Studio Tour...finis

Ready for schmoozing!

We wait every year for the Studio Tour to come along because of 2 reasons...meeting and talking with the people who like my work and, of course, sales. Day one of the tour was a slow start but picked up by midday. We had some new people come by who saw my preview piece in the museum and in the brochure put out by the Wildling Art Museum who hosts the event. This year we even had a few who mentioned they saw my work on the website that is put together by the museum....cool!

The paintings were framed and looked great. We made some nametags that look comparable to what you see at a gallery show...professional looking.

We also had a lot of past visitors come by and it was great to renew old friendships. Always great to see these friends who stop by and we get a chance to bring each other up to speed. The weather was great yesterday too. Nice blue skies and perfect temps made for nice conditions to talk inside and out. Linda did a great job with snacks and drinks which is always received well by the kids who come along with their parents.

Linda again did very well with the munchies!

Day two, Sunday, was a different ballgame. We woke to the sound of heavy rain on our deck outside  the bedroom and at that point I lost all hope of a good crowd, or any crowd, showing up. We did get a some small groups of people showing up between 12-2 but mostly it was a day of the occasional couples, nothing like Saturday. More small sales on Sunday though so it all added up to decent sales for the entire show. I'm happy.

Linda looking very small next to the Eaton Canyon painting. That painting impressed a lot of people on both days.

One thing we tried this year is a bargain basement table. We put a lot of our older paintings mixed in with some sketches and small works, all unframed, and they provided a good flow of sales. We'll do this again next year. Very few people are looking for the big works to buy and it has to be the economy...everyone understands that so I won't dwell on that. We did manage to get the interest of a couple of serious buyers and that might happen down the line. A nice couple from down south have expressed interest in works I have at Gallery Gabrie and will go there to see more work. I plugged the heck out of my gallery down in Pasadena so hopefully a few others will stop in there soon too.   

Presentation...presentation....presentation!

   

Off To Sea With The Coast Guard

I am a member of the Coast Guard Art Program, COGAP, and was recently asked if I’d like to be deployed for 4 days on their newest National Security cutter, the USCGC Stratton, of course I said yes. My assignment is to photograph the crew in their duties as well as images inside and out of the ship for future paintings to be submitted to the Coast Guard Art Program. I will board the ship in December and am looking forward to sailing on the newest ship in the Coast Guards fleet.

The Stratton is the third of four mega high tech 418-foot Legend Class cutters to replace the dependable but aging 378-foot Hamilton Class cutters built in the 1960’s. The National Security cutters perform alien migrant interdiction operations, fisheries protection, search and rescue, counter-narcotics and homeland security missions. On it’s first patrol out the sistership USCGC Waesche interdicted 2 vessels within a 48-hour period containing over 25 million in cocaine being smuggled to the US. The new National Security Cutters have the range to patrol from South America to the Bering Sea. The new cutters carry two helicopters and 2 long and short-range boats. The Legend Class cutters are real beauties!  

    Coast Guard Captain Dorothy C Stratton

Director of the SPARS, the Coast Guard Womens Reserve during WWII

I have known about this new project for about a month now but had to wait for my travel orders to be cut before announcing it. Mary Ann Bader, COGAP coordinator, has been great to work with in setting this all up with the Executive Officer of the Stratton. I’m looking forward to being on board the ship to observe the crew training and operation of the ship. I’ve been going over my photo equipment in preparation for getting as many reference photos as possible in the 4 days I’ll be with the ship. I’ll be posting some of these images when I return from the deployment in December.

Santa Ynez Valley Artists Studio Tour

S Y V   A R T I S T  S T U D I O  T O U R   N O V 18-20

The 2011 studio tour is coming up next week. Linda and I always look forward to the Studio Tour. It's a great chance to meet the people who enjoy my work, talk to old friends and make new ones. I've got some really nice new work up on the walls and we're just about ready for the show now...good thing because I just was picked for jury duty! Yes, there is a down side to excersizing your right to vote, haha.   

If you can make it up to the Santa Ynez Valley come on by. We will yak it up!

There are some great artists on this tour and it is a lot of fun getting to see the various studios and all of that very cool work.

Go here for more info!!

Spring Landscape

"Spring Landscape"

9" X 12" Oil on Panel

This painting started out as a spare panel being used to try out some old paints I had. I never intended to make a painting out of it, I just wanted to try some paints out. After trying out those paints I continued on with other projects and this panel was leaning up against the wall near my easel. Many times I would look over at it seeing various compositions out of the random bits of paint on the panel. After finishing another project I decided to just make something out of those bits of paint and created this scene. I've never began a painting like that but it was pretty fun to approach a painting that way. Maybe for fun you should try to make some random brush strokes on a blank panel and then force yourself to create a composition out of what you have there.    

The Allegro

One of my paintings just returned from a show in Coos Bay Oregon at the Coos Art Museum. The Marine Art show up there is a beautiful show sponsored by the American Society of Marine Artists. I've been fortunate enough to be juried into 3 of their shows. My painting, "The Demise of the Allegro", is one that I painted after a huge storm in January 2010 washed 12 boats ashore on East Beach in Santa Barbara. The owners of these boats have a set time to remove the boats or the city will bring in heavy equipment to shred the boats into bite sized chunks and off to the dump they go.
Some of the boats are live-boards, some weekend boats and some are just waiting for an opening for the limited marina slips in the protected harbor. The boats can anchor offshore off East Beach but they are open to the ocean storms that roll in from the Pacific. Once a boat breaks it's mooring line or drags a flimsy anchor they will wash ashore and be pummeled by the heavy surf. Fiberglass hulls will crack, keels crack or the deck cap can separate basically sheering off the deck from the hull. All of this results in costly repairs to owners so sometimes it's easier to scrap the boat. In all cases it is sad to see a boat come to it's end.

I've decided to post some of the stages it took to create this painting and some of my reference photos taken that day.

In the background you can see two more boats washed up on the rocks. Directly behind me were 2 sailboats and a Uniflite cabin cruiser...farther down were 4 or 5 more boats. You can see how the hull has been scraped against the rough sand and rocks.

  Another pic of the Allegro as the storm winds down.

 

I did a simple sketch of the boat and then painted in my background. I tried to keep that heavy mist that was in the air that morning.

 The seawall and boat painted in. I was told by another person there that the seawall had been under the sand before the storm hit.

At this point I began working the water in the foreground. While working the foreground the upper half of background would be tacking up to paint the rigging in last. It is way too hard to paint rigging over wet paint. After painting in the boat and water I decided I didn't like the seawall cutting the painting in half and shortened it to make the painting work better.

My finished version of the Allegro. Being at the actual location taking my reference photos really helped to add emotion and feel to the painting. I have owned a couple of boats in my life so I could totally understand how the owner must have felt over this event. I could feel some of those feelings inside of me just standing there taking photos. I have a strong connection with this painting now due to having been there as she lay aground. The owner tried to get help to dig the boat out but since the cabin was facing the sea she filled with too much sand and water. The owner ended up cutting the boat up. Here is an article in Noozhawk with a pic of the owner cutting her up and a video showing heavy waves washing another boat into the Gaviota pier. 
   

Eucalyptus Tree

"Eucalyptus Tree"
20" X 24" Oil on Canvas

I had painted this scene about a year ago but back then I painted grasses a certain way. When I see work that has those grasses I want to go back over them and paint them the way I do now. I have moved on to a looser look with the grasses, more "weedy" looking grasses. This one was not varnished so it was easy to just throw it on the easel and go back over the grasses...really, just adding to what was already there. Fun stuff.

Framing Big

A while back I painted a very large painting of Eaton Canyon. The painting measured 36" X 48". I ordered a very cool looking 5" wide gold frame for it which arrived a couple of days ago....cost a small fortune too. When the frame arrived I couldn't get over the size of it. It's huge compared to all of the other frames I had ordered in the past. I framed the painting this morning and it's now hanging in my living room for the studio tour that will happen later this month.

Linda giving me a hand here...literally! This shows the normal smaller wire hangers I use compared to the larger ones needed for this frame, haha. Big guys there. Nice thick wire on this one too...I think it was 100lb wire wrapped in plastic. Painting and frame weighs about 40-45lbs. For those of you painters doing your own framing you can find these wire hangers on eBay and buy them in lots of 250. See the black tape wrapped over the wire....this is to protect the hands of the volunteers who will one day hang your work in gallery shows. They will appreciate not jabbing loose wires under their finger nails if you remember to take the extra two seconds to wrap the ends with tape. Be kind!

Henninger Flats Painting

"Fall Below Henninger Flats"

20"X 24" Oil on Canvas

When you are hiking in Eaton Canyon you are below Henninger Flats. Peter Stiel originally owned the property and his friend William Henninger from Virginia began squatting on the land in 1884. Henninger built a home and grew hay, nut and fruit trees up there. Eventually the property was sold by his daughters after his death to various buyers who eventually sold it to the Mt Wilson Toll Road company.
There is a great site with info and photos of the descendants of William Henninger, and his Native American wife Teresa, having a reunion here.
My parents lived almost right below Henninger Flats in Pasadena. Trees are raised there and Henninger Flats is easily spotted from below by the trees at the two campgrounds they have there.

 The trees at Henninger Flats are visible just above the sign on the freeway overpass.

I've hiked there with my Dad and brothers and friends over the years. There is an access road that runs across the front of the mountains and gives great views of the San Gabriel valley below. Whenever I'm in Eaton Canyon I always look up to the trees at Henninger and recall the various times I've been up there. Down in Eaton canyon when fall rolls around the sycamores turn color and and contrast nicely against the blue and greys of the San Gabriels.

    The trees again visible at upper left in this late afternoon shot from Eaton Canyon.

Rancho Arbolado Lupine

"Rancho Arbolado Lupine"

24" X 36" Oil on Canvas

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

Island Encounters...Wildling Art Museum

Painting by Carl Oscar Borg

Today is the reception and opening for the Island Encounters exhibit at the Wildling Art Museum in Los Olivos, CA. The exhibit will run from Sept 21, 2011 to Jan 8, 2012. I was fortunate enough to have one of my paintings make it into this show. The show is filled with paintings, photographs and sculpture depicting scenes of any and all of the Channel Islands.
I'm happy to be in this show because my work will hang with some wonderful artists including Carl Oscar Borg, Elmer Wachtel and Lockwood de Forest. The show also includes work by some very fine contemporary artists too. The museum staff and their volunteers have made some wonderful creative adjustments to the main floor hall where the show will be held. I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibit later this afternoon. Do try and make it to the Island Encounters exhibit if you are in the area between Sep 21, 2011 and Jan 8th 2012

UPDATE......
           Just arrived back from the Island Encounters opening reception. Wow! I was only aware of a few of the artists that had work hanging in this show before going to it and felt privileged to have my painting in there with them. I was astonished to find works by Elmer Wachtel and DeWitt Parshall. Also were works by contemporary artists Matt Smith, 2 from Kevin Macpherson, Joseph Paquet, David Gallup, Whitney Abbott and many more. What a line up of talented artists.

Elmer and Marian Wachtel both had paintings overlooking Avalon harbor on Catalina Island. The museum put up a current image of the harbor where you could see the area they had painted back then and how it has changed over time. There were recognizable geographical elements that were in their paintings that remain today making it easy to reference what they were seeing and almost the location to where they were painting from...very cool. Parshall had a great subdued painting of a rocky shoreline with some birds flying in the foreground that was awesome. You could see how Parshall had painted thin, almost translucent at the edges of the rock formations too give the viewer this almost blurred edge...I wondered why he had painted the edge that way when I was right up on the small (about 12x16 I think) painting but when I looked again from about 10 feet away the effect was awesome....we painters of today think we are smart, ha! The Matt Smith piece was a small 8x10/9x12? painting with of course the killer rock work he does so well. I wish I had taken my camera but no dice...left it at home tonight but due to the crowd inside I would have never gotten a good shot and so I just enjoyed myself and studied too. Like I said...if you are close to Los Olivos, CA. this is a great exhibit to see....and drool.            

Eaton Canyon Painting

"Eaton Canyon Dusk"

38" X 48" Oil on Canvas

The painting above was painted back in January 2011. It is a large painting,  36"x48", and so it was leaning along the wall here drying...and staring at me. I finally had enough and threw it back up on my easel. It must be an artists curse that if you look at one of your paintings long enough you will undoubtedly see changes you want to make. Sometimes the changes make the painting better and sometimes you should have listened to your first instinct to call it quits. Paintings live and can taunt you, haha. I think the changes I have made on this one were for the better and I'm much happier now with this one...good thing too because it's large and is very hard to ignore here in the studio.
I've gone back in and lowered the contrast of colors in the distant mountains...being subtle speaks volumes. I've also varied the edges of the oak tree shapes, mainly the tops, in the midground. Oooh, much better! I adjusted the colors and detail of the midground bushes that run across the paintings center. I then came to the foreground and added work to the tree, worked more grasses in and worked more on the bush to the right. Some slight work on some rock shadows, the sandy riverbed sand...etc etc etc. Basically I touched up most of the painting and wondered why I had stopped before. Vision! Sometimes it tells you you're finished and sometimes, most of the time, it doesn't really mean it. I don't think there is a painting I have finished that when looking at it later I don't see something I'd change....it's that curse. Really an artist just improves with time and paintings and so it is only natural to see earlier work and want to make changes. Right now, I'm happy with the finish. I'm going to go broke buying a frame for this one, yikes!

At The Foothills Of The San Gabriels Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linda Vista Painting

"Over Linda Vista"

18" X 24" Oil on Canvas

Growing up in Pasadena I had always heard of the famous Pasadena Art Center College of Design. If you've seen the movie "Rudy" it was sort of like that only I wasn't wanting to go to Notre Dame, I would have wanted to go to Art Center. I never had the money for that and was too busy working. That doesn't keep you from drawing and painting though so I kept up with that on my own and at classes at Pasadena City College. My Dad worked for Brookside Golf Course and Art Center was up in the hills just above Brookside and the Rose Bowl. One year a friend of mine took me there to look around since his son was soon to go there. It was pretty impressive to say the least. 

Recently I was dropping some work off at the Galerie Gabrie in Pasadena and decided to head up there to get a better view of the mountains. I brought my camera and decided to get a lot of reference photos of the San Gabriels mountains. I parked in the student parking lot and hiked down the hillside a bit snapping away. Awesome view across the San Gabriels looking east over Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre...then off into the distance over Monrovia and Duarte. 

There was a small road going down the hillside and I liked the view looking somewhat north/east above La Canada at the foothills of the San Gabriels...pretty awesome when you're that close. I painted this scene of that view. I like the mid ground hills jutting up in front of the San Gabriels in the distance. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, is just on the other side of those hills hugging the bottom of the mountains. Nice area.

A detail from the painting....

   

Rancho San Carlos De Jonata

"Rancho San Carlos De Jonata Vista"

15" X 30" Oil on Canvas

I was invited to come to Rancho Jonata, one of the original Spanish land grant ranchos from early California, by the owner and his wife. They are also one of the founding families of Solvang and really sweet people. While there I was driven all over the rancho by the owner and enjoyed their hospitality. This view is one of thousands they have there at the rancho and was one of my favorites. I love the hillsides spattered with oaks and grasses looking off to the mountains in the distance. A truly beautiful place.

Galerie Gabrie Featured Artist

Featured Artist September, Galerie Gabrie

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday through Saturday 12:00 to 5:00 PM

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

Chamberlin Ranch Oaks Repaint

"Chamberlin Ranch Oaks"

6" X 8" Oil on Panel

This small painting was painted about a year ago. I recently had this in the Silent auction during the Los Olivos Quick Draw event and it sold to a really nice woman from Hermosa Beach, CA. I had wanted to try and paint another version of the small painting to push the colors and add more detail in the foreground. Before the Quick Draw I grabbed a 16"X20" canvas that had a Marine painting on it and decided to paint over it. 

Normally when painting over an old painting I'd sand off any lumps of old paint and then wipe it with a mixture of yellow ochre or indian yellow and turpintine first. This gives you a more even tone to paint over and fresh paint for the new paint to stick to. Instead I just wiped it down with a very diluted mix of turpentine and copal and once it was tacky I painted away without a tinted ground. This forced me to paint thicker since I tend to paint thin. 

"Oaks At Chamberlin Ranch"

16"X20" Oil on Canvas

There were slight changes to the newer painting since I wasn't trying to copy the original but just use it as a reference. I got most of the painting in before delivering the small painting on Thursday night to the auction. After the weekend event was over I came back to the new painting and finished it off. I really pushed the colors and detail which was the point of it all. I like the changes and added color/detail of the new painting. It is a good thing to try doing these with ones own work. There is a normal pressure with every painting as you try to make it a good painting of course but in doing a second painting I found that pressure was not there. I already had a good painting so there was a lot more freedom to experiment and make changes here regardless of the outcome...if something didn't work I could always just wipe it down or wipe the whole painting down and start over. Things went well on this one so I'm happy with the effort.  

A detail of the tree and foreground....

Quick Draw Fun !

The 25th Annual Los Olivos Quick Draw has come and gone. A pre-show of the participating artist's work on Friday night, Saturday morning''s Quick Draw followed up by the show reception in the afternoon that went until 8pm had me and all of the other artists ready for bed early on Saturday night. It was a good show.

The pre-show on Friday had pretty low attendance but I think we all knew that would happen considering the current economy. Actually, the economy has effected everything and that's too bad. Artists arrive hoping for the best and soon you see signs of frustration happening. You work hard to prepare for shows, paint your best, spend money on good frames, pay for hotels, gas for the car, get dressed up and then go through traffic, maybe take time off work if you have a job and then go to an art show where few show people up and those who do aren't buying. Hoping for better times.
There is only one thing good that comes out of a slow show, you have the time to talk to your painter friends. I visited with my old friends and made new ones so that was a good part of it...a great part. Finally met Joe Mancuso, super nice guy, and spoke again with Joe Milazzo as well as the other great artists there. 
Arrived back at home around 9 and then stayed up till 2 doing last minute things before the Quick Draw on Saturday.

Holly and Stacey from the Wildling Art Museum who worked so hard to put on a great show.

Up at 6am to pack up my gear, and arrived at the show just after 8am. Parked a block away and lugged my gear to the booth I would be in. I took 4 items...my french easel, my french companion, my bag of this and that and the frame I would use. Many of the artists seemed to bring enough stuff to fill up a studio. I don't get that. I wouldn't have taken the french companion if it didn't make things so much easier but it does so I took it. The bag of goodies was my turpentine can, paper towels, hand cleaner and a cloth towel and camera....had to have that stuff....and the frame was needed to frame the painting for the auction.

One very cool thing happened as I was setting up. I was walking past Ted Goerschner and Marilyn Simandle's area and Ted was standing there with a big grin on his face watching me heading back to my car. I've been in a show with Ted and he's one of the artists in the gallery that represents my work but I had actually never met him. I walked up said good morning and introduced myself. I had read and been told that Ted has no problem speaking his mind. That can intimidate most artists...it intimidated me. In 10 seconds I found Ted to be one of the nicest artists I had ever met. He was so casual and easy to speak with. We spoke for a few minutes, he introduced me to Marilyn and I felt great. Ted's never seen my work (maybe thank God for that! hahaha) but I have a very deep respect for him. He's a legend to all of us here in he valley, has taught and improved probably millions of artists with his workshops and books as well as been an inspiration to countless artists out there....he's a Big Gun in the art world to me.  

 Introductions. Ted Goerschner in white jacket in center.

About 5 minutes before the start..have coffee and ready to roll.

We set up then went across the street be announced to the slow arriving public...it looked dismal at best because hardly anyone was there but by the time they finished making the introductions it was packed and more people where still arriving. I wasn't nervous at all until we went to our booths and started painting....then with people talking behind you, taking pictures, asking questions the heat was on and at times I'd stop to settle down. It can get very nerve racking with an audience only 2 feet away watching your every move. All the while you are also racing the clock and battling doing a fast painting or a fast and good painting. Big difference.

 Getting close to the finish. I had Linda mill around snapping shots.

 Marilyn Simandle and Ted Goerschner at work

A closer shot at Marylin's painting

At one time they called out a 15 minute warning and I didn't hear what they had said. I stopped and looked towards the announcer with I'm sure the look of horror on my face because the crowd watching me started laughing and assuring me I still had 15 minutes. Whew! 
When the bell rang I was happy with the finish, framed that puppy and off it went. The night before I wired the frame for hanging, taped a business card to it and an artist bio. All I needed to do was slide in the wet painting, staple the brads in with my frame gun and was good to go.

The Auction begins...that's a good looking crowd !

The auction went well...below the normal prices but again, the economy raises it's ugly head. Everyone sold their paintings to the very large crowd of bidders. We also had a silent auction going on at the same time and I sold the smaller painting I had there to a woman from Manhattan Beach. You've got to love the people who show up to enjoy your work and efforts and you have to really love the ones who support you by bidding on the work. Face it, sales make the wheels turn and even if the prices were below market prices we all still sold and that's a gift....everyone wins. In that respect this was a successful show and I've been to many, many unsuccessful shows on the road of art.

bid bid bid....

One thing I did was forget to take a finished picture of the final painting...in too much of a hurry to frame and deliver the painting to the auction area. All in all....it was a great day.

Los Olivos 25th Annual Quick Draw

Create a painting in 1 hour...you bet I can!

It's only 4 days till the Los Olivos 25th Annual Quick Draw happens on Saturday Morning. The events actually start on Friday, Aug 19 when there will be a Quick Draw Art Preview with a Wine and Desert Reception. Collectors can see and buy art from their favorite artists the night before the Quick Draw at St. Marks In The Valley Church. This will happen at 7 - 8:30 PM. You may purchase advance tickets for $20. and they will be $25. at the door. To purchase tickets in advance online click here.

On Saturday, Aug 20th, the event begins at 10AM and will last until 6PM. There will be the Quick Draw followed by the live auction for the paintings as well as a Silent Auction in the Grange Hall. There will also be the additional art at St Marks too. A reception will happen at St. Marks at 2-4 PM. You can download a brochure here.  I will be painting in the Quick Draw event and look forward to seeing and talking to you Friday at St Marks as well as during the Saturday events. Please come by and have some fun !! 

Grass Mountain

Grass Mountain

22" X 28" Oil on Canvas

Looking to the north side of the valley we live in a familiar site is Grass Mountain. This mountain is easily recognized due to the year round grasses the cover it's south side. In Winter there is a nice green side to it and in Summer great tones of gold, ochre and yellow blaze in the sun. My attempt here was to go for the afternoon light as it warms the foreground oaks and grasses and push the atmosphere moving across the valley back to Grass mountain. Below is a detail on one of the foreground oaks...

     

Reworking A Painting

The original version of this painting painted in Fall/Winter 2010

I am framing up some small ones with the new little frames I made. As I was doing this I saw this painting which I painted last Fall or Winter. I always liked this one but I wanted to try adding some flowers in the foreground to add some interest to the dry Summer grasses. When I got to the easel that tree to the left was competing with my right side tree. I decided to lighten and make the shape slightly smaller. Eventually, I ended up readjusting the base of the eucalyptus tree too....reworking a painting, even a small painting, can lead you into more work than you might think. Having two shapes with close sizes and close lights and darks was a compositional error on my part and I'm glad I caught it.

 My reworked painting July 2011

Reworking is strange too. I see things that I like in both versions. Some of it though is the camera. My original Nikon 5200 took the first pic and the second was taken with a Nikon L11. Both Coolpix models but the L11 is newer, has more megapixel capacity but the white balance and lens cannot even come close to the older 5200. Anyway...it was fun to make the adjustments to this painting...taught me some lessons and reminded me of how easy it is to get sloppy and forget some things.