Sycamore in Eaton Canyon

"Sycamore In Eaton Canyon"

22" x 28" Oil on Canvas

Well, finished up the sycamore tree painting from Eaton Canyon. I like this type of intimate scene from the canyon....unlike the wide spread out canyon vista, a more detailed view of the canyon in a scene such as this brings more of the flavor out of the location. I like the distant faded sunlight posed against the rich colors of the shadowed foreground you see here. I look at this scene now and I think of an old Robert Wood painting my parents had in our house when we were growing up. Wood painted the forests so well.

A detail of the painting....

 

An Artist's Support

            The other day I returned a phone call to one of my artist friends. I met this friend online years ago at a website I visit a lot composed of mainly artists showing their work to each other for critique. We eventually met at a plein air event down in Temecula, CA. I met two other artists down at that show who I've also kept in touch with. I can't stress how important it is to have artist friends to talk with from time to time....they are worth their weight in gold.
             My friend and I talked about a host of things that night. Him and I are going through so many similar things in our careers. It is good to know I'm not the only one thinking the same things that an artist can think of....and you have plenty of time to think about these issues when you are painting....or when you are awake for that matter! One of the topics we talked about was do we really see our work as we see it. Think of it....when I started out painting like most it was horrible stuff. After a while the paintings got better. I started thinking to myself after long hard looks..."hey, that looks good". I look at my work now and say "hey, that looks good". A week or so ago I was reorganizing my old painting storage area and pulled out a lot of the old paintings. They look horrible to me now! This then brings up the question...is what I see now actually good or do things appear good to you just because they are in the present time. If so, a year from now my current work will look horrible to me. Maybe the mind does this to you to keep you from killing youself over current reality.
            There has to be something to seeing in the present time. I used to absolutely love a lot of the work of certain artists years ago. Recently I've gone back to enjoy these pieces again but found myself not as thrilled with them as I once was. Same paintings but a more dulled sense of enjoyment. Could be that I have looked at these works a hundred times...sort of like taking another bite of your favorite candy bar...one day you buy a different candy bar to shake it up. New art by these artists sometimes works but sometimes the artists go into different directions....sort of like the candy bar company changing the ingredients...uh oh.
           Anyway, I'm guessing the mind has some sort of plan that I don't understand so I won't pretend to make up an answer for it.
           Right after that call I received an email from one of the other artist friends I met in Temecula. We had a great swapping of emails regarding the fun and agony of getting into shows or art clubs. There are so many stories to be told of all of that mess and we had a great time sharing our experiences. I felt better. It's not all just happening to me, haha. It is good to have friends to talk with who can feel your pain and joy because they too are going through it. I've met some wonderful people through art. Painters, guild members, the people who buy the work and the ones who just love it but really can't afford it yet. I try to talk with them all as much as possible and enjoy the feedback and sharing of ideas and knowledge.
         When I was younger and still growing up creating art was a lonely thing. You sat in your room drawing or at the dinner table when all were outside. People didn't bother you because you were "creating". Of course back then you didn't have the pressure that you do once you get older and are more serious about it. Art is a serious thing, it isn't just happily painting away without a care in the world. Creating art now is many things but it is not a carefree hobby anymore. Having art friends who you can call, write or visit with to talk shop is like a big relief valve to lesson the pressure and bring a smile back to your face.   

On The Easel

On Thanksgiving I arrived early to Eaton Canyon to snap some reference photos before the rest of the days festivities. Many of the sycamore trees were in half of their autumn colors...green and golds and I actually prefer that period of painting them. There were plenty of fallen golden leaves lining the canyon floor below the sycamores which made for even better shots. I like this scene looking south to Pasadena at the exit of the canyon. Here all you can see is a hazy greenish background but that works perfectly for highlighting the tree.
I'm just about finished with this piece. I'm waiting now to see what changes I want to make....I know they are there and a days wait will point them all out to me. There were a lot of small thin branches off of the tree and I might go back in to add more of those.

This painting was started yesterday afternoon. I painted in the background and base colors of the tree trunks and growth under the trees. Both of those colors were just a dark reddish mixture of ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and a slight bit of cadmium yellow light. Today all of the foreground was finished up....tree trunk colors, sandy trail, leaves, thin branches, the leave covered ground and vegetation under the trees. So far so good. I'll hopefully finish it off early tomorrow morning because in the afternoon I'll be heading down to Pasadena for the show at the gallery. My hope is the gallery will make some sales...not neccesarily mine...just any sales. If I don't finish it tomorrow I'll finish it on Friday morning for sure....then it is off to another painting...another lesson.

Deck The Halls With Smalls Nov 29, 2012

!!!!This Thursday....Nov 29, 2012!!!!

On Green....

Galerie Gabrie in Pasadena, CA will be one of 7 local shops on Green St, near the Pasadena Playhouse District, to open the red carpet for early holiday shopping and offering unique buying opportunities. There will be food, entertainment,, music and a Marketplace featuring handcrafted items to fill your holiday shopping list. There will also be a drawing for an original oil painting

"Deck The Halls With Smalls!"

Galerie Gabrie will be having their Small Paintings Exhibit "Deck The Halls With Smalls!" Artist, Charles Meunch will be having a book signing, Artist, Sylvia Trybek will also be finishing up her show which was rained out earlier.

20% of the retail price on all paintings sold between Nov 15 and Dec 31 will go directly to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy

This event will happen on Thursday, November 29th. 2012

11:00 AM to 8:00 PM

Galerie Gabrie 597 E. Green St. Pasadena, California

Phone - 626.577.1223

.....Click image above for more info.....

San Gabriel Mountains in 2 hours

"Down In The Canyon"

9"x12" Oil on Panel

I had wanted to do some painting before heading down to my parents house for Thanksgiving day so the night before at about 9pm I decided to paint this little Eaton canyon scene. I was trying to get as far as I could that night but in a couple of hours it was done. On Friday it was tacky enough to set into the frame just to see how it would look when it was framed up. I like it. This is a late afternoon scene where the light is still hitting the higher mountains in the background but the canyon bottom is in shadow. You can see some of the warm light still hitting the trees along the top of the walls and heading up to the foothills. This is another painting where I've gone in and just blocked in all of the colors first and then gone back over each area putting in the details....having fun with that method.

A detail of the painting......

Eaton Canyon Sunset

Well, all finished. I wish I could get a better photo of the painting but it is a wide painting and I have to back away to get the wide panel into the viewfinder which then keeps me from getting a good solid image...It's not bad but probably could me much better.

 "Eaton Canyon Sunset"

12" X 36" Oil on birch panel

I'd say it works pretty well as a painting of one of my favorite subjects...the San Gabriel mountains. These are hard mountains to paint and I feel I'm really making progress with them. There are some really nice passages in this painting but seeing them in an online photo doesn't do them justice. One particular area I like a lot is the left side showing the distant trees and far off bluffs along the mountain bottom...

Overall....this one came out well. I'll let it sit and dry and work on getting a frame for it in the meantime.

Starting a Painting

For a long while now I have painted pretty much in a manner that worked well for me...painting back to front which in the landscape works out pretty much top to bottom. First paint the sky, distant hills, trees in mid ground, foreground trees, foreground grasses last. I'm not quite sure I remember why I started painting that way but somehow it just evolved that way and it worked for me....in art, whatever works for you the painter...works.

In using this method each stage of the painting was as close to finished as I could get and then I'd move on to the next area....after all areas were completed I'd then go back in and adjust them to work with each other and as a finished painting. Knowing and seeing in my mind what I was after made it easy for me to work this way. Most of the time I tend to paint the painting in my mind before actually picking up a brush...this way I know what I want it to look like when it is finished and can very much see it.

There is something I am finding out about painting this way...it is a slower method. The other afternoon I started another painting, 12x36, and decided to just block in all of my areas at once. This blocking in put all of my foundation, or base, colors down in about an hour...it took that long because I was finicky about the base colors and trying some new ones for this painting. Once those base colors were in I just started working the areas adding, little by little, the detail in each area with little color notes. I also would let an area sit while working other areas and then go back to the previous area. The bulk of the painting was completed sometime after midnight....I didn't work straight through but it still went fast. I have spent today dialing things in and still need to work some other small areas in before I call it finished. The painting is a mountain canyon in afternoon light with lots of varied color and this way of painting this particular scene works very well. Hopefully it will be finished tomorrow and then I'll post the finished painting then. I know blocking in your painting might be old hat to many painters but it is a method I'll work more with in the future now that I've rediscovered it for myself, haha.  

          

Tres Hermanas With PACC

On monday I headed out to Tres Hermanas Vineyard in Foxen Canyon, just north of my house. I was to meet up with members of PACC for our monthly painting spree. I did a show, a 3 day, no sales show, at Tres Hermanas and used the time spent there painting. Whoever thought up that show was insane...but I digress. I sometimes like the area and sometimes hate it....I don't like the hills there that much and most of the land doesn't get me excited at all. Fun the first time and wondering what to do next. Anyways....I had to meet with Linda later on so I only had a few hours to paint and felt pressured to paint something decent since I was with the group. I also choose to go big, 12x24, so at some point I decided I'd never finish and I'd be good at getting something started and would finish back home. I figure I did 3/4 of the painting out there and the rest in the studio today. I first wanted to paint the road because it had these nice shadows running across it.

As cool as it looked my eyes kept wandering over to the morning sunlit hills. I liked the shadows being cast from the trees and the warm colors of the hillsides....I went that way. I blocked in my areas and immediately began tweaking things. I wasn't sure of how I was going to approach it, focusing on the hshadows or the sunlight or the colors...in the end I balanced all of that but I think I lost one of them being a stronger element and making the painting work better. I blame it on hurrying...hahaha!

   One of the ladies pulled her car in and set up to paint together since we arrived first. The rest of the group were down the road and around the turn there. I stopped on my way out to say hi and see what they were coming up with. Some good things going with this group. My very wet painting laying across the backseat on my jacket since I don't have a carrier for something that large. Still, it was nice to break out of the 9x12 restriction out there and I'm sure I'll do it again.
My finished painting.....

 

Santa Ynez Summer Field

"Summer Field"

10" X 20" Oil on Panel

Had to slow down painting there for a while due to other things needing to be taken care of. I thought for a nice get-back-into-the -swing-of- things it would be good to just do a painting from no reference material, out of my imagination and memory. I like doing these types of paintings and since I paint a lot of the Central Coast it is not very hard to do one of these like that. I've painted scenes in the valley a lot so those views are always in my mind. This scene would easily be simlar to scenes along the highway heading over to Lompoc. Grassy sloping foothills easing up to the Santa Rita or Santa Ynez mountain ranges. Decided to capture the last of the warm grasses of summer before our Winter is here and with it the occasional rains bringing green grasses.

If you are an artist I highly reccomend painting from what you have inside of your head. You just need the vision of the parts that make up a scene which you've probably painted many times before and can arrange a composition in your mind and then you're off! This type of painting is pretty fun and gives you the ability to paint on a rainy days when it is no fun or too cold to paint outside. Beats painting in the snow too!

Galerie Gabrie On Green

On Green....

Galerie Gabrie in Pasadena, CA will be one of 7 local shops on Green St, near the Pasadena Playhouse District, to open the red carpet for early holiday shopping and offering unique buying opportunities. There will be food, entertainment,, music and a Marketplace featuring handcrafted items to fill your holiday shopping list. There will also be a drawing for an original oil painting

 

"Deck The Halls With Smalls!"

Galerie Gabrie will be having their Small Paintings Exhibit "Deck The Halls With Smalls!" Artist, Charles Meunch will be having a book signing, Artist, Sylvia Trybek will also be finishing up her show which was rained out earlier.

..............

20% of the retail price on all paintings sold between Nov 15 and Dec 31 will go directly to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy

..............

This event will happen on Thursday, November 29th. 2012

11:00 AM to 8:00 PM

597 E. Green St. Pasadena, California

.....Click image above for more info.....

 

Morro Bay Streetscene

Painting of Morro Bay Streetscene....

12"x16" Oil on Canvas Covered Panel

I painted this scene a few years back and recently pulled it out to do some minor touch ups to it. It will be one of the paintings I will enter into the upcoming California Art club show in Pasadena later this month. The scene was from a reference photo I took while working the gallery at Morro Bay. Next door was a cute little bookstore that had these planters out front in full bloom despite the off and on rains that day. No tourists were out due to the rains so I walked outside to snap some photos of this and other scenes of the street. I don't paint a lot of flowery paintings so this was one of my early attempts to do so. It wasn't bad so I eventually framed it and showed it in 1 or 2 shows around town. Landscapes are so much easier to paint because they don't have any architecture to deal with which is why I try to paint the countryside instead of streetscenes. I should do more of them though since I could always use the practice. Paint what you love because everything else you paint is just work, hahaha.
 

A closer look at those intimidating flowers...well, they were to me at the time I painted them. Painting the half barrels was a lot of fun so maybe I'll try those in another painting down the line.

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.