Studio Tour 2012

Linda's Halloween-themed table setting for the Studio Tour

 

This years 2012 Studio Tour has come and gone. Linda and I look forward to each years Studio Tour because we get to meet people who we can talk about the art with. Some of these people buy the work and we make new friends and meet old ones who have come by in the past. The best part is getting to hear their feedback on my work.

  The studio main wall

We had plenty of new work up on the walls and heard some great comments on the paintings. I had a large painting I wanted to show but didn't have time or the money to order a new frame for it so I made another floater frame out of oak. The frame came out great and we had some great comments on it.

My large 4 feet by 5 feet oak floater frame

With the economy the way it is we offered some smaller paintings which went over well. Half of my sales came from these little guys. People want an original and they want it affordable and I wanted to make some sales so it all worked out for us, the buyer and the Wildling Museum which sponsors this event.

Our good friend Holly Cline from the Wildling Museum who sponsors this Studio Tour. This is her last year as she moves on to bigger and better things. I am so going to miss Holly, she is a great person and has done so much for me and a lot of other artists up here in the valley...good luck Holly!!!!

 

 

The little gems ready for browsing....

One of the reasons behind the Studio Tour is to allow people a view of what happens in the creative process so I like to show the tools of the trade and answer as many questions as I can about painting as well as show my work, the finished result. I had people stop by who are beginning painters and seasoned ones as well. They always enjoy getting answers to questions they might have, tips I offer and the rapport of artist to artist. It's fun! I have parents bringing their college and high school students to see a working artists studio and it is fun to answer their questions and ask about their classes and their art experiences so far.

 My plein air easels and the "promo" table...yes, if you don't like talking about yourself you can always let that table do some of it for you but you need to do it too.

Notecards, my book, business cards, show flyers etc....promote yourself because no one else is going to do it for you !

Also...make credit card sales!! Right now it is easier than ever for an artist to accept credit card sales. You used to have to go through a difficult process of getting a merchant account which cost a lot of money monthly. Not anymore. Nowadays all you need is a smart phone and a little adapter that slides into it's earphone jack. There are a few of these companies offering it...we use the Square. Worked great and easy to get...in fact, the device is free when you sign up with the service which charges on a per transaction basis or monthly depending on how much you sell monthly.    



 

 My best helper!

Having Linda to lend a hand in all of this is "priceless". She handles sales, food, helps set it all up and take it all down too. She also helps answer questions since she now can do all of the art speak, haha.

Overall, it was a good show. Great people, good art, sales...and pumpkin pie! 



Framing

I just figured that since I had some new frames come in for pieces that I will show during the Studio Tour I'd see what some other paintings would look like in some of these frames. So I switched back and forth with paintings that fit.

 "Song Of The High Desert"

SOLD

This wide desert scene is seen here in the frame I ordered for it since it is an offsize....12" x 36". Thankfully my frame company in San Diego was able to get the frame made and shipped to me right before the Studio Tour! YES!!!. This is a great combination of paint color and frame. The painting is sold already and I'm sure the owners will love this.

"Stratton In San Pedro"

Above is one of the paintings that I will submit to the Coast Guard soon for possibly jurying into their 2013 Collection. It is the National Security Cutter "Stratton". I took the ref photo the first night I boarded the ship in San Pedro, CA to go with her over the next 5 days to Alameda, CA. Was a fun trip and a great ship to be aboard. I'm not sure what the Coast Guard framing look like but it sure would look great in this one!

  "Summer Fog"

I love the fog we have been getting lately here in Solvang. I painted this one when we were not getting any and I missed it....I love fog! I like the combination of green and gold so to me this works just fine. I also like the combination of blue and black frames...anything with lots of blues looks great in black frames but that's just me.

"Securing The Stratton, Alameda"
Another NSC Stratton painting. Did I mention I like nocturne paintings in black too???..I do. This was the night we arrived in Alameda. The dock has those warm tones in it in the foreground which works nicely with the gold trim around the opening of the frame. Black just shoves your eye right into the painting...that's why I like black frames but never get to use them enough. Galleries seem to like gold frames more and I think that's because home owners consider black frames too "museum" like....too stark a contrast on todays pastel interior colors I guess.  

A French Companion

A homemade French Companion I built and use a lot!

About a year ago I decided to build a French Companion for my French Easel. I was tired of using just the provided palette that came with the easel. Everytime I folded the beast up I'd end up with paint on me plus I had to remember to keep the paint flat enough on the palette to not hit the frame when closing the door to fold it all up. As for the difference between a French Mistress and a French Companion all I could tell is one is larger than the other and the spelling:)
A Companion made sense since it not only gave me a larger mixing surface but it kept the paint away from my clothes, was easy to carry and gave me two side panels to sit things on like brushes, turps containers, knives and the mandatory cup of coffee that I like to paint with. The only problem was the price of a store bought one....wasn't insanely high but I just didn't want to paint that much money for something I'm going to slop paint all over not to mention banging around in the truck when heading to painting locations. I'd build one! I'm cheap labor.

Building the companion was easy. The companion is just 3 flat boxes tied together with brass piano hinges. I used flat pieces of scrap thin Luan ply from that I had bought at home depot for another project. The frame was just a 2x4 cut down to size. Brass piano hinge from Home Depot too. Slapped some orange oil on it and that's it. No tricky cuts, no varnished finish, no oak or cherry....I'm just going to ruin it eventually with paint all over it. It probably cost me all of maybe $10 to build. I love working with wood so it was a lot of fun for me building it, (thanks Mr Danielson, my Blair High Woods teacher for 4 years of fun).

Of all my painting gear I love this one the best. Works great, looks fine and does exactly what it was built for....keeps my clothes paint free and holds my coffee too! I like it so much I use it in the studio to mix on when working on my French Easel or my big easel. I just set it on a small metal table that I keep paint in...my taboret. It has wheels so I can roll it around from easel to easel. When I'm finished painting for the day I just fold it up and slide it in the fridge to keep the paint from drying up. When I take it on locatiuon I just wrap a bungee cord around it to keep the tops closed....I could make a latch to do that but why bother, it works just fine with a bungee cord. If you don't have one of these build one and give it a try.

Plein Air with PACC

I almost forgot.....I did go out painting with the Plein Air Artists of the Central Coast ,PACC, not long ago. We meet once a month and each artist gets to choose a spot. This month was my turn so I picked a bluff along the old Santa Ynez Mission. I picked it mainly because some of the members would be up here on other business so this would keep it local.

  Our Group Photo, members of PACC

 

Was a fun afternoon but in the end I wasn't crazy about my painting of the area. Sometimes that stuff happens out there. Happens in the studio too but a lot less.

 

Not Painting...sort of.

I haven't had time to do much painting lately. Fall always gets so busy every year. Even in this sluggish horrible economy there have been some sales and shows to get ready for. With the bad economy I have stayed away from shows in general. No sense in going through all the entails from getting ready for a show only to just stand there smiling and not selling. I read from another artist telling you how to manage your art career that wehn it gets slow do more of everything, showing, painting, entering art shows. I've found that I don't agree. I'd rather use the slow time to paint...makes more sense than standing there in the sun smiling and inside wishing you had sold something to pay for the gas for the trip home.

The studio tour we do each year is almost here. I say "we" because it is something that Linda is involved with as much as I am. We not only show our studio but let people come into the house to see more are, the larger pieces, hanging in a home setting. Linda is forced to treat the Studio Tour as having a party with friends coming over...that means clean clean clean. Poor Linda. This year we needed to paint our deck which is highly visible from our living room. That meant scrape, scrape some more and then sand and paint. We are almost done but the clouds rolled in and rain expected tomorrow. This break allows me to now get some paintings framed and reframing other paintings. I need to choose what goes up on the walls and move my drums out of the studio and out of the way hidden in our bedroom. Good old me likes a large set of drums = more moving.

I spent this morning filling rusty cracks and holes in our raingutter off the studio and reorganizing the workshop area in our garage. My Dad gave me some Coleman lanterns last week that I will clean up and get back into working condition. I was going to use them for a camping trip/art show in November that fell through. I started tinkering with them but then Linda was giving me that "we need to get ready for the studio tour" look so back to the house we came. Everytime I walk through the studio I see the half-painted piece I'm working on just sitting there staring at me. Aarg!

I've got 3 nice gold frames somewhere between San Diego and my house at the moment. I've got ink for my printer on it's way too. I keep telling Linda we need to get the inventory program for the paintings up to date but she needs some documents off of my computer printed up...and it's sitting here out of ink. All of that to happen soon. Thankfully I've mowed all of the lawn, even the lawn down our side of the street which is about 3 acres long. Our mower, a riding sears Craftsman mower, has something going bad in the transmission so I get to pull that apart after the Studio tour to fix.

 Have to pick up more varnish later today so I can get some paintings done tomorrow. All of this fun stuff. I'm not griping though. It could be worse....I could have to deal with tons of sales in between it all, haha. Good thing the economy is slower than dead.        

"Mojave Evening"

12" X 24" Oil on Birch Panel

Another desert painting in late afternoon to evening light. I would thing the second one would have been easier, haha, but it wasn't. Seems like each painting presents it's own unique challenges. I'm always learning it seems with each painting. Makes you want to bang your head but it is actually a good thing.
Those foothills in the background are the beginning slopes of the San Gabriel mountain range looking south. On the otherside is the beautiful San Gabriel Valley. Back in th old West bandits like Vazquez use to hide out close to here and probably rode their horses into the foothills in this scene...ok, maybe they did.
....a detail of the painting,

    

High Desert Painting

"Song of the High Desert"

12" X 48" Oil on Birch Panel

This is pitiful because once again this painting came from my winter trip to the Little Rock area in the Mojave high desert...I have other desert reference photos but the pics I took that late afternoon are ones I really like. I headed out there to paint but got a late start and when I finally got there it was freezing. Instead of painting I decided to just take reference photos waiting for the sun to set down in the town of Little Rock at a McDonalds enjoying hot coffee...yeah, I'm getting soft in my old age, haha....hey, I'm going to be 55 tomorrow! Life speeds up!

The only bad thing about this painting is I'll have to make a frame out of oak for it because of it's odd size. Of course I like working with wood so no big deal....unless one of you framers out there wants to donate some killer frame for it....I'll wait up late tonight to hear from you, hahaha....that's going to be a long wait, haha.

A detail of the painting.....cool looking bushes. The desert has a great assortment of plants to contend with in...or to drive you crazy with depending on how you look at it.  

A closer look at three of the plants....actually, the larger prominent plants are easier to paint than all of the background plants in between these larger ones. Slowly I'm getting better at those "filler" plants in between the larger ones.

Carneros Finish

Well I finally got around to finishing and photographing the Los Carneros painting. In the first image you will see the point at which I stopped on location. At this point there was enough there to just have to dial in smaller bits to finish it up. I looked at the grasses area as the base for what I would do to it once I was back in the studio. The image is slighty different because I snapped this pic as it was on the easel out there.

In the final version you can see the slight alterations to the trees and then the additional grass work. Not bad for a little over an hours work stannding in the shade of a tree that was probably over a hundred years old....now how many artists do you think stood right where I was painting the same scene in that shade before I was even born???

Los Carneros, Goleta, CA

I painted today with PACC, Plein-Air Artist of the Central Coast, at Los Carneros which is the home of the famous Stowe House in Goleta. This is a cool area to paint and one I've painted before at a few years back. Great views of the Santa Ynez mountain range,, wild grasses, trails, a lake, eucalyptus trees, palms...it's got a lot to offer an artist.

The weather was warm and after taking pictures of the group of artists we split up to do our painting. I headed for a big eucalyptus tree for some shade and setup. I had a mechanical problem with my tripod and didn't feel like heading back to the truck for some toold to fix it so I just adjusted things to work and got to painting. Despite the wonky tripod things went ok and in about 2 hours I had a good enough painting to bring home. I like the background mountains and tried painting the trees a bit differently than usual which was fun. I like how they came out but tweaking will make them better. The foreground grasses are there but they too need tweaking. I was going to add a trail but between visits with hikers I was running out of time. I used to want to make a complete, finished painting each time I went out but now have found going back into it the next day makes for better results. This is just because the paint gets really tacky the next day thanks to the copal medium I use and the grasses are always better finished on tacky paint.

There are certain parts of this painting that would make a great larger painting so using it as a sketch is another option down the line. Some of my paintings have come from small parts of other paintings. In fact, I was painting a small 6x8 painting a while back and ended up using just part of it as the inspiration to paint an 8x10. That 8x10 ended up being picked to be used for the invitation cards for one of the California Art Club shows I was in last summer. I still have the smaller painting and each time I look at it I think of how far that quick little painting went. Tomorrow I'll finish this one up.  
  

Foxen Canyon Road Cows

"Shade Below Zaca Mountain"

20" X 30" Oil on Canvas

I took an early morning drive up Foxen Canyon to snap pics of cows and found these guys lounging in the shade as the day warmed. Cows are such noble creatures and I've wanted to paint them more than I have in the past. This field is used for growing alfalfa and it was cut and the cows left to graze on what was leftover. They had it wittled down to mere stubs. Gainey Ranch has cows and they grow their own alfalfa too and when prices are right I buy from them....fun to drive in on their place surrounded by hay fields.

Tree and cow details.....

I know, I know...repeating shapes but heck, that's how they posed for me and that doesn't bug me that much anyway doing it every now and then.

I had a great time painting these oaks. Must be the right time of year, lots of greens and browns which was rather fun to paint...trying to add more branch work too.

 

 

Central Coast Sunset

"Central Coast Sunset"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas Covered MDF

This painting was my warm up painting for the Quick Draw in Los Olivos this year. I used this to work out what I had in mind in painting for the event. It wasn't quite this finished looking so after the event I went back at it touching up things here and there. No sense in not finishing it up since it was painted and dry enough to go in and do the small adjustments. I like it, has that low light that I like and a really nice sense of atmosphere to it. If anything bothered me about it it has to be the canvas I'm using when making my boards. It has a tighter weave compared to most stretched canvases I've been using. Also, there is no flex to board mounted canvas compared to stretched canvas. I've been painting on stretched canvases a lot for the last year and have gotten used to that little bit of flexing of the canvas....panels are solid as a rock. What a little nitpicker I am, haha.

Here is a little detail of the painting....

 

Desert Nocturne

High Desert Nocturne

16"x20" Oil on Canvas

I painted this nocturne of the high desert here in California about 4 years ago I think. At the time I was really painting a lot of nocturnes. I think desert nocturnes have a really cool look to them....reminds me of going to see a Remington show at the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park back in the mid 90's with my Dad. There were some Remington nocturnes there and it was really impressive to see them up close. Since then when I think of nocturnes I usually think of that show first. I've seen nocturnes by Charles Rollo Peters which were pretty awesome to see in person. He painted the mission here in town, Mission Santa Ynez....a beautiful nocturne scene.

This painting was really a daytime scene since I have no photos of the California high desert at night. I just used artist license and turned it into a nocturne. If I repainted this scene today there are totally some changes that I would make, softening the edges on everything for one. Night time makes all things have blurred soft edges and so that is one thing I'd change now. Another I think would be to have less detail in the plants of the foreground. They were there in the daytime scene but at night a lot of detail would get lost with the dark so I'd change that part too. Looks good in the frame here and I won't go back at this one to make any corrections. It's all up in the brain and will be used in new works.     

Show is Over

Well, the 2012 Quick Draw is finis....the show went well, good sales at auction but low bids for the first bunch of artists including myself, my painting was the 5th one auctioned....being one of the first up at bat in the auction is suicide and most artists would pay not to have those slots. Takes a while for the crowd and auctioneer to warm up. I was happy to have sold both paintings that I had in the silent auction so it wasn't too bad.

Painters being announced before the timed event begins.

I'd say the best part of the auction was seeing some of the artists who received auction bids last year do better this year. A lot of these artists I know personally and are good friends so it was nice to see them do better this year around.
I thought about my painting, and it was a good painting, better than my last years painting in this event. Things came to mind but in the end I smiled and figured this is probably the painting Gods way of making sure my head will still fit my hat.

Dialing the painting in by adjusting the tree branches. This puppy looked great in the gold frame I had for it. 

  After the auction there was a show at the local church where we all had work hanging. I was pleased that I was approached by a person inviting me to an invitational show later in November. Not sure how well the show will do, especially since it is my first time, so I was busy checking into it today. Also there are the logistics of being in this particular show and I'm still working that out. I really want to do it though just for the location...Death Valley! I know, not the hub of civilization but that place is gorgeous! If I have to do a 4 day show it would be neat to do it in a place with a view! Hope it happens.
I was so lucky to have Linda helping me with the hanging and everything else that had to do with this show including hearing the alarm going off so we'd be on time. I would hate doing this without her helping me out....she's a real trooper.


Linda hard at work with the hanging.

    

26th Annual Quick Draw Los Olivos

I was invited again this year to particpate in the Quick Draw event up in Los Olivos. This is a really fun event (nervous fun for painters) and we had a good time last year. Some really good artists in this event and a fun day spent in a small country town. I was so nervous last year it took most of the fun out of it for me personally but Linda had a good time, haha. They had this really cool BBQ going on too, BBQ'd tri tip sandwiches....oh man!

I met some really cool artists, some who had driven very far just to be in this event. I've always been involved in other art things going on the same day they did the Quick Draw before but managed to get there in time to see who painted what. Big crowd and pretty fun to see these artists go from nothing to a finished and framed painting in 1 hour. After that they auction the paintings off which is almost as nerve racking as doing the actual painting under a time limit. If something goes wrong or isn't working out you don't have the extra time to correct it...Then you have to stand there and watch your goof being auctioned to a very large crowd....ugh!

Anyway....if you are up around Los Olivos California on Saturday the 18th try and stop by. I'll be the guy with the large beads of sweat pouring down his forehead whispering little prayers to the art gods....On Friday the 17th they are having a preview wine & desert show too....you can see all of the details here.
    

"High Desert Rabbitbrush"

24"x36" Oil on Canvas

I painted this scene about 2 years ago but something didn't feel right so I put it in storage. The other day I was hunting in the storage room and came across the painting again. Right away I spotted what it was that didn't look right to me. In the foreground rabbitbrush I had painted the values of the flowers and the plant itself too extreme. I went back at it and made my changes and now I like the painting much more....no more storage for this one.

I really enjoy the California high desert desert. The area in this scene is not far from the small desert town of Littlerock. The desert starts to raise up as it nears the foothills and just after winter the desert plants begin to bloom. Rabbitbrush is one of my favorite plants from the desert. In spring the plant is a grey blue color and in afternoon light looks just beautiful....of course, the entire area as barren as it is can be very beautiful. Obviously you don't want to be standing there in the dead of summer becuase it can get seriously hot. These plants thrive in the desert climate. I've learned that the Mojave yucca trees on average can be anywhere from 200-300 years old and the oldest creosote plants, near Lucerne valley, were carbon dated to 11,700 years old! They are some of the oldest living organisms on earth.        

"On The Ridge"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas covered panel

This area is just north of where I live, about a 10 minute drive maybe. Summer grasses are always great looking around here. The grasses and their warm color tones give the trees and background mountains a great looking color contrast. This is one of those paintings that took two days due to all of the distractions going on...I hate that because it is really hard to get back to work on the painting and sometimes you can begin to loose interest if you had stopped at a point where you were not happy. This painting started out as a summer painting but after a break and coming back I changed to to a winter scene, green grasses, but then came back from another break and went with summer again. I hate wiping paint off. Glad it ended up as it did and calling it finished.

Some of the work on the bushes here in this detail shot of the painting...

Santa Ynez Valley Fog

"Summer Fog"

12"x16" Oil on Birch Panel

This scene catches the summer fog we tend to get here in the Santa Ynez Valley in summer. We haven't had much this year and I miss it. The nice thing abouyt being a painter is that I can just paint the scene and wish it was like that painting now, haha. Was originally going to keep the scene muted down like it would be in nature but then decided to just get a little colorful in the foreground area. I like it anyways.

Here is a detail of the trunk area.....looks cool...and it was fun to paint!

Light ,Shadow and things....

A Study...12"x16"

Still playing with light and shadow, this painting came was started to follow up some things from a previous sketch. Halfway through it though some other ideas popped into my mind and the painting changed into it's own. That was ok to do as the painting came out well enough. I like the grassy area in the foreground catching the late afternoon sunlight and the rest of the grasses in shadow. I was originally going to try painting the shadow areas with blues and purples but opted to go this way. 

Foxen Canyon Afternoon

"Foxen Canyon Afternoon"

12"x16" Oil on Canvas

Did this painting based on a photo taken last winter overlooking Foxen Canyon. This area is just above the Firestone Winery and close to my favorite spot up there. The background hills always catch the late afternoon light really well and the grasses get it too. I like the place and enjoy just being around up there. It is taking me a while to get used to painting smaller again but I'm coming around slowly but surely, haha.
Here is a detail of the background area....Fun adding the metal fenceposts. I used the egde of the painting knife to add the wire very loosely. I like the shadowed color on the hillsides here.

Carlos De Haes, Born in Brussels 1826 and died in Madrid 1898. I had never heard of De Haes and last night while browsing some art related subjects on youtube I bumped into a clip of his paintings. Blown away would be an understatement. De Haes was a super painter with a wonderful sense of illumination, light and technical prowess. If you'd like to see a video presentation check it out here and enjoy!

I really love his sense of light and his commanding way of painting large scenes of very simple landscape subjects. Many of his works have that muted grey look that worked well in landscapes compared to todays bright, colorful works. Those toned down paintings had an enormous amount of mood put into them simply by the use of muted color. It's very hard to find a painting with mood in it today when so much color is being used by todays painters....I'm guilty of it too but that is  the way people want it so I'm told.

I did a Google search of De Haes and found another blog that has some awesome large images of his work and also some background of the artist that makes for a good read. If you have 10 minutes do check out this mans work...it is well worth your time.