Eucalyptus

"A Sketch....."
This really wasn't a painting about a eucalyptus tree. This sketch was done to brush up on landscape work and to try some color mixes out and some minor painting ideas too. This was painted on a student canvas covered board. I have a couple of packs (of 4 each I think) that cost practically nothing from Blick in Pasadena.....which used to be The Art Store on Raymond Ave....been going there for years. I use these to try things out without wasting good canvas or canvas covered panels. A lot of them are now being sold as Acid Free too. I'm not sure what most of them are mounted ...used to be normal stiff cardboard which was no good except for student work. They are now making some that are on masonite type boards with Acid Free glue which is very cool....archival. Now if they could just put real quality canvas on them they'd sell a million. I have some that I bought in Santa Barbara at Art Essentials (bring your American Express card though!) that were made by Fredrix that have Belgian Linen on them...very cool but not quite the same feel as stretched linen....which I still rarely buy due to the cost. I'd love to paint on them but I need to sell more work before that happens, hahaha.

See how well I went off into left field!? That comes from painting alone too much...then when someone listens to you out comes the life story. Sorry. I won't go into the things I was shooting for or experimenting with but I learned a couple of things on this one which actually makes this sketch a success...if only for myself.

By the way....Marian Fortunati, an artist friend I met at the CAC shows recently said some very sweet words about me on her Blog that really warmed my heart. Marian is a very good artist who is a painting machine. I read about her adventures in painting a lot and am just blown away at her dedication to our journey in creating our lifes work. She has a painting that was juried into the current CAC show at the Blinn House in Pasadena that is great work. If anyone who reads this has a chance to get over there, that show, and Marian's painting would be well worth the trip. Thanks Marian...You Da Babe!

Manu Mele Aground at Santa Barbara

"Manu Mele Aground at Santa Barbara"

12" X 24" Oil on canvas

This is another of the wrecked boats from out recent storms this winter. On the transom of the Manu Mele it says she was from Maui, Hawaii. It's a shame to see this boat end up like this. Around 12 boats snapped their anchor lines in that storm and they were hammered onto the beach by the rough seas. 2 more of these boats are seen further down the beach in this scene. Once the owners get what they can off of their boats the city would crush up whats left and cart if off in a dumpster. That would be hard for any boatowner to stand and watch.

Distance

In between paintings I decided to get out a student board to practice some distance work. I wanted to just do a simple sketch pushing the distance in a painting. Distance adds depth to your work and is always something to work on. I muted down the distant mountain range and used a blue/grey mix to wash out the far off valley floor. That looked good enough but I wanted more so I added some trees way off in the distance...greying them more as they receded down into the valley. I could have done a better job of it had I gone with a larger canvas...this one was 9 X 12 and it's just a sketch with the idea in mind, not a finished piece in mind. The rocks were added to increase the size of foreground elements adding even more to the feeling of distance. I think it worked out ok and is a good lesson to me to use with future paintings. It has that middle of the day hazy-feel from summer heat which is cool to paint. I look at the way I've painted the mountains and it reminds me of the San Gabriel mountains when seen from a distance in summer. Coming up the 605 freeway towards Irwindale in summer the mountains look very much like this down there at midday.

The Demise of The Allegro, Santa Barbara

" The Demise of the Allegro"

16" X 20" Oil on canvas

The Allegro is one of 12 boats that were washed ashore on East beach during our recent row of massive storms. Heavy surf at Santa Barbara's East beach, which is nicknamed "Fools Anchorage" by the locals, proved fatal as many boats snapped anchor lines during the week of storms. The Allegro was one of several boats wrecked by the unprotected anchorage and washed ashore at the foot of the bluffs near East beach. 2 other boats were down there but strong surf and a risky hike kept me from getting any better photos of them.


While taking photos the owner was down there removing what he could before the sea took care of the rest of the boat. Her rudder was missing and half of her was buried in the sand. Scattered nearby were bits and pieces, rope, a tv, shattered fiberglass pieces. I saw one boat that had 2 anchor lines both snapped by the heavy surf. The deck cap, which is the molded deck and cabin tops that are bolted and glued to the hull, was ripped loose at the stern and her hull had 2 foot cracks in it.

Along Valley Walls

"Along Valley Walls"

12" X 24" Oil on canvas

Going wide again...this is a 12"x24" painting. I like the wide format for landscapes and was glad to pick up some more of these canvases when they were on sale. Bonus! The mountains along the valley here have lots of big granite rocks exposed along their sides. More so on the Santa Barbara or coastal side of the mountains. These big rocks give a nice sense of scale to the mountains and hint at what lies underneath the scrub foliage. Normally I like painting dry grasses for their great ochre colors but it's Winter here and so I just plowed away with green grasses without thinking about it. Maybe I'll do another one of these with my favorite grasses.

I'm pretty happy with the rocks on this one. I'm normally not the big time rock painter but I'm getting more confident with them. When I paint a scene like this one I usually just paint the whole scene and then go in and wipe out the areas the rocks will be in. Then I make up a dark mix or grey blues and paint in the lower and shadowed parts of the rocks. Then I paint in the highlighted areas which is usually the tops and front side...which here is the right side of the rocks. Artist Frank Serrano has a book called "Plein Air Painting In Oil", a Walter Foster book, and he has a good demo of painting rocks in it...very simple method. Actually, that's a great little book and if you can get your hands on it you'll enjoy it.

Rancho Arbolado PA

Some of the Rancho Arbolado ranch houses and barn where I met Jose.
Well I headed out the other day to Rancho Arbolado to do a PA painting for the museum in Los Olivos. I arrived at the ranch at 9 am and met up with the foreman, Jose, and 2 very big but friendly dogs. One only had 3 legs but he seemed to move with no problem. He lost his right front leg but moved around so well I didn't notice for the first 10 minutes that I was there. Rancho Arbolado is a working cattle ranch and most of it is mountains. We drove over to another entrance to the ranch to start the drive up the mountains. The places I would be painting were high up and I took our 4 wheel drive truck to get up the narrow and badly worn dirt road. Recent rain storms had cut several large crevaces across it and no way would a car have made that trip. Once to the top I was awarded some beautiful vistas of the Santa Rita mountains, Santa Ynez mountains, the valley below and Pacific ocean. Low lying fog soon blew out and Jose left me to the rest of a sunny day.

Shady and cold painting here....but some excellent scenery.
I decided that I would try and do 2 paintings while there. I had to hurry because I needed to get the truck back by 3 and it was already 10 am. Remember, this is a large cattle ranch of 2400 acres. The first location I chose to paint was on a hilltop and some pretty strong winds blowing. It was cold! I set up my easel close to some oaks for protection but it didn't help much and I was in the shade which made it worse. I hurried on that one and within 2 hours had enough completed to just have to do minor touch ups once back in the studio. I packed up and headed for another location...in the sun and with plenty of trees to block the winds.

Winter Hillside, Rancho Arbolado, 16"x20" Oil on canvas

The museum wanted somewhat larger canvases so I went with 16"x20"'s. Much larger than I normally paint when on location but it worked out. A nice little challenge for the day.

This next spot turned out to be a view looking south to the Pacific ocean and across to the Channel Islands. It got warm enough to take my shirt off and take a little more time on this one. It was shortly after setting up here that I remembered my thermos filled with steaming hot coffee in the back seat of the truck! Duh! By a little after 2 I was packing it up and heading down the mountains for home....but I had my coffee, the view in my head, the feeling that comes with discovery from being allowed to paint up here and I had 2 paintings under my belt for the day.

The only drawback was our recent rains have turned everything green and I was hoping for some dried brown grasses...not to be had. It's not that I can't paint greens it's just that I really love painting the ochres of summer grasses. I'm hoping to maybe go back there and paint again in summer. All in all it was a good day and I was glad to finally get some inspiration to paint again after the lull I've had lately. I did my touch ups but probably did too much since I want these to look good for the museum. Fun stuff.

" Rancho Arbolado View" 16"x20" Oil on canvas

Pochade Box Finished

Well, I was going to go get some ref photos this morning but instead drove to home depot to pick up hinges and the side hinge for the pocahde box. On the way back my heater core started leaking in the car...what luck! This happens when you own a 20 year old car, hahaha. I'm waiting for that Lotto thing to kick in.
The pochade box came out pretty cool. A lot bigger than the 9"x12" box but then again that box can't handle 11"x14" or 12"x16" panels. This bigger 12"x16" pochade can handle all of them from 12"x16 down. I could also do a vertical 16"x20" too although I've never attempted to do something that big plein air.
Anyway...here are some pics of the completed pochade box.....

I didn't notice until I posted this picture that the washers on the lower side hinge are in the wrong position, hahaha. Where's my screwdriver?

Here it is folded up...The slots cut across the top are where you attach the panel with a thin bungee cord. I thought that would not hold very well but very surprised it works great....and is simple to use or replace down the line. From the backside you can see how the pochade box mounts to the tripod. I used oak hardwood to hold a hammerd in Tee-nut to screw into the tripod mount....works great. Wood was scrap I had leftover from my previous pochade box project and the 2 back hinges, 1 side hinge and Tee-nut cost less than $20.00...oh, I spent about $10 for a quart of varnish but that will varnish a gazillion other projects down the line so if you want to get technical I guess you could say I used about .50...maybe .75 cents worth of varnish. Still a very affordable pochade box.

Danger!!! Artist in the Doldrums

Snow in the mountains above Santa Barbara...I took this shot from East Beach, east of the pier along the beach.

I know, I know...I've dealt with them before. You finish up a painting and then nothing happens no matter how hard you try. Only, I finished that painting a month ago. I actually did some paintings since then but that was forcing myself. I don't think you paint up to par when you force yourself to paint. I did it because I'm doing this full time...no day job. If I am not doing something towards art during the day and into the evening I feel guilty of not working. I've been working since the 10th grade. It started with lawnmowing, bus boy, the military and so one...the longest I ever went without having a job since then was about 15 days....and yep, I felt miserable the entire 15 days, hahaha. I paint during the day and if I'm not painting I'm running errands for painting...going to meetings since I'm on the board for our Artist Guild, picking up supplies, framing etc. I then paint into the evening or am going through reference photos or doing my computing stuff...which usually has to do with art. I spent 6 hours today going back through my old reference photos because I couldn't come up with something with my new ones.....finally I gave up and went to the garage to build a 12"X16" pochade box...for painting. All I need now is the hinges and that will be done. At least I got something done today artwise.

The drive down to Santa Barbara as one wave of our storms was blowing through.

When I noticed I was in, not getting in, the doldrums I decided to try something different. I decided to try some Marine art since I like that type of work but never get around to doing it much since I spend so much time doing landscapes. Sometimes switching gears is good and it works to get me back on track....not this time. Add the dissapointments with learning something new and it has made it worse, hahaha....hence my heading down to the garage today to cut wood into the evening....and that's actually a good thing since I love to cut wood and build something. Thank heavens I wanted to build a larger pochade box. My 9"X12" box that I built works great but I figured why not be able to do 12"x16" sizes too.

One thing about painting...and being in an economy that is keeping sales almost to nil, is that you get plenty of time to think. That's not always a good thing. Too much of anything can be bad for you. I learned years and years ago that thinking can sometimes get your butt into trouble. When sales get slow I paint even more than usual...when I paint I think. I think of decisions I've made, slow sales, trying new subject matter, slow sales, art direction & career choices...and slow sales. It's not good to think too much.....I'm typing this because I figured it was better to get it out than to keep it all in.

I have to paint a plein air painting soon at a ranch here in the valley for the museum up in Los Olivos....no, no money in it, I just thought it was very cool they asked me first to do the painting which will be auctioned off to one of their members and it will be used for their advertising and invitations to their annual BBQ for members soon. I think it is really cool that I live here in this valley full of great artists and I got the offer first...so I took it. I just need to get out of the doldrums before I go to do that painting...I don't want to come up with a big fat Zero for the day spent there....then I'll have to go back which isn't as bad as that sounds but I want to get out there and do a good job the first time. The only saving grace is that it is supposed to rain again tomorrow and that might last for the rest of the week. Too muddy to drive into the back country of the ranch which is huge...mountains almost to the ocean.

State street...fun in Santa Barbara.

Normally when I get into the doldrums I go out with my camera and get reference photos for future work but I did that last week...I'm going to try that again early tomorrow morning. If that doesn't work then I'll finish the pochade box....if that doesn't work then I'm going to cut my ear off....Now that this is finished I'll be up into the wee hours of the night going through more reference photos. Yikes!

Gaviota Bluffs Reprise

"Gaviota Bluffs"

I am fortunate enough to post my work on a website full of other artists who critique each others work. I had Gaviota Bluffs posted there and received some very helpful feedback. I've since gone on to push the distance more on the back trees by repainting a mix of lighter green and greying down other parts up in that area. I've also gone back in to slightly darken the foreground bluff as well as add more detail to the grasses and small plants growing down the side. Works better now.

Gaviota Bluffs

Still on my quest to paint the bluffs along the coast. One thing I've learned from this last painting...bluffs are hard to paint up close, hahaha. I suppose that is why most artists tend to paint them at a distance....many painting them at a very generous distance too. The bluff nearest the viewer here took most of the work and there were some very frustrating moments painting that area. Painting bluffs require a very loose approach which for me doesn't always come easy. I guess I like control and it is almost best to let that control go out the window and concentrate on just massing the color into the basic shape. Still, doing any detail after that takes less control...it's like approaching the detail with a loose brush and a "heres a highlight...so take that" attitude, hahaha. I'm' glad I hadn't started this painting doing that foreground bluff first because I probably would have wiped it down with turpentine. Sometimes it is best to leave the hardest part for last so all of that other good work will force you into finishing it.
Here is a demo as the painting progressed.....
The sky...easiest part. I block in my white and blues letting them slightly overlap and then fan it till it looks good to me. I left the tree area unpainted at this point. The distant landmass is just a darkened mix of the blue sky color.

After that I added the basic distant bluff color and then added the foliage. I get the colors close to what I want but I'll go back in later to adjust it near the end...greying down the greens and adding little specks of white here and there to suggest detail. A while back I used to try and paint these sections as finished sections but I've found it is easier not to waste all of that time and to allow myself to dial in the colors once the painting is just about completed. It's easier to tie in the fore,mid and backgrounds together as the painting is in that almost completed stage. Now I begin blocking in the foreground bluff and then using a knife to apply thicker textures of paint and small details. I will go in and smooth areas with a large brush switching back and forth between filberts and flats. It was a chore here and I'd go so far, stop...go check my email or eat and then come back for another look...or another beating, haha. I didn't like that right top corner of the bluff and lowered that area. Eventually it came together and got to a point where you say "this is it. it's time to take the lessons learned on this painting and move on to use them in the next painting". That is how I usually end a painting. You see where you concourged and where you were just along for the ride....you have to stop and really study where you were just along for the ride so you can make improvements there. Ususally, you can't really see the answer to the problem there because if you could you'd get out your brushes and fix it. So, you just take a good look, think and make yourself try that area in another upcoming painting. You go look at other artists work to see how they handled it. I don't subscribe to the theory that if you paint paintings like a machine gun spits out bullets that somehow you will suddenly one day do it right...you have to actually stop and think. You have to be intellectual and figure out what is going wrong. Call an artist friend and ask how they handle it. Get out your art books and read...look...and paint again. Hey, they aren't always going to end up a masterpiece but you give it the best try you can...each and everytime you paint. Keep doing that and you can't help but get better. I'm happy with this one and think it will enable me to one day crank out a masterpiece.... "Gaviota Bluffs"

22" X 28" Oil on Canvas

Eaton Canyon

"Eaton Canyon Repose"

22" X 24" Oil on Canvas

At Christmas time I was visiting my parents in Pasadena and had the chance to run up to Eaton Canyon to take some reference photos. Eaton canyon is a great place to go and I've been doing that since I was a kid and raised 5 minutes from there. I think my first memory of the San Gabriel mountains was when my Dad took my brothers and I hiking in Eaton and up to Henneger Flats a few miles above the canyon. That was a hike and half because I was really very young when that happened.....maybe 10-11? Back in the 60's. Yes....they had hiking back then and no it wasn't because they hadn't invented the car yet.
I love Eaton in the evening because the light is intoxicating then. The mountain sides light up in pink and orange tones while the canyon floor goes into this wonderful shadowed look of various ochres, pale violets and crimson with great olive drab greens of the oak trees. All of that with these splashes of flaming yellows and oranges in the fall months. The Eaton color display and best yet....it's free!

There have been a lot of changes in there since I was a kid. The only thing they had there was a really simple indoor/outdoor nature center where I saw my first rattlesnake...stuffed of course. They used to have this cool series of pictures of a hiker who had been bitten by a rattler and you could see how bad the leg got as the time went by...awesome stuff for kids to see. Aside from that you just hiked around the canyon's riverbed and along it's walls. There was usually hardly anyone around that I remember. On a busy Saturday they might have 10 cars in the parking lot. I was almost run over by surprising a mule deer hiding in the bushes. That dude was hugh!!...well, when you are inches away from a frightened hopping mule deer it looks hugh...and smells gamey too.
Nowadays they have a brand new Nature Center...and indoor one with air conditioning and snack machines and a gift shop, hahaha. They have a nature walk with various plants and picnic tables. Joggers and power walkers abound cluttering up the trails. You see people there who have come by for a walk after going to dinner wearing very nice clothes. It's almost surreal at times and I always find myself wondering where did they all come from and why is every other one carrying a waterbottle. Do people seriously believe they are going to somehow run out of personal water or dehydrate from a simple hike at Eaton canyon??? I think people are watching too many fitness commercials. They even have the president doing it now at the podium. Whatever happened to a glass of ice water for the President as he gives a speech.
I took my daughters to hike up to Echo mountain a few years back and it was the same way...a million joggers, power walkers and even mountain bikers...pretty soon they will pave the trails up there because people will begin to complain of the wear and tear on their Nike, New Balance and Ugg shoes. There was a time getting up to the mountains was a way to enjoy some solitude. You have to hike back further now to do that. Sorry to gripe but I liked it back then when rustic meant dirty and people didn't dress up to just hike, hahaha, and besides....it's my Blog.
Well, here are some detail shots of the painting.

Bluffs at East Mesa

"Bluffs at East Mesa"

12" X 16" Oil on panel

Finished this one up tonight. This is an alla prima painting of the bluffs at East Mesa near Ledbetter Beach in Santa Barbara. There is a very pretty view of the ocean and Santa Barbara harbor from there. A nice little park winds along the bluffs so it would be a cool spot to paint from....a little too many people though. I am determined to paint coastal bluffs better so I'm sure these will be popping up from time to time. It's not like I don't have enough reference material either. The California coast, especially around here, is full of nice bluffs to paint. I feel guilty that I haven't painted them more often. I love how they look and when the morning sun or late afternoon sun hits them they just glow. There is an artist named Richard Humphrey who has done some wonderful paintings of coastal bluffs...some of his work wll make you drool.

Summerland Beach

Thought I'd try another beach scene from my trip down to Carpinteria with a stop off at Summerland Beach. It was early in the day...still morning actually, and the water was pretty calm for ocean water. Some people were walking down the beach looking for driftwood or other treasures. I like the bluffs and wanted to work on them in a painting. These are farther than I wanted so I'll do another scene with closer bluffs to paint. All of the beaches where I grew up in Southern California had no bluffs at all...ocean, beach sand and then parking lot...from there it was suburbia all the way to the foot of the San Gabriel mountains 30 miles inland. You know, in the early days of California there would be hugh storms and the rain came washing down from the San Gabriels and flood the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. Eventually they built two large washes to carry all of that runoff water to the ocean...they are known as the LA River and the San Gabriel River...or San Gabriel Wash as we called it.
Anyway, here is the painting....

and my fun to paint birds near the waves....

Koho, Santa Barbara Harbor

My Reference Photo taken abour a week ago.

I was trying to fight off the "boat bug" but that's not going well. Funny story, I always worked in pen & ink in my very early days doing horses, the occasional portrait and a lot of boats. During break at work I would sketch boats really quick and then add color using highlighter markers just for fun. Somewhere during all of that I thought it would be even more fun to learn to paint boat scenes using oil paint so I began to take painting classes in college. We never once painted water or boats.....to learn that I ended up going with Walter Foster books. I have wondered many times if Mr. Foster ever had any idea of just how many millions of budding artists he helped with his series of art books. There just has to be a killer story behind those books and Walter Foster....I'll be off to Google soon.
Anyway, I decided to paint one of the fishing boats in Santa Barbara harbor. I wanted a cool looking boat with some of the dock in it. I didn't want an image showing too many boats because that would need a ton of editing by me and I'm so detail-retentive that I like to leave too much in. I've seen this boat a zillion times down there and I really like her looks. Learning to handle the water was fun and I think I'm getting better at it. So much of it is really just an illusion. I thought about leaving out the floating kelp but I need to learn painting that too so in it went. Not the best looking kelp but I could have done it much worse too, hahaha.
Up top is my reference photo. Here is my final painting. I sketched this directly on the 12"X16" canvas covered panel which I hate doing when it has to be detailed. Not much room for mistakes which causes a lot of erasing. One of these days I will try painting one of these boat scenes with no initial sketch...forcing myself to paint loose as a goose.

"Koho At High Tide"

12" X 16" Oil on panel

Details of the painting.....

Chalk Hill

"Chalk Hill"

9" X 12" Oil on panel

This is such a familiar scene to me...this is the view once I pull out of my driveway. I see this seen everyday and have seen it in all sorts of weather. Those big clouds are a pretty common occurence most of the year. I really like the contrast they give the hillside with that one big eucalyptus tree. In summer the grasses are wonderful ochres which really pops the cloud formations. Here is my reference photo I worked from.

This one was done alla prima in a little over an hour. Christmas is almost here and it is really difficult to work on a larger painting. Too many errands popping up! I hate starting and stopping on paintings. I was in Santa Barbara a few times this past week which gave me time to run down to the harbor to snap some reference photos. I've been going through them and there is some really nice ones which will probably become paintings in the next month or so. I'm dying to paint another boat scene while I'm still in that Marine Art mode. I spend so much time throughout the year concentrating on landscapes I don't seem to find the time to work on things nautical.

I was speaking to an artist friend yesterday and the subject of seascapes came up. We both seemed to agree that they are very hard to sell. One of the gallery owners I know wouldn't even carry seascapes because she said they couldn't sell them....here we are not 10 miles from the ocean and it is hard to sell anything with water in it. I remember once deciding to show my work in Morro Bay because I figured it would be the place to sell my marine work...the first year I was there I only sold one painting and it was a scene of the mountains behind Sana Barbara! There might be something to Marine art taking a back seat in sales to most other subjects. So, if you are a painter of seascapes living in Kansas and think heading to the coast would be the thing to do to sell your work you should think twice about that, hahaha.

Before Sunset

"Before Sunset"

9" X 12" Oil on panel

This painting was finished and left to dry before glazing a final layer of light orange tint. This process is something I have recently been toying with to achieve an overall color to the painting. I've done a few other paintings I had drying with a light Indian Yellow tint and it worked great. I'm now tempted to try it with a light pink tone using Alizarin Crimson and Titanium White. When sales are slow....experiment! Hahaha.

A couple of details of the painting....

Michelle Goodrich of Mandarin Design

In working on my blog today I was hunting down a website called Mandarin Design and an old online friend, Michelle Goodrich. Michelle's site had all sorts of codes for free to use on your blog or website...a site designers heaven. Michelle taught you the how to do's of creating a better site of your own with all of her knowledge. I discovered her website way back around 1998 when I was first building my website and trying to promote it. I wanted to leave a banner link on the links I was creating to my website and Michelle had a code to create a really nice banner. I had problems with it as I was still very much learning "computereeze" and contacted Michelle for advice. Michelle helped me figure it out and we kept in touch. She liked the site I had made and offered more help. We sent emails to each other and eventually she bought some of my notecards with horses I had drawn....or I might have just gave them to her for all of her help. Michelle also used my website in an article she had written for her website and offered a free link to my site in return. Naturally, I used the banner above to link to Michelle's website from mine.
It has been years since I last spoke to Michelle or had been to her website. While looking for it today I found that her site was offline and that she had passed away back in June of 2006. Terrible would be an understatement of describing how I felt. I spent the last hour or so reading through various blogs of the other people Michelle had helped over the years. Michelle's generosity was above and beyond that of most people. The closest I ever came to meeting Michelle was when she and her husband came down to see the Long Beach Grand Prix...back in the 90's. I only found out because I was trying to contact her with yet another problem or to ask a question and she mentioned they had just returned from that trip. So at one time we were just 30 miles away from actually meeting each other.
I feel bad that it took me so long to find out she had passed away from cancer, breast cancer I believe....You know, the thing about the internet is you have so many people you can meet in various ways, but more importantly, is that they are all very much real people. Michelle was as real and down to earth as you could get. Willing to share her knowledge which is the most beautiful thing about the internet. Beautiful things come from beautiful people. Michelle epitomized what the world of the Internet could be to all of us...a place to share, learn and teach without always expecting something in return for it. Helping your fellow man is always good karma. I will very much miss my friend Michelle.

Motor Lifeboat CG

Motor Lifeboat Training
18" X 24" Oil on canvas
Just finished up this painting that I will be submitting to the Coast Guard soon. This is a Motor Lifeboat training in the heavy surf up in Bodega Bay in Northern California. You've got to admire Coasties for their determination to train for the worst in their efforts to help out the stranded mariner. Who you gonna call?....the Coast Guard! My reference photo for this painting was taken by a CG member and he caught this ML in a great scene busting through a hugh wave that evokes the danger and the determination of these men to do the job they train for. All I did was try to capture the scene on canvas.
This type of painting is very different from my usual soft landscapes. Detail and crisp edges are best for this type of work and my training with pen & ink has long prepared me for detail and sharp edges. Using a brush is just a bit slower. Going larger, 18" X 24" made the detail work much easier too. I like doing these CG paintings as it fulfills my love of Marine art and gives me a nice challenge to learn painting water and waves. I admire the work of Blossom and Thimgan, both now gone. I also like contemporary painters Byron Pickering and Martin Clarke. Both have a unique way of painting the ocean....plus I actually know these guys! hahahaha. Marty was the first artist to help me out when I was learning to paint the ocean and has been a great inspiration and friend since those early days and I have a great DVD by Bryon who is a wonderful gentle soul.
Some details of the painting....

Nocturne Verde

" Nocturne Verde"

6" X 8" Oil on panel

The title sounds like something you would order at a Mexican restaraunt. This is another painting done with that eerie green glow that the night is sometimes portrayed with by artists. Done for variation in the studio....I like the color and the change of doing nocturnes with my usual dark mix of Ublue, Acrimson and Twhite. Variety as they say is the spice of life. Ever since seeing this color back at the nocturne show in Los Olivos I've wanted to mess with it and so that's why green...I like it. I'm going to try a reddish tone soon (Nocturne Rojo!). I've seen that used a few times too so it would be cool to try that variation. By the way....that yellow area near the moon is barely perceptable on the actual painting. It stands out like a sore thumb here because my camera snags that color up like it was whipped cream. I tried to edit it down but I lose too much of the other colors up there when I do that so imagine that yellow much less than you see here....yes, you have to do some of the work on this Blog.

Foxen Canyon View

" Foxen Canyon View"

8" X 10" Oil on canvas

Painted this small 8X10 to capture the wonderful warm tones of the hills around Foxen Canyon. Foxen canyon is such a great canyon to take a drive through. The valley floor is lined with vineyards, farmlands and grazing cattle. It has a twisting 2 lane road that runs all the way up to the Santa Maria valley. I like the area due to the great colors it has in the summer and fall months. Wonderful varied ochres accented by the olive colors from the stands of oaks.

In Spring there will be California poppies and lupine scattered throughout the canyon. Alisos canyon connects to Foxen canyon and offers incredible meadows of lupine and grazing cattle.

Here are details of the painting....