Hills Above Cachuma Lake

"Hills Above Cachuma Lake"

5" X 7" Oil on panel

This one came from a reference photo I had taken while on a hike near Cachuma lake. I made two hikes that day...one in the morning with an overcast sky and then another when the sun came out to get some sunlit pictures. The hike was only about a mile or so so it was no big deal to do it twice. Great weather and with Spring here all was in bloom along the way. I've done two versions of this painting...the other version is a nocturne that was suggested by a painter friend and I'll post that one later. I like this version and see little things that could be touched up on. Fun little painting.

Wildling Museum Auction

Yesterday I attended the Wildling Museums annual BBQ fund raiser at Rancho Arbolado. I had donated a painting for the event that was to be auctioned off to help raise funds for the museum. The winning bid was excellent and the museum staff was very happy. The couple who bought the painting were really nice people and my congratulations to them. While I was there I had the chance to go on a jeep tour of the ranch and do a quick hike to shoot some reference photos.

The lupine and poppies were in bloom throughout the ranch as well as many other native plants.

I also ran into a couple who own another ranch in the valley. They had invited me to paint on their property 2 years ago so I will make it a point to get out there in the next 2 weeks. They are a very nice couple with one of the oldest ranches in the valley. The husband is from one of the original families that settled Solvang.

We stopped for a glass of wine on the jeep tour. This area offered views to the Pacific Ocean and the view is one thing that sets Rancho Arbolado apart from most of the ranches in the valley.

All in all the BBQ went very well thanks to the museum staff who did a great job. The weather was awesome which was in contrast to when I was there to paint months ago. It was windy, muddy and cold when I went there....stuff you deal with when painting plein air.

Nipomo Project

" Nipomo Vista"

12" x 16" Oil on canvas

I was one of 12 artists asked to participate in an event sponsored by the Dana Adobe in Nipomo. They asked the artists to paint a scene of Nipomo past or present. I opted for the present but had a great time researching the town of Nipomo. It seems one of the most famous images out of the depression was photographed there by photographer Dorothea Lange. This is Mrs Lange posing on her car with her big box camera......
The pic she took while stopping in a farm workers camp was known as "Migrant Mother"...you might recognize it....
Lange took a group of photos of this woman and her children. One of them included the tent and some background where she was at while waiting for their car to be repaired on their way to Oregon.

Here is a pic of nipomo today with the same eucalyptus trees in the background...as you can see this area hasn't changed much....

These eucalyptus trees provided shade and a place to camp while working the farm fields of Nipomo. From this shot below you can see some of the pea pickers with the hills of nipomo directly behind them. At the time Dorothea Lange stopped it was because she had saw a sign that read "Pea Pickers Camp".

Anyway....I like history, especially local history! My grandma & grandpa broke horses and picked pecans during the Depression in Oklahoma and Texas. They met at a dance on a saturday night for the pickers...That was a tough bunch of people who made it through that. Next time you sit down to have a fancy coffee drink at Starbucks just think about what some of those people went through....just to survive.

New Frames

"Manu Mele Aground at Santa Barbara"

12" X 24" Oil on Canvas

I need to replace some frames for the gallery and they just arrived...yahoo! These frames are from San Diego Frame Manufacturing. SDFM make great frames and supply frames to many of the frame companies in Southern California. I love their frames and prices but you are going to wait on them...delivery time is usually at least a month from the time of your order. I'm a single artist ordering a small quantity of frames so maybe that is part of the reason. They supply large orders from the big framers so I'm sure they get preference on delivery times. Despite that one snag, SDFM churns out high quality frames for a great price.

Here are some more pics of the new frames......

"Before Sunset"

9" X 12" Oil on Panel

"The Demise of the Allegro, Santa Barbara"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas

California Oak

"California Oak"

6"x6" Oil on panel

A simple scene of an oak tree lining a valley. Oak and eucalyptus trees are two of the trees that stand out most in the California landscape....another close tree would be the palm tree which I'm' not sure is even a tree at all....but when you see their size growing along Colorado blvd in Pasadena what else could you call it but a tree. When I was growing up in Pasadena my elementary school had oak trees out in the playground and along some of the bungalows. Their acorns always gave us hours of fun throwing at each other. And of course sooner or later you had to break one open and taste it since we all knew the indians ate them...not very tasty at all. Probably because of school my first memories of trees are of the oak. Fitting.

Stream At Eaton

"Stream At Eaton"

6" X 6" Oil on panel

Thought I'd try a painting with running water in it. With all the rain we had this winter it was nice to see the river running up at Eaton Canyon. I wasn't looking for a typical scene of the river up there where it is much easier to tell it is Eaton Canyon being painted...I was just looking for an image with a small waterfall and rocks. Doing a study of both of these subjects will help me down the line hence the painting here.....

I've been wanting to do a waterfall, even a small one, for some time now. I'd like to experiment with the various ways of portraying the water. I could have spent a little more time on this one but it was done alla prima today and I don't want to get burnt out over water...plenty of time to learn to paint small creeks and streams. I like painting the rocks and always seem to have to force myself to make them different values and colors. These have a little too much texture considering they are being polished by the water. On the next try I'll keep the rocks smoother down in the water and rougher along the shore...seems logical.

Santa Ynez Valley

"Near Santa Ynez"

5" X 7" Oil on panel

This little painting was one of those ones that go so fast you hardly had time to drink your coffee. Well, not that fast but a few hours anyways. This scene is of our valley here minus all of the domestic trappings that are present now, fences, vineyards, sheds, the occasional well house...those things are for another painting.


I've had to stop painting for a few days due to a major waterpipe leak that took forever to fix. I've got to go back down to Pasadena to check on my Dad since he's out of the hospital for knee problem he has...been going back and forth....drive drive drive...I wonder how much of my life has been spent behind a steering wheel. Lots!


Anyways...I think this is a cool little study that just might generate a larger piece.

Into Spring

"Spring Oak"

6"x6" Oil on panel

Another small painting on 6"x6" panel. I really like how this one turned out. I feel I'm getting much better at painting flowers and the plants beneath them. It's easy to get that floating look so it really benefits an artist to work a little on the plant underneath these flowers. I'm working on that, hahaha. It's always great to work on things in your work and I think this painting has taught me a lot...so success!

A Moment

"A Moment"

5x7 Oil on panel

Another painting on the trial run of prepared boards. I wondered what it would like to paint on a surface full of ridges caused by the acrylic gel but it was really no different than painting on a board with just layers of gesso. The textures from the acrylic gel are not really that thick to begin with. Once the oil paint is on there the texture really shows up well though. I think it adds an interesting look to the overall painting.

Little Rock

"Little Rock Shadows"

5x7 oil on panel

I recently drove out to the Mojave Desert heading for the roads just above the desert town of Little Rock. I planned to get there just before evening light and took my time taking reference photos as the light got better and better. This scene was painted back in the studio as a little painting...5x7". I had an idea of trying various scenes on small masonite panels that were prepared with a layer of texture below the gesso. You can see the thick lines of the texture in the painting. To do this I bought two sheets of masonite panel and cut them to the sizes I wanted. I then brushed on a layer of Liquitex Acrylic Gel Medium (Gloss Super Heavy Gel). This gel is white while wet and dries clear. You can apply it in thick strokes and it will retain the shape and dry that way. After that layer dried I applied my 2 layers of gesso so I'd get a good primed surface for the oil paint.


The acrylic gel actually seals the board so very little oil from the paint soaks into the gesso or board. I use copal painting medium with my paint mixes so even 5 days later the paint is dry but as shiney as when it was first painted....usually after a painting dries it turns pretty flat until you varnish the paint. If you were painting in a plein air paint out this method of prepared boards would allow you to frame the finished painting and sell to a buyer knowing that painting would look like the day you painted it weeks later with no varnish applied. The only downside is you have to paint very thin with your darks so that you can apply your mids and highlights over them...remember, the paint doesn't soak in like a board just prepared with only gesso.

Spring In The Valley

" Spring In The Valley"

9" X 12" Oil on canvas

More work using a lot of the premixed colors from the previous painting that were still on my palette. I keep my palette in a refridgerator when I'm not painting so whatever colors are there, mixed or not, stay fresh for days. I've got plenty of mud from previous paintings kept in a jar for mixing greys so the fridge keeps me from wasting a lot of paint.

Painting Atmosphere

This is an alla prima painting started and finished last night after dinner. I wish all paintings could be done alla prima. The trouble is too many times something comes up or something is going wrong or just not working. I can see why artists in the past would hibernate away in their studios away from the world while they painted. Getting your concentration broken while on a painting is the worst. I used to think painting took little concentration...just keep that brush moving. How wrong I was. Painting really fools you. Without thinking about it you become immersed in every little detail as they happen and each time someone walks in the door and asks a question or says "look at this" it breaks that concentration. Then they walk out and you lose that momentum and have to work at getting it back....about that time someone walks in again. We have a second refridgerator here in the studio and in summer someone was always walking in here to get a coke or something out of it. Do you know how loud it is when someone gets something out of the fridge? Well...when your into a painting and that fridge is 15 feet away it's deafening!! hahaha.

One could write a book on the things that annoy artists as they paint and man that would be one funny book....here are some of mine....
1. Questions regarding something so far out in left field it's amazing they asked at all.
2. The squeeking castors on my chair.
3. Cats prowling outside sounding like children
4. The howling of coyotoes in the field
5. The UPS guy slamming down a box next to the door.
6. Hearing the same repetitive commercials on the radio...I've got to move the controls closer to me since it is across the room.
7. And my favorite question of all...."whatcha doin?"....I could write a book on the many smart assed answers I have for that one alone....mowing the lawn, checking my transmission oil, doing math, figuring out how to achieve global peace, wood carving, tree trimming, using this brush to hold up the canvas, juggling, checking to see if this brush makes musical sounds if you wipe it across the canvas hard enough, excercising my left arm (only).....painting would naturally be my last answer, hahaha.

Anyway...this one was created using a picture of a painting I did a year ago as a reference. I sold the painting back then but I still have the image of it on the homepage of my website so I just pulled up my website and worked from that. I ventured off from the original a bit, most notibly in using a tinted ground of Indian Yellow. I've messed with that for skies on practice panels here in the studio and liked the results. I really like the effects you can get with your blues and clouds using the Indian Yellow underneath. Fun stuff.

Here is the halfway point into the painting. It was here that I really liked what was put down already and that gives you the boost to pursue to the finish. And here is the finished work.

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!