one that is going to end up getting scraped off. Not that they are all winners in the studio. There are always parts to a painting where I'm trying something a little different so I see progress there or feel it totally worked so I consider that a good painting....then later I'll paint another painting over it. Painting is so personal at times.   

New Brushes

Wow, received a sale catalogue from Jerry's Artarama not long ago and they had a great sale on hog hair filberts and flats. That's what I use, mostly filberts but flats are great for straight lines when doing boats, roof eaves, etc. 14 brushes for $35...not bad at all. They are cheapo brushes but with some quality in them. I don't use expensive brand name brushes since I'm pretty hard on them....so many swishes in the turpentine when cleaning them and they've had it. I've used a good brush cleaner and conditioner before but you know I don't really like spending time fixing brushes, I'd rather paint with them until they've had it and then I either keep them in a seperate can until I need that beat up brush for wild natural grasses that go every which way.
I'm not real big on buying the most expensive stuff for art since art really isn't about what you create it with....it's about what you sign your name to....not what you used to sign it. I know....lots of artists can give you all kinds of details about why they buy expensive stuff. Seems to me they are just going to pass that on to somebody and guess who that is?
Impressionist painters used to paint on wood scrapped from old packing crates when times were tough money wise...you and I can't afford one of those paintings so that's the lesson...it's not about what you use to make a painting, it's about how well that painting looks to the person who buys it or just stands there and enjoys looking at it. My French Companion I built from scrap pieces of wood in my garage and two brass plated piano hinges bought at Home Depot cost me about $6 to make and the paint for some great paintings have been mixed right there....and it still works fine and will be around loooong after I'm dead and gone and hopefully in the hands of some other painter.

 My French Companion is well seasonsed now.....

  

Hotter and My Neighbor Jim

Well, it's been getting warmer now that summer is here. I hate the heat because in the afternoons there will be no painting in the studio because it gets too hot in here. One day while I was working on the bluff painting my neighbor Jim came by. Jim is 92 now and a WW2 vet. We can both talk each others ear off. If I was going to remember Jim for anything it would be not for his part in WW2 but more for his love of nature. Jim grew up in Santa Barbara and as a kid he would ride his bike to the bottom of the mountains and then thumb a ride from anyone headed up the mountains so he could hike miles to a campsite. From there he'd watch for animals, hike more, fish and just enjoy being a kid up in the mountains surrounded by nature. Age keeps him from doing all of these things now but he can name any peak I point out here in the valley. He can describe in depth details about any area around here. Jim, more than me or anyone else I know around here, is who God created this part of California for.

So Jim comes by and tells me that before he dies, which I suppose at 92 he thinks about, he wants to paint a life sized California condor....they are very big birds. He wants me to give him advice for either stretching the canvas or just making a panel...at that size I suggest stretching canvas over a frame that he plans to build. I suggest paints, acylics, and other details for him and off he goes. A week goes by and Jim calls to tell me he'd like me to come see his setup before he stretches the canvas. Linda and I go by and he's got a frame the size of a garage door! No I'm not exaggerating. Needless to say Linda, Jim and I all tackled stretching that canvas which was actually a paint drop cloth he bought at the hardware store since he couldn't afford or find regular canvas in that size. It took us about and hour to do it. I loaned JIm my canvas pliers but we didn't use that, just pulled on it with both hands. We had my electric stapler with lots of extra staples so thank god for that! 

Right now Jim is painting that baby. Why? Because Jim has a love of nature and wants to share his love of the California condor with anyone who can't miss running into a life sized painting of a condor....that is a big painting and if I can get some shots of it when he's done I will post them. Did I mention Jim has only sketched when he was a kid growing up....never painted at all! I'm proud of his drive. Helping Jim with his goal has been the most fun in art this year for me. He needed the help and I enjoyed sharing whatever it is I could share. Fun stuff!          

Vineyard at Sunset

"Last Light"

16"x20" Oil on Canvas

Another scene of the Firestone Vineyard at sunset. The Firestone vineyard  is acres and acres of vines rolling across the Foxen canyon with a spattering of oaks. In the center is their victorian house that is either just an office or the actual living quarters for family or foreman...not sure because I've only been there once but that was for a concert they had with David Crosby and Neil Young years ago.....yeah, it was a good one and I got to meet David Crosby and the rest of his band backstage. If you ever come out to the Santa Ynez valley you need to spend a day just crusing up Foxen Canyon. The canyon is beautiful and filled with dozens and dozens of vineyards. If you like wine tasting you can spend the whole day driving up through the canyon.
I think maybe just a few small tweaks and I'll call this one done. Having fun teaching myself to paint light this way.  

Chinese Art Forgery

I was looking through eBay today and stumbled across a painting by Calvin Liang. Funny, the ad said "From China" but that couldn't be right....but it was. The painting was Calvin Liangs but according to the auction it was painted by Liu Jian...an "original oil painting" it says. WTF? I don't know if Calvin Liang knows about his work being sold on eBay by a company from China without his signature and the auction description claiming it is the painting of Liu Jian instead....that would piss me off.

Naturally I poked around after that trying to find out just how bad Chinese art forgery has become. According to people posting on eBay forums it has ruined the eBay we knew it as 10 or 15 years ago. I used to sell art prints on there all the time...made great money but things changed in the mid 2000's. After that it was almost impossible to get people to buy on there. I've sold a few paintings there, small ones when money was tight. That worked at first but the last few times I've tried that it didn't. The economy??? Forgery causing the loss of trusted eBayers??? I'm not sure but I would believe Chinese forgery hasn't helped eBay but for the life of me I can't understand a company like eBay who puts up with it. It's pretty blatant and I'm sure they've been warned by the people getting burned by it. Then I read an article about how hard it is to go after the forgers in China....http://www.cbsnews.com/news/booming-chinese-art-forging-business-hurts-us-artists/ ....
I guess what it comes down to is people want to make money...keep their corporation going and no complaining, ripped off, whiney artist is going to mess that up. It's sad to think America has become a country that doesn't protect their own people from getting screwed by foreign countries. Heck, if we allow foreigners to cut the heads off of our people why would it bother them that some artist is getting ripped off for a painting or two....or 10,000.
When I was in the service in Germany we used to brag to each other about how awesome America was compared to other countries. I wouldn't brag at all nowadays. I can't believe that America would still allow trading to go on with China at all. Imagine all of the industry that would come back to the US if we made our own steel, built our own ships, made our own shoes and clothing. You know, we used to do that stuff and it was more expensive but most of us had jobs to afford it. Of course....I'm no expert, I'm an artist.  

Shell Beach Bluffs

 "Shell Beach Bluffs"

16"x20" Oil on Canvas

North of where I live is the tiny spot along the coast called Shell Beach. It is located just north of the beach city of Pismo which is famous for it's sand dunes. Shell Beach has wonderful bluffs jutting out from the ocean and great sea caves. This painting is of the bluffs there. Actually in this image, I left it out, are some fence posts and a gazebo. I would have painted it in but I really liked that sunlight hitting the bluffs and wanted to concentrate on that in this painting. The bluffs here are just wonderful looking, maybe I'll do another with the gazebo added in. Below is a cropped section of the painting showing the mustard plant. I liked how that came out so this is a larger version of that. The best part of this painting is what it looks like when you have lights on it...it looks so cool when it's lit up...the light hitting the rocks really makes it come alive.   

A Sunset Painting

"Umpqua Sunset"

18" X 24"

Oil on Canvas

 

While travelling through Oregon back in September I was fortunate to enjoy a great sunset near the Umpqua National Forest. I was on the outskirts of the town of Green. After a quick dinner at the local Arby's I grabbed my camera and found a spot to get what I wanted on film. I created this painting working from 2 reference photos taken that evening. I only took two photos because I felt I had waited too long and the sun had set lower than I'd planned. Looking over my photo the day before yesterday I felt maybe it would work anyway since the sun was just below the mountains. Off to the easel I went. I was able to block in the sky that first night....worked off and on most of the next day and finished today....good thing since it's getting hot in the studio and it's time for dinner. 

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.

Eucalyptus and Grass

"Misty Morning Eucs"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas Covered Panel

This painting started out as just messing around cropping pictures taken of eucalytpus trees up in Nipomo, CA. One crop was just as you see, lots of grasses with the trees set high up on the picture plane. This would give me more prasctice at painting the trunks of trees and grasses. I liked the look of the scene and so I painting it. The painting is very different from my normal work but lined up along my other paintings will look pretty neat.

Painting From A Past Painting

"A Spring View"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas Covered Panel 

While I was having fun trying out paintings in the new frames we had company show up and I still had some household projects that needed to be done. So, not the time to get involved in a new painting from the ground up but I still wanted to paint. I decided to paint another version of one of my previous paintings again since they go pretty quick and should company get in the way I'd practically be done with it.
I like the painting below on my blog, "Valley Evening", so I reversed the scene and did changes to the background on it. At first I was going to put in a trail but then opted for just some stray paths intersecting but none of them being overly dominate in the foreground. I feel both paintings have lots of parts in them that I really like but areas I'd change again. That's ok, I'm used to not being satisfied with any of my paintings at this point....and besides, the point was to paint something so it worked.  

Frames Arrived

The Fun, and Worry, Of New Frames

Finally, my new frames arrived. I needed these for submitting work to a new gallery in South Carolina. I'm hoping that the new gallery works out well and I'm still connected to it this time next year. I'm very interested to see how working with a gallery over such a long distance will work out. I'm not crazy about shipping artwork back east but that's where the gallery is so no getting around that. Once all is up and running back there I'll post the info on the gallery.
    Anyway, I was glad my frames arrived and that there was no damage from having them shipped here from San Diego. It's not a great distance from San Diego to here. I have had frames arrive from the same supplier before and there was plenty of damage. I know first hand what people who load and unload trucks can do to boxes they could care less about. Its a pity some people have absolutely no pride in their work or enough integrity to do a good job no matter what job that it. I've driven trucks and I've worked on docks so I have seen plenty of these guys...and gals. Each time I order frames I'm always on edge until they are here...undamaged. If they are I will take them to my garage and fix them. I've so far always been able to do this.
    The cool thing when all is fine is to swap paintings in the new frames to see how paintings look framed up. I paint way more than I have frames for. Frames are expensive so I tend to only order what I need for a show or gallery. I live for the day when I can just call up and order a few different sizes and colors just to see what certain paintings would look like. When is that Lotto going to hit.

"Morning At The Wilcox Property"

18"x24", Oil,

This painting above looked great...even when it was drying. After varnish and putting it into this frame it looks absolutely gorgeous. This size always looks great on any wall because it's .

"Valley Evening"

12"x16", Oil

The upper painting is on stretched canvas and the lower is on canvas covered panel. I like the panels because they are a nice size to work with and don't flex like stretched canvas. Some stretching is good at times and a pain in the butt at other times. I also like the panels eas of being framed...just shoot brads into the frame behind the panel and your done...no drilling pilot holes or screwing in brackets to lock to stretched canvas in. Mega fast framing!

Nocturne....Night Trail

"Night Trail"

12"x16"

 Oil on canvas covered panel

I painted this scene about 5 or 6 years ago on a smaller canvas and decided to do a larger version. I didn't want to do a copy of my other painting becasue there were things I wanted to try out differently on this one. The nice thing about painting is over the years you get better at it so there were changes I made the included these. I really liked the original but when you look back at paintings you see things you wish you could change....so why not do another painting huh !? I'm glad I did this one. I like the larger size and I like my changes. One of these days when I get much better at nocturnes I'll do a really large one. Years ago I saw a nocturne show up in Los Olivos, CA and they had some very large pieces that were just awesome. Many, many years ago, Charles Rollo Peters painted a nocturne of our local mission here in Santa Ynez....maybe I'll give it a try on large scale....we'll see.      

Photo of a barn in Wisconsin

 

Back Again....

Well, I had to take some time off from my life of art and go back to work for a while. I decided to do this at the start of last summer and it has lasted up until 2 weeks ago. There was a chance to go to work for a period of time that would take me all over the US and I could use the money so I took it. The job had nothing to do with art at all. In fact the whole deal would have been a culture shock had I not done this type of work before. So, I bit the bullet and proceeded.

There is one hook about it all though, I was able to use my time out there taking a gazillion reference photos which I did. Honestly, I think I took about 15,000 photos. I was able to photograph the desert, the plains, the rockys, the warmth and gloom of Washington State, stand and snap photos along a pier in Massachussets of the Atlantic ocean, snowstorms in MO, WI, KS, MN, IL, WY, NE, UT, NV, OH, PA, NY, NH, CT, SD and OK. There was a lot of weather out there and of course I have a new found appreciation for just how large our country is. 

 

I did one commission while I came home for a few days, a restored airplane for a woman and her husband who live in Los Olivos. I also sold two paintings and a print while I was gone too so a little bit of art snuck in during that time. I was also contacted by a gallery back East so I'm in the middle of dealing with them, I'm hoping that works out well....sort of a new fresh start again as I am sorting things out here and readying for paint to start flying.

The experience was just that...more experience. I'm happy that art was always on my mind and I've been able to add to my never ending supply of reference photos, yahoo! I'm more than glad to be back and soon will be painting away.