Juried In!

"Nipomo Skies"

12"x24" Oil on Canvas

Just got the news today that one of my paintings, "Nipomo Skies", was juried into the Central Coast National Fine Art Competition...this is my 2nd National show acceptance. Too cool !!! I have said it a hundred times, you never know how a judge chooses what they do in Juried shows. This judge continues the tradition. The other painting I entered was what I was thinking would get in if any got in but it was my second choice that made it into the show.

I made it into last years show with my pen & ink stippled drawing of a Coast Guard cutter. Didn't win any awards with it but it was nice just getting into the show...especially with a pen & ink drawing at the National level! They had some great paintings in last years show. Artists Richard Green, Ed Terpening, Marilyn Lucia-Bowsfield and Ann Brown were just a few whose names I can remember. Just getting into a Juried National show is a big thing for me. Winning anything is something I don't dwell on at this stage in my painting....if you had seen last years show and the quality of the work you'd understand.

Anyway, here is the post card for the show. They are having a Champagne Preview Gala the night before the Artist Reception for buyers who want an early crack at it. I've decided to keep my price to my normal price ( $600.00) instead of raising it for the show and their commission. I did this at the last Juried Show I was in at San Luis Obispos' Art Center and that piece sold on opening night. This is a really low price for this show so we will see what happens.

If you are going to be in Morro Bay, CA on the 10th or 11th of August come on by....

Building a Show Easel

These are very cool easels with zip setup time. They cost a bit so I decided to just build one. I have seen them so all I did was just roughly sketch it out and guess at the angle. I purchased 1"x4" oak at Home Depot for $30.00, 2 brass hinges, 4 Shaker pegs to hold 2 paintings and 4 padded feet. I also bought some dowels for the corner of the wood strips and some gel epoxy glue with 1000lb pull strength.

I tapered all the wood strips on a table saw, drilled the holes for the dowels and then mixed the epoxy gluing the two halves together. I let them dry overnight and then sanded a radius on all the edges which gives it a nice rounded edge to grab when carrying. I drilled holes for the pegs, the feet pads and then screwed in the hinges. When all of that was done I rubbed it with a wax/sealer which brings out the beauty of the oak.

It will hold two paintings, looks cool and is easy to setup...and cost very little. It's a great indoor easel and will look good in my house too.

2 pcs cut at 5"6 and one pc for the floor strips.

The wood is tapered and then ready for the dowels and epoxy.

I used a rubber "stop" to set how far down I drilled the holes for the dowels. I used these metal pcs with points in the drilled holes, put the two pcs together and it marks where I need to drill on the other piece of wood. Drill all holes, fill with epoxy insert dowels and put them together.

After sanding, this is what the corners will look like...note the footpads installed.

Here it is all oiled up ready for the art. You can see the Shaker pegs for holding the framed artwork. The two brass hinges go at the very top and at the very bottom in back. A very simple easel to build.

Here it is in the house with 2 paintings. The wood looks great with a natural oak finish protected with the oil rubbed into it. The feet are screwed in and allow for adjusting to uneven surfaces. Right now, the Shaker pegs can be pulled out to very the positions of paintings but I might just go ahead and glue them in place. I know a lady who mentioned she had lost a peg because they kept popping out. We'll see.

Garden Tour

We had a pretty good show, slow day but a good show. I say good because we had no wind, no troubles and all of the artists had great setups and very good art. Also, Jean, whose house I was invited to show at, had an awesome yard to show art and she and her son and hubby went all out to give us a cool place to setup. First Rate! And, most importantly, we all had a fun time that day doing out thing with lots of laughs.

I'm learning that selling art at a fair type of event means you are not going to sell large expensive pieces as much as you are going to sell small items under $100.00 such as mini pieces, notecards, matted prints (not framed) etc....In the desire to not lug a ton of stuff to this show I stupidly didn't take enough prints of various subjects and I have no small prints of my paintings at all yet...will I ever learn!? I sold 2 prints for the entire day but had lots of fun with my fellow artists. Some shows are like that but I did learn about what I need to add to my display at small art shows. I'm going to get better at this if it kills me! hahahaha.

Here are some photos of the day....

My setup....My umbrella went up when the sun came out....hint, keep your shrink-wrapped art out of the sun or it will sweat ruining your prints. I always cover mine in shade no matter what!Jean's setup....this girl was out to make money!

Syd's setup...customers already lined up blocking my shot. Another artist ready for raking in the cash! I waited to get a clear shot of the backyard littered with ART....what great setups and killer work all around....Lots O' Art.Jean's yard is so tropical looking and she has great grass. I live on a hillside and have Native grass which means once summer rolls around we have brown grass!

Check out Syd's easel on the right hand side...her hubby made these out of garden lattice bought at Home Depot, super light to carry and worked great. Note the excellent setup of smaller items under $100...an artist on the ball! How proudly she stands! I was working with art sale veterans that day!

Here is what my view of Jean's area looked like most of the day...customers customers customers. She did really well and it goes to show that planning pays off. Jean is totally a veteran of selling art and knows what the heck she is doing....how do I know this?, because I had to help her pack some of her sold paintings! I'm doing another show thatJean is in charge of later this month so I'm going to gear up with things I've learned here and hope for a better day.

Small Works Painting

I'm going to be participating in a Garden Tour show. These are shows that Guilds have where artists show some of their works in the backyards of various artists homes. Usually there are about 3-6 artists at each of the homes. The guild sells a program that includes a map to each home and you have the have the program to get in. Each program allows 2 guests to enter to see or buy the works of the artists. It's a nice way to meet potential customers and in general have a good time joking about the lengths you'll go to sell your work! hahaha. If you don't have one of these in your area get one started...they are actually pretty fun.

This is one of the small paintings I did a few weeks ago...took less than an hour to do. I want to show some normal sized works and felt like doing some smaller works...much easier to carry to the show. I was in a framers shop and he wanted me to buy some small 5X5 frames he had laying around but I didn't have any 5X5 canvases...so, Gary the framer just happened to have a boatload of them so if I bought the small frames he'd give me the canvases for each one....not a bad deal eh? I picked up a couple and this was the first one painted.

I quickly cropped a reference photo into a square image a this is what happened. Here it is in the small frame for it....

Shell Beach Rocks

I did this one recently in order to get better at painting rocks along the California coast. I don't do many scenes with rocks in them so this was a good project for me. I wish I had a smaller knife to use in this one...the 2 that I have are really large and the really small one I had at one time is lost to history. I'll have to pick one up before doing another rock scene.

Anyway, this is the result of the rock project.

"Shell Beach Rocks"

12"x24" Oil on Canvas

Yard Sale Plein air

Catchy title eh? We had a yard sale Sunday and Monday of Memorial weekend. Spent all day Sunday twitling my thumbs do to the thousands who came by...I can count them on 2 hands. I decided I wasn't going to do that over again on Monday so I brought out my plein air rig and went at the neighbors tree again. If I paint enough versions of that one tree I'll be able to piece together a forest show.

The sky was pure blue and not a cloud in site so I messed with it a bit to throw in some interest. Naturally, the only people who came by and saw it were when it was in the early stages and didn't look like much. I did meet a lady who paints but is busy raising her son and doesn't have the time to join our local Guild...I don't know why but I always seem to be making the sales pitch for the Guild to get more artists to join it.

Here is the scene and my set-up....I've got my sky in there and the tree. I'll leave out the water tank and pine trees to the right.

And here is a shot while continuing on....I wiped in the sky and then added the tree. I then wiped in my foreground dirt and grasses area and now proceeding to add bushes from left to right aross the canvas.

And the fnished piece. I probably spent about less than an hour actually painting it but it was spread out talking and eating lunch. A little 6"x8" Oil on Ray Mar panel.

Central Coast Skies

This scene is really close to another I did titled "Nipomo Skies". It's the same general area and the ref photo taken the same day too. I'm calling it was it is because it is a pretty fair depiction of the skies that I see a lot in spring in the Central Coast area of California...


This one is really large, an 18"x36" stretched canvas. Had to do some large pieces sooner or later so the time was right for this one. I have some shows coming up too that I'm trying to get ready for so larger pieces will help there with the limited number of paintings I have so far.

"Central Coast Skies"

Anyway, lots of sky here and a nice wide view of the Central Coast near Nipomo, Califronia. Fields a plenty!

Framed Vineyard Scene

Art always looks better once it's framed...ALWAYS! Have you ever worked on a ppainting that, no matter what you tried, it just looked less than what you set out to paint? I've had a couple of those so far. Then for fun I'd set them in various frames and oddly enough one would make the painting look better than what it finished up as. Art always looks better framed!

I painted this vineyard scene and was pretty happy with the results. Since there was a lot of reddish tints here from the late afternoon sun setting I figured a frame with some red in it would look cool. Red...to me that means natural wood, not red stain. I looked around at various online frame sites but it's really hard to see it framed that way. I went to my local framer who had this moulding and had it made up. 3 days later I was amazed how much better this painting looked framed.

Yesterday I delivered it to a small vineyard gallery that represents my art and the owner was only too happy to take this one on board. If it sells it will become one of those paintings that you wish you had entered in shows or at least showed around to your painter friends first! I don't have enough paintings yet to keep certain ones to do just that.

Right before loading it up in the car I took this picture to make sure I at least had this to show here on my blog. I have been staying away from getting Giclee's made of my work until I feel I am cranking out really good work. One of these days that is going to happen.

Painting Clouds Part 1

I like painting clouds...I'm getting better at it too. How do you get better?...paint lots of clouds. I'm not the expert but then again I've been told by my friend and fellow painter Margaret that you can't really do them wrong because they can look so many ways...good advice. I thought I'd post various versions of clouds as new paintings roll out so this is the first in a series on painting clouds for those interested.

The clouds I'm painting here were stormy grey clouds with a nice wind up there blowing them across the mountains....not big cumulus clouds, more like stretched out cumulus clouds. Blue skies are breaking through in parts of the scene so we need light from the sun on top of the clouds and dark ominous shadows underneath the clouds.

Above is my reference photo I'll be working with. I'm not painting the entire sky here fro compositional reasons but you'll see the area we are going to paint as we go along....

Remember, you can click on these images for larger views

Colors used : Titanium White, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson.

Step 1...I'll sketch in my details of the ground area. I leave the sky pretty empty except maybe to map out some complicated clouds. I mix up lots of White with a little UBlue and paint in my upper blue skies. Once it is blocked in I add more white to the mix and fade the lower portions of the blue skies to where the upper clouds will begin. You dont' have to be accurate here at all...when blending colors later the less intense blue blends better with the white of the clouds.

Here is a closer detail of this

Step 2...We now mix up white with just a dab of Alizarin and a dab of UBlue for a light pinkish blue mixture for the lighter shades of the clouds. Before blocking in this mixture I add pure white to areas of the clouds where I want the brightest highlights. Then I paint in my pink mixture, again you don't have to accurate here, just block it in the general areas.
Step 3...Before we convert that mixture to the darks for the clouds we grab some to keep seperate for blending later. Here you see my sky blue mixture, the light pinkish mix and the blob I am saving at the top of the palette.

Now I darken my original mixture with more Alizarin and UBlue (SAVING MY BLOB for later)We now paint in the darks of the clouds and get happy because we are almost to the blending stage....

Some areas are lightly painted in to create the shapes of the upper cloud areas...gives it that billowy-puffy look called "Shape" in art lingo.

Step 4...Now we get out a fan brush and begin blending. Just sweep your fan in an X pattern brushing once across the canvas and then the opposite direction across the canvas...do this till the edges blend. If some of the edges don't blend easily dab in some of the Saved Mixture of lighter pink to the edge and fan again in that spot....that's why you save some of this mixture. Fan until it looks COOL! You will have to be the judge of what looks cool to you but you'll find it. I have faith in you. Here is my version of cool....A detail of the blended version....Step 5... I basically finish the painting, the ground area to let the sky have tme to set up a bit. The last thing I do is go back into the sky area and add some darker wisps of clouds over the rest to give the clouds a more 3 dimensional look to it. Just dab some random dark paint and then blend lightly.Here is my finished painting with the ground area completed.....

That's basically it....stay loose, play with blending until you like your results...if it goes bad just add more paint the the areas you blended too much and blend again. If you don't have a fan brush go get one...wipe it off as you blend in different ares that are critical of color...you don't want to start blending a white highlighted area with a fan brush still loaded with your darks on the brush.

Good luck with your clouds and have fun making them!

What's Your Opinion....

I've touched this painting up since thinking I was finished with it a month or so ago. I thought the foreground highlighted trees didn't have enough light, or glow, caused by the low setting sun across the valley. The tree tops are illuminated because the lower half is shaded by the hill I was standing on while taking the reference photo. I've gone back in and brightened them and also added some light to the mid ground valley area to suggest it is also highlighted by the setting sun.

What I want to know is if you think this light on the tree tops works here. Too bright, not bright enough or if it just doesn't look right to you...I like the idea of just a stab of light hitting something and thought it would work well here.

Here's a detail of the tree area. I also added some branches to the trees...something I rarely do with my trees. I'm not sure why but they look pretty neat once in a while.

Working the Gallery

One of the places I show my work is at the Morro Bay Art Association Gallery in Morro Bay, about an hour and a half north of where I live. As part of the deal there you must work a 4 hour shift each month while the show is on that your work is entered. 4 hours is not a lot of time if you live in or near Morro Bay but for me it becomes and all day thing doing it. 3 hours drive time plus getting ready to go up there. I make the best of it by using the drive to collect reference photos for future work.

The good part of artists working the gallery is it keeps costs down to run the Guild or Association gallery....the bad part is that not every artist is a good salesperson...which is the goal of the gallery, selling the art created by the artists members. I would say at least half of the artists I know are pretty shy, introverted people....not the type who commonly get jobs as salespeople. Another downfall to having the artists do the selling is that most of us don't know each other, we don't know what type of work we all do nor anything about the specific works in any one show.

I've had someone call me at the gallery and say "I'm calling about John Doe's painting of the horse and wondering if he has any other works there?"....Naturally, with about 50 members I don't know a John Doe, I didn't know he had a piece with a horse in the current show and I now would have to ask this person to hang on while I run up and down the gallery, two floors!, searching for some of his other work. See what I mean? On that day I would be a terrible salesperson.

Normally, a gallery has people who work there and know what they have on the walls and who painted it. They also know how to get more of that artists work should someone call to ask for more.....this generates sales as well as making the gallery appear to have at least competent employees who like to sell art as a career.

I'm all for increasing membership dues and entry fees and just breaking down and hiring someone to do this in exchange for more time to create art and having a gallery run like a business by business oriented people. I'm not business oriented....I'm the guy with the goofy visions in my head when looking at something the next guy looks at but who manages to escape the vision part of it....you know, the typical artist who sees more than just what's in front of them. We see color, drama, texture, gorgeous lighting effects, atmosphere where most people see the sun going down which means they'd better step on the gas to get home before their dinner gets cold. I think in terms of imagery where a business oriented person thinks in terms of a good day at work from making $1200.00 in sales generated by their efforts. Their head is filled with thoughts of Bottom Line, Profit Margin and Gross and Net Incomes....that's the person an artist needs around them to succeed....or at least pay the bills.

I don't think most artist-run Guilds or Association galleries will ever make really good profits unless they go with a more business-like run situation. Artists are not going to become salespersons if their lives depended on it. The artist is going to make the attempt to sell art and will sell art but not like a salesperson can sell art. I hate to toot my own horn and I think most artist hate doing that. I'm not overly extroverted either. I can't imagine flapping my arms about whipping out complimentary comments about how much vision I have and how I have created work that will one day be worth far more than the buyer is about to pay for it.

I think Guilds and Associations are content with offering the community a place to show the work of their local artists and if they make a few bucks for operating costs and to donate to the local school art program then fine. The local artist finds a place to show their work, get some well deserved kudos and once in a while make some money to buy more art supplies. I suppose this is why artists who want to seriously make money from their work eventually submit work to privately owned galleries in the attempt to become gallery represented. Naturally, private galleries have higher standards so most artists will eventually move on to shove the balance of their best work in these galleries.

Still, I think there has to be a way to increase sales from the galleries of Guild and Associations. So I'll try to be a better salesperson and also do better work to enter....the latter is the part I do best.

Part of the Morro Bay Gallery

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Jurors Award

Carpenteria Foothills

12"x16"

Oil on Ray Mar Panel

I'm a member of the Artists Guild of the Santa Ynez Valley and we show our work in juried and non-juried shows in the town of Los Olivos at the Gallery Los Olivos. Recently we had a juried show and one of my pieces won the Jurors Award. In the same show I also won 2nd Place for one of my other paintings. I was flabbergasted...(can't believe we still use that word to this day but it fits!). I always wanted to win an award for my pen & ink works but that never happened. I think my pen & ink work was too realistic for an award considering the work that usually wins awards. Sad but true, realism usually takes a back seat to most work that wins awards in my humble opinion. At heart, I'm a pen & ink artist and painting is what I've done to add color in my portfolio....but it is the painting that has garnered the awards and sales on original work you just have to live with that.

I have sold tons of pen & ink prints but the only awards for pen & ink work has come from the Santa Barbara Country Fair and the California State Fair....which was ok but it would have been nice to get an award in a full blown art gallery environment. Pen & ink is very much an overlooked medium which is ironic because it has been around for so long. It is also a medium that takes a lot of skill to pull off well. Pen & ink artists are a special breed of artists who spend hours perfecting their craft and turn out work that is very very special.

Here is the second Place painting.....

Morning Pasture

9"x12"

Oil on Ray Mar Panel

Anyway....just tooting my horn here. I try and keep that to a minimum but I actually have to do it since I'm not paying an Artrep to do it for me. Nothing worse than having to look people in the eye and say "my work is good, I think you should buy it"....

The Studio....

A long time ago, the High School years, my Dad suggested I take wood shop class. A great class to take for anyone who likes to build things or learn how things are built out of wood. I know, because I have used the knowledge learned back in wood shop a zillion times. It amazes me how many guys don't know a thing about woodwork....but that's another story. One of my projects was to build myself a small wooden drawing board which I did and used at home for years. Just a flat piece of wood with two "legs" that slanted to allow the drawing board to be angled on a dining room table or desk while you drew, it worked great.

After getting out of the Army and getting married and years later that drawing board was nowhere to be found. My drawing board once again became the kitchen or dining room table or any other flat surface that could be found...I took painting class in college and bought a really cheap easel to work on in the garage....this was due to orderless turpentine not being around then and you didn't want the kids getting a contact high inside the house. One thing about the struggles of an artist to find a place to work is it really makes you appreciate a good place once you get it!

So, we enter the current drawing painting setup due to Artist Luck#1....Early one morning I jump on the computer and go to Yahoo Auctions (my local) which practically doesn't exist anymore. Having some money finally in my bank account, I type in "Drafting Table"....and low and behold I find a guy selling one a few miles away for $60.00. A killer table with all the bells and whistles, used, heavier than the Titanic and now sitting 10 feet away from me as I type!

Now Artist Luck #2....I was driving a truck delivering to a company and noticed some flat drafting files, ...2 of them that stack together and usually cost about $400-600 a piece, sitting in their parking lot. Turns out one of the guys there was using them to store small tools in and I asked if he wanted to sell them....he says "$30 bucks" and I couldn't pull the money out of my pocket fast enough! We loaded them onto the back of my truck with a forklift and they are now with me storing my art ambitions.

I now live in a home with a garage that was converted by the previous owner as a studio to do photography. His old dark room is now my storage closet for art supplies. I've aquired a nice solid oak easel for painting and life is good. When I say it is a long way from a wooden table top drawing board I know what I am talking about...took me over 30 years to get here. Now, if I had taken classes in business management or computer programming back in college I would have gotten a great money making job and had this stuff years ago...but artists like to suffer right?

Here is where the painting happens.....

Looks like I did the dramatic lighting thing for a brochure but in reality I was actually working on that lower painting and decided to just snap a shot of the setup...remember, this is a converted garage and most garages don't have big artist needing windows facing south.

I can't see spending megabucks for a wooden taboret so eventually I'll just make one...in the meantime I bought this wire rack on wheels with bins at Costco, Target or WalMart...can't remember but it was pretty cheap. I've seen awesome oak ones in an art supply store down in Santa Barbara but price-wise it's like buying a house! I'm sure you can go through an Escrow company to help you out with the purchase of it....not me, I'll make one.Get one with wheels! I am always moving this thing around and glad I'm not picking it up all of the time....and besides, you can roll the coffee closer to you as you paint and it gets later at night!

For additional art supply storage it is hard to beat getting plastic stacking bins. You could even put one of these in a closet to keep "out of sight out of mind" from the ever forgetful teenager or wife/husband that is always looking for something to write with...like your art supplies!

An artists needs a place to work and places to store the equipment needed to create art. Unless you are the son or daughter of Donald Trump or Bill Gates you might have to wait a while to get that but if you keep your eyes on the prowl for the great finds out there you can do it. I did it, so can you....just remember to appreciate it!

Refugio Vista

In my attempts to teach myself to paint outdoors, Plein Air, I decided to tackle this scene. It is a view looking across the Santa Ynez valley with a ranch for my focal point. I consider this to be one of the 2 plein air pieces I have done that truly worked well. What worked great about this scene was capturing the light of midday, or morning actually, without even trying to. I was trying to just paint the scene in front of me and without my knowledge I painted the light! Sounds stupid but that is hard to do and somehow it happened by me just concentrating on getting the scene on canvas.

To me, that says something is starting to work inside of me without me really trying to make it work....the eye is a wonderous thing when you let it do what it does best without your interupting it!. Maybe this is why people paint outdoors in the first place, the natural light of nature will show up in your work....which is totally cool!

Here is my setup and view out there...not an expensive pochade box, my Dad made this for me so you can't beat that price! I should have taken pics right from the start but got into the painting and forgot I had the dang camera sitting right there in the truck. Duh!

And here is the finished piece.....

Anyway, I think it came out pretty well and I'm proud of this one. I will probably do a larger piece because this is a pretty typical scene here in the valley on a sunny day. It also has the combination I like in a painting, some distant structures, distant blue mountains and dark trees. The contrast of that combination is too cool.

Garden at Cambria 2

I decided I liked the smaller 9"x12" Garden at Cambria painting so much that I decided to do a larger version of that painting on 18"x24" sized canvas. Most of my work is smaller 12"x16 and under paintings so this is a nice change going larger....my largest painting yet.

I also snapped a few pics of the progress on this one. To check my memory, and for fun, I decided to move the smaller painting inside the house and not use it for reference in doing the larger painting. I painted the larger version using only my original reference photo like on the first version. My results were pretty dang close to the smaller painting.

Here you see the start of the painting....sky first then the added houses. After that I used a thinned paint and, using a paper towel, simply rubbed in the dark blocked in areas of foliage. Some for the dark shadows and some just for an underpaint of foliage where the leaves would be painted in as just mid and highlighted values. I never actually paint "leaves"...they are just suggested masses of paint. These rubbed in areas of paint are a mix of the color of paint you want to use and then dipping a paper towel into turpentine, dipping that into the paint mixture and rubbing away. The nice thing about this method to get these areas done first is that the turpentine causes the paint to set up to a tacky finish in just a few minutes when the turpentine dries. This allows you to paint your mid and highlights right after it dries. I move to other areas to give it some added drying time and then go back to these areas. Looks horrible but it works.

Here you can see the added foliage being painted in over the rubbed in areas. I'm a lefty so I tend to paint from right to left across the canvas. Being a large canvas and using small Flats this process took a few hours.....

Here you see most of the foliage added. I've layed in the cool whites of the fence. This is just Ultramarine Blue added to Titanium White. To the left I increased the blue to darken the fence in the corner of the painting. I thought the fence posts were too narrow so I widened them right after this photo was taken....made a big difference. My perspective was thrown a bit working on the larger canvas. I'll add the white highlights of the fence next which will finish forming the fence....

Finally, the finished painting after lots of tweaking here and there. Overall, a close resemblance to the first smaller painting but some noticable differences. I'll try and get the gallery I'm in to take this piece and use the smaller piece for showing at local Artist Guild shows.

Solvang Nocturne 1

Nocturnes.....the first one I ever saw was one painted by Whistler...famed artist who painted what is commonly known as "Whistlers Mother" but is really titled "Arrangment in Grey and Black No.1". Whistler did many nocturnes. I've seen many nocturnes painted by artists I know and it also added to my desire to try a nocturne. Nocturnes are not easy and this is my attempt to do one that wasn't totally terrible. I'll do a simpler one next time.

This is actually a scene outside of where I live looking towards the neighbors house next door on a hill. It was a challenge to do and worth the effort for the lessons I learned while doing it. If I painted nocturnes for the next year I'd get much better at them....or I'd cut my ear off.