Rancho Arbolado Lupine

"Rancho Arbolado Lupine"

24" X 36" Oil on Canvas

             I attended a fund raising BBQ for the Wildling Art Museum that was held at Rancho Arbolado. The BBQ was held down in a small valley on the ranch and you parked up on top of a ridge. This view here is from that ridge late in the afternoon as we were getting ready to leave. Below that far mountain range in the distance is Hwy 101 coming through Gaviota Pass. This was last Spring as the lupine and poppies were starting their bloom and the dash of color made a great contrast to the endless greens of the hillsides.
            Lupine is always fun to paint and at times drives me crazy. A lot of people like lupine too. Linda, my Mom and Jasminka, my gallery owner love lupine...not to mention the many comments we had on paintings with lupine at last years Studio Tour. Lupine comes in various colors. I've seen purples, blues and magenta colored lupine. All of these have bits of white in them. For some strange reason when I'm painting blue lupine I'll get the feeling it should be more purple or magenta colored...and vice versa. I guess I just need to paint more lupine to get that out of my system or maybe it's just the way I see the colors of lupine. Sometimes they look purple and blue...and violet...and magenta, hahaha. See what I mean!? I'll work with them some more and maybe I'll either see their true colors or just make a better decision and stick with it, haha.   

Lupine Afternoon

"Lupine Afternoon"

18" X 36" Oil on Canvas
I was going for more dramatic evening light here. I highlighted the treetops down to mid-tree height and kept the lower parts toned down...that last afternoon light hitting only the tree tops. I added the lupine lining the meadow floor for some added color but kept their intensity down a notch of two since they wouldn't be catching much of that late light.
I have a framed painting at this size leftover from last years studio tour so I plan on putting this in that frame to change it up. It's a wood grain frame that always gets lots of compliments from those who see them. Should look pretty nice once it is in the frame.

Lupine and Oak

"Lupine and Oak"

5"X 7" Oil on Panel
This is such a small painting, 5x7 inches...I started it 3 days ago! Hahaha. There has been so much stuff going on and I felt guilty each time I walked past this painting sitting on my easel waiting to be finished. Sometimes you have to do things that need to be taken care of and art just has to take a back seat. I used to hate when times like this happened but I discovered there is a silver lining there. An artist needs to get away from time to time from their art. The time spent away from the easel is as important to an artist as the time spent sitting at the easel. You have to recharge the batteries and the time lost also keeps the desire to paint where you need it. When I started this painting I was sort of burned out again....not enough to not want to complete this painting but enough to feel it building inside of me.
Another good thing about the time spent away from this painting is that I did get a lot of things done that needed to get done. I took a huge load of old rotting wood to the dump, fixed up a gas bbq my dad gave me, ordered frames, ordered more frames and badly needed larger brushes, made reservations for a hotel in Coos Bay OR. to drop off a painting and see the museum for the first time up there, smogged the truck, went to a meeting to jury artists for an upcoming guild show and cleaned up the garage so I can make some gallery wrapped canvas that I had promised a friend I'd do....a very long time ago. So things got done. and now I'm itching to start a large painting....good deal!