Tres Hermanas With PACC

On monday I headed out to Tres Hermanas Vineyard in Foxen Canyon, just north of my house. I was to meet up with members of PACC for our monthly painting spree. I did a show, a 3 day, no sales show, at Tres Hermanas and used the time spent there painting. Whoever thought up that show was insane...but I digress. I sometimes like the area and sometimes hate it....I don't like the hills there that much and most of the land doesn't get me excited at all. Fun the first time and wondering what to do next. Anyways....I had to meet with Linda later on so I only had a few hours to paint and felt pressured to paint something decent since I was with the group. I also choose to go big, 12x24, so at some point I decided I'd never finish and I'd be good at getting something started and would finish back home. I figure I did 3/4 of the painting out there and the rest in the studio today. I first wanted to paint the road because it had these nice shadows running across it.

As cool as it looked my eyes kept wandering over to the morning sunlit hills. I liked the shadows being cast from the trees and the warm colors of the hillsides....I went that way. I blocked in my areas and immediately began tweaking things. I wasn't sure of how I was going to approach it, focusing on the hshadows or the sunlight or the colors...in the end I balanced all of that but I think I lost one of them being a stronger element and making the painting work better. I blame it on hurrying...hahaha!

   One of the ladies pulled her car in and set up to paint together since we arrived first. The rest of the group were down the road and around the turn there. I stopped on my way out to say hi and see what they were coming up with. Some good things going with this group. My very wet painting laying across the backseat on my jacket since I don't have a carrier for something that large. Still, it was nice to break out of the 9x12 restriction out there and I'm sure I'll do it again.
My finished painting.....

 

Foxen Canyon Road Cows

"Shade Below Zaca Mountain"

20" X 30" Oil on Canvas

I took an early morning drive up Foxen Canyon to snap pics of cows and found these guys lounging in the shade as the day warmed. Cows are such noble creatures and I've wanted to paint them more than I have in the past. This field is used for growing alfalfa and it was cut and the cows left to graze on what was leftover. They had it wittled down to mere stubs. Gainey Ranch has cows and they grow their own alfalfa too and when prices are right I buy from them....fun to drive in on their place surrounded by hay fields.

Tree and cow details.....

I know, I know...repeating shapes but heck, that's how they posed for me and that doesn't bug me that much anyway doing it every now and then.

I had a great time painting these oaks. Must be the right time of year, lots of greens and browns which was rather fun to paint...trying to add more branch work too.

 

 

"On The Ridge"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas covered panel

This area is just north of where I live, about a 10 minute drive maybe. Summer grasses are always great looking around here. The grasses and their warm color tones give the trees and background mountains a great looking color contrast. This is one of those paintings that took two days due to all of the distractions going on...I hate that because it is really hard to get back to work on the painting and sometimes you can begin to loose interest if you had stopped at a point where you were not happy. This painting started out as a summer painting but after a break and coming back I changed to to a winter scene, green grasses, but then came back from another break and went with summer again. I hate wiping paint off. Glad it ended up as it did and calling it finished.

Some of the work on the bushes here in this detail shot of the painting...

"Foxen Canyon Oaks"

18" X 36" Oil on Canvas

Once again we had storms over the valley this Spring bringing much needed rain and my favorite, cool looking clouds once the storm begins to pass. I headed up to Foxen Canyon Road one afternoon as a storm began to blow out of the valley to get some reference photos. My favorite spot overlooks both the Firestone Winery and the Chamberlin Ranch on either side of the road. I don't paint there much because it is a wind tunnel a lot of times....major wind so I just take reference photos there. This scene has been painted by me in probably 5 or 6 paintings over the years. It is looking south towards the Santa Ynez mountains seperating our valley from Santa Barbara and the big Pacific ocean.