Elverhoj Show

Art From The Groves

I have a couple of paintings that were juried into the Elverhoj Museum of History & Art here in Solvang, CA. I feel pretty good about that because getting into any show is good. I know many of the artists in the show so it will be nice to be together and talk shop. One of my paintings is a studio piece and the other is a plein air piece done last Winter along the olive groves below the mission.
Sales have been practically non existant for me in this economy, and yes, the economy still sucks, so the occasional show is something to look forward to. I like shows...it's fun to see your peers and meet new painters....see the talent out there. Shows are good for inspiration. As a person it is great to see really fantastic art but as an artist it really inspires you to do better work. I've always been honest about my work and when I see something else painted better it makes me want to paint better so shows are a good way to push your(my)self.

Teaching yourself to paint....I hate that term because nobody really teaches themselves to paint. Books, the internet, art teachers, seeing other painters works....it all effects us even if some of us want people to think they were some naturally gifted miracle that discovered painting all alone. Baloney. If you want to learn to paint you turn into a sponge and soak everydrop of inspiration in no matter where it comes from. Thanks to nature what you take in will become your own vision and have your own look unless you're trying to go after some other artists style and you don't want to do that. Be who you are....even in art.

Anyway, if you are around Solvang on June 14 between 4-6 pm come by the show reception. The rest of the show runs June 14 - September 28, 2014. The Elverhoj is located at 1624 Elverhoy Way in beautiful down town Solvang, the land of Danish bakeries and wine tasting rooms !    

Summer Light

My reference photo

If I had about 10 sets of arms I could paint all day long paintings inspired by the area I live at, the Santa Ynez valley. Late afternoon light is the best I think and many of my paintings have come from that time of day. Seeing the bluish/purple mountains with their pink highlights from the setting sun was enough inspiration for me to paint this scene. I was driving down the road and had my camera so I took some reference photos. I didn't want the entire image, but maybe one like that will happen, so I located a nice spot in the photo and away I painted.

I am out of larger canvases at the moment so I did this one smaller at 12"x16"...should have gone larger though. Maybe I'll use this later as the study for a larger painting.

"Summer Light"

12"x16" Oil on canvas covered panel

....and a detail image from the painting:

 

 

Santa Barbara News Press Review

Art About the There There

IN 'THE VIEW FROM HERE,' THE CURRENT EXHIBITION AT SOLVANG'S ELVERHOJ MUSEUM, LOCAL ARTISTS PRESENT THEIR PERSPECTIVES ON SANTA YNEZ VALLEY

Josef Woodard, a News Press Correspondent.
March 29, 2013   

           This is an excerpt from a review of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art show I am currently in titled "The View From Here". The show consists of paintings created by 6 local artists and how each artist interpretes their view of the valley in their art. The show is wonderful thanks to the calibre of the artists and each of them has their own take on what we all see in our daily lives here in the valley. I was very happy to be asked to be a part of this show.
  
          "With the show truthfully titled "The View from Here," six area artists take on the subject of the "there here." What emerges is a sense of place via landscape painting, of six individual sensibilities at work. Along the way, the show roughly tells the story of this Valley's continuing evolution over the years.

Entering the gallery, the viewer is greeted dramatically by the tall, vivid presence of Ron Guthrie's "Morning Sycamore," on the far wall facing the entrance. But the same artist also shows a more unusual painting just to the right of the door, "Mission Santa Ynez Bluffs," a happy convergence of hillside, trees and yonder foothills, a poetic pact of light and composition. Mr. Guthrie also impresses with the vertical tree study "Majesty" and the peaceable atmospherics of his "Storm Clouds Over Adobe Creek."

The rest of this very good review on all of the artists is availble to read in the "Scene" section of the SBNP paper...cost $2.50 to read if you are not a subscriber, sorry.
...a very cool review of the show Mr Woodard, thanks!

Trail and Trees

"Trail To Evening"

8"x10" Oil on panel

Working in the same vein as the previous painting to try slight little variances. I'm still messing with getting my trees to look right. I like to trying things out, playing with shape and color, lighting etc. Always something to learn and workout and I've yet to be satisfied with any of them, haha.

Some details of the painting.....

I like the trail and wish I had raised it up higher. I'm worried the frame edge will cover too much of it...oh well, live and learn.

  

PACC members, Me, Gerry Winant, Morgan Green & Sheryl Knight

Had our monthly paint out with members of PACC at Lake Cachuma today. Cachuma was Gerry's pick and a good one it was. I've lived up here for 8 years and not once have I painted at Lake Cachuma. Everyone arrived at different times but got to work right away. Some did sketches and some did paintings. I got lucky and spotted a scene looking across the lake and jumped right in...painting, not the lake. I was happy because it pretty much is done but I'll do some touch ups tomorrow morning. I was up really late last night and then got up really early, painted till noon and then spent the next couple of hours taking photos around the lake.

Water, grasses and a tree and that puppy was done!

Hanging out with the group as they had lunch and talking shop was fun. Like a knucklehead I didn't bring my lunch figuring I'd head home right after painting...should have brought lunch and did a second painting since things were going so well. This group of artists is really fun and they are all fine artists. Most of them are much more involved doing paint outs, plein air festivals and workshops a lot more than I. Sometimes I think I'm too happy doing studio work compared to lugging around equipment and paying for hotels at a plein air event. I like plein air painting but I think I far more enjoy studio painting.

The cart!

This little cart was bought by a couple of the artists to lug their equipment around and works pretty well. I think they bought it at Ace Hardware....it was a gardening cart but works great for those of you wanting an easier plein air outing. They use bungee cords to hold their easels on top and one hand it to location....whatever works.

  BJ Stapen at work

BJ Stapen and Camille Deller arrived at noon and painted up off the main road in to where we were all painting. BJ has the coolest Virginia accent but I'm not sure if that is where she is actually from. I have another friend from Virginia and they sound a lot alike....they remind me of southern belles you see in the movies. Camille is one of the first painters I knew in the valley who had some wor in one of the galleries that just blew me away. She's now into knife painting and don't tell her but I one day plan to steal her truck!....better mileage and shiny paint.

Camille working it up....I left the truck out so she won't get wise to my plan.

Beautiful Lake Cachuma in the background....which by the way is the water supply for Santa Barbara. I spotted her Utrecht bag on her cart and she told me of one of their store locations in Santa Monica, so the next time I go down that way.....well, you know, artists and art stores.

At The Foothills Of The San Gabriels Show

Lifelong friends Lupita and Jose Fernandez and myself...my painting on the wall there
(better picture of painting below). 

Sunday 11, 2011 was the day of the show reception for the California Art Club show "At The Foothills Of The San Gabriels. This was held at the Altadena Tow & Country Club which provided the backdrop for the best CAC show I've been to since being a member. The group of CAC members who put this show on did a fantastic job of it and the staff working the show from the Altadena Town & Country Club were awesome. This place is gorgeous and coupled with the work hanging by the members of the CAC made for one heck of a show. Laura Wambsgans was there and she not only had a great piece of work, a waterfall scene, but she was a great hostess and a good friend. Thank you Laura!

  Artists' Laura Wambsgans and Bruce Boycks in front of Lauras' painting "Mountain Stream"

Several of my friends and family showed up for support and had a great time. I was hoping to see another friend of mine, Artist Marian Fortunati, but I learned she was over at the Channel Islands doing a workshop with Artist David Gallup. Marian had a great piece in the show too. About halfway through the 2 hour event my painting, "Myrtle Avenue", was sold which brought nothing but smiles from Linda and myself. I was able to talk shop with a few artist friends and in general just had a great night! I was able to hand out several show cards to help promote my September show at  Galerie Gabrie too. There were some wonderful paintings there and several in my opinion were priced below their value. If you'd like to see some of the paintings in the show you can go to the CAC page here.

 Artist Bruce Boycks, Linda and friend Jerry Gonzalez with my painting

At The Foothills Of The San Gabriels show will run from now until January 10th, 2012. You are welcome to visit the Altadena Town & Country Club to view the show, their address is 2290 Country Club Drive, Altadena, CA.

Galerie Gabrie Featured Artist

Featured Artist September, Galerie Gabrie

Last Friday I took the last of the large paintings down to Galerie Gabrie to be hung for the Featured Artist show for the month of September. It was hot down in Pasadena and the air conditioner isn’t working in the truck, one of my paintings got scratched so back to my studio it went. It wasn’t a great day so far. By the time I got to the gallery things started to change. I luckily was able to park right in front of the gallery to unload thanks to a car that had just pulled out…bonus! I ended up having a very good talk with my gallery owner, Jasminka Gabrie, and I began to feel pretty positive about how the month of August had gone. I had just finished doing the Quick Draw show in Los Olivos, which was my first time in that show, and my painting in the auction brought the highest bid. Another painting of mine in a Silent auction also sold. The day after that show I got an email from a client interested in one of my larger paintings. The painting was already down at Galerie Gabrie for my Featured Artist show. She said she would be in Pasadena towards the end of September and would go see the painting then. On my drive home I was feeling much better about how things were going.

  Jasminka, myself and Linda at the Los Olivos Quick Draw event.

On Saturday I returned to the gallery to drop off one more painting I had and looked forward to seeing the gallery since this is the day they would hang my work for the show. Turns out the client I spoke of was waiting for them to open and walked in to buy the painting before it could have been sold during the show. You have to be an artist to know how it really feels to sell a painting before it is even hung for a show. Artists usually work thousands of hours alone. The endless solitary time spent painting gives them enough thoughts, hopes and doubts, to fill up the back of a truck. The people who purchase your work are those who carry the message to you that you are, in fact, on the right path….they bring the answers to that truckload of thoughts, hopes and doubts. The drive home that day was even better than the one before regardless of the heat.

             If you are close to Pasadena, California please try and make it over to Galerie Gabrie anytime in the month of September. Jasminka will be happy to show you my work and she’s always fun to talk with.

               Galerie Gabrie, 597 E. Green St. Pasadena, CA. Phone 626-577-1223

Tuesday through Saturday 12:00 to 5:00 PM

Photos of the show were sent to me by Jasminka Gabrie.

The Mighty Eucalyptus Tree

"Majesty"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas

I wanted to paint a vertical format eucalyptus tree for the upcoming studio tour and finished this one up today. I like a lot of parts in this painting and the overall look. I am still tinkering with painting a very large painting similar to this. I have some gallery wrapped canvas put away that are pretty large so I might use one of those to do this if they are big enough. I hate painting anything large at the moment because sales are so slow that there is no telling how long they will be with me...it's a matter of storage, hahaha.
Here is a detail of the painting....I like the grasses and light work on the background trees. Going larger will give me more room to add more detail to a painting like this so I'm looking forward to that if I painting a bigger one.

Evening Approaches

I painted this little 5"x7" painting a few months back and really liked the scene. I painted this small one to work on grasses and also play with the background mountain colors. Things worked out in it so in that little frame it went. I had recently picked up some 16"x20" canvases for a good price and wanted something to paint on one of them so I decided to go larger with this little painting trying to pretty much keep to the original painting.

In going larger the only thing I really lost at first was some of the atmosphere in my background. It wasn't really lost...just wasn't as pronounced as the smaller painting had it and my guess is the larger canvas through me a bit. Took me 2 days of letting the painting sit to notice it. I've corrected it and now all works with the larger piece.

"Evening Approaches"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas