Santa Barbara News Press Review

Art About the There There

IN 'THE VIEW FROM HERE,' THE CURRENT EXHIBITION AT SOLVANG'S ELVERHOJ MUSEUM, LOCAL ARTISTS PRESENT THEIR PERSPECTIVES ON SANTA YNEZ VALLEY

Josef Woodard, a News Press Correspondent.
March 29, 2013   

           This is an excerpt from a review of the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art show I am currently in titled "The View From Here". The show consists of paintings created by 6 local artists and how each artist interpretes their view of the valley in their art. The show is wonderful thanks to the calibre of the artists and each of them has their own take on what we all see in our daily lives here in the valley. I was very happy to be asked to be a part of this show.
  
          "With the show truthfully titled "The View from Here," six area artists take on the subject of the "there here." What emerges is a sense of place via landscape painting, of six individual sensibilities at work. Along the way, the show roughly tells the story of this Valley's continuing evolution over the years.

Entering the gallery, the viewer is greeted dramatically by the tall, vivid presence of Ron Guthrie's "Morning Sycamore," on the far wall facing the entrance. But the same artist also shows a more unusual painting just to the right of the door, "Mission Santa Ynez Bluffs," a happy convergence of hillside, trees and yonder foothills, a poetic pact of light and composition. Mr. Guthrie also impresses with the vertical tree study "Majesty" and the peaceable atmospherics of his "Storm Clouds Over Adobe Creek."

The rest of this very good review on all of the artists is availble to read in the "Scene" section of the SBNP paper...cost $2.50 to read if you are not a subscriber, sorry.
...a very cool review of the show Mr Woodard, thanks!

Old Mill Road Sycamore

"Old Mill Road Light"

12 X 14 Oil on Canvas

Not far from Mission Santa Ynez stands an adobe grist mill that was built in 1820 by a Bostonian named Joseph Chapman. Chapman had travelled here with a pirate named Bouchard. When they arrived here the pirates, along with Chapman, burned down the Ortega Adobe at Rancho De Refugio. Chapman was arrested and tried and sentanced to a firing squad. Eventually Chapman was parolled to Mission Santa Ynez. Chapman was a master builder so he built this grist mill and another duplicate of it at Mission San Gabriel. I occasionally go down to this mill and take pictures. Along the way there stands this old eucalyptus tree with many twisting branches. I like how the morning light played across this tree and cast long shadows across the mill road.

The old grist mill, now a Santa Barbara historical site

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Shared Visions Show

Shared Visions Plein Air & Studio Show 

A group show of Plein Air Painters of the Central Coast Apr 4 - May 31, 2013

 I will be part of the PACC show "Shared Visions, Plein Air & Studio" show at the Divine Inspiration Gallery of Fine Art in Santa Barbara, CA in April. The show is comprised of 7 Central Coast artists who paint plein air and of course create paintings in the studio. PACC was formed this last Winter and we have had several group paint outs. All of the artists have participated in various shows with each other over the years but never as a group. Each member has a their own unique way of painting scenes of the Central Coast and we saw a really nice balance of those styles when forming the group.

The artists reception will be on Thursday, April; 4th from 5-8pm at the gallery. If you are in the Santa Barbara area please come and enjoy some great art by some fine artists. I'll be there showing my paintings of mostly works depicting scenes of the Santa Barbara area. Should be a lot of fun!

A Sycamore

"Sycamore"

24" X 24" Oil on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

I painted another scene with this same tree that is now hanging in my living room continuing to dry in a pretty snazzy frame. When I finished that painting I had cropped a couple of detail photos of it. One of the detail photos was very similar to the scene in this painting. I decided to crop again from my original reference photo, based on the previous cropped image, and used it for this painting. I also had two 24x24 cnavses I had painted yeyars before that I was never happy with and didn't bother to varnish so I sanded one down and painted over it reusing the canvas.....there is a lot of that going on considering this wonderful economy we're in. Funny, I mentioned to another painter down in Pasadena that right after Christmas I went through all of my old paintings and pulled ones I decided to paint over to reuse the good canvas and she had done the same thing in her studio! Apparently I'm not alone in making ends meet.

I'm really enjoying painting sycamore trees with their spotted bark and scraggly branches. Their bark reminds me of Winter camouflage the military used to use. I wish now that I had taken more reference photos of these trees this last Fall since I've been painting so many of them. I'll have to wait until next fall. In fact, next Fall I will go out to paint some sycamore scenes plein air. Should be fun. Even though this is one Gallery wrapped canvas I'll probably make a nice oak floater frame...or maybe just an oak frame to pop it in...should work nicely like that. I'll wail until it dries to touch and then paint the sides a dark color in case I go with the floater frame.

Santa Ynez Valley Inspired

Valley Evening

12x16 Oil on panel

Continuing my fun with trees, namely eucalyptus trees, this is another Santa Ynez valley inspired painting. The only drawback to this looking more like the valley is the pinkish violet mountains. Ours usually turn a bluish color with pink highlights along the ridges. Still, these scene reminds me a lof of the valley in late afternoon light as the sun goes down over the Santa Rita hills to the west of us. Threw in the little trail here and added some birds....the birds came along because this morning I was thumbing through an old Walter Foster book written by artist William Palluth and he used birds a lot in his paintings, thank you Mr. Palluth. I liked the way Palluth painted his foliage and grasses. If you ever come across some of his work or one of his old books take a look, you'll enjoy the paintings of his.

Here is a detail shot of that nice looking tree to the left......fun with trunks!

Trail and Trees

"Trail To Evening"

8"x10" Oil on panel

Working in the same vein as the previous painting to try slight little variances. I'm still messing with getting my trees to look right. I like to trying things out, playing with shape and color, lighting etc. Always something to learn and workout and I've yet to be satisfied with any of them, haha.

Some details of the painting.....

I like the trail and wish I had raised it up higher. I'm worried the frame edge will cover too much of it...oh well, live and learn.

  

A Santa Ynez Scene

"Evening Colors"

8"x10" Oil on Panel

The Colors of Evening Light

I have driven around this valley so many times in the last 8 or 9 years that the colors in the evening are made permanent to my memory. It always amazes me how rich evening colors become and for only a short while before it is too dark. Artists refer to this period as the "Golden Time". In this painting I wanted to try painting that time but just as it is about to end and go dark...it is really the last bit of light the sun gives the day. Once that sunlight is beyong the horizon all that is left for we brief moment is a subtle glow and then all colors become muted and dull. This, of course, happens everywhere each evening and one only has to go outside and wait for it to happen. When I worked in the Los Angeles area I would see it happen usually sitting in LA traffic. It was a brief moment to forget the congestion and racing the clock to just get home. It is one of those gifts nature gives us that gets forgotten or overlooked by most too busy with their daily grind.

A detail of the painting....

A Rework

After the first of the year I went through my storage area in hopes of clearing up some of the clutter of old work. Some of these paintings were sketches trying things out, paintings I wasn't happy with and paintings that I felt were lacking something and in time I'd see it.
This painting was one I felt could use more work down the line. The one thing I wasn't happy with was the mountains. I really wasn't crazy about the highlights on the mountains so I se it aside. The painting had a light coat of varnish on it so I sanded some of the texture off and wiped it down with some gum turpentine. This left the paint flat and ready for reworking.

The mountains actually looked like that but in a few days I didn't lkike those highlights. They would go for a lighter coat of blue/grey and some suggested detail. I also deicded to reqork the foliage, oak scrub, and the hillside grasses adding more color into the painting. The original painting had a more subdued look to it which was ok but I wanted to boost the colors more in the foreground. I'm happier with it now. Funny thing, I didn't use a reference photo for the rework. I just painted over the original making my own changes. After readjusting the mountain ridge line I stepped back to take a good look and realised they now look exactly as the San Gabriel mountains look from almost right below my parents house....ridgeline and all. Must be some subconsious thinking going on here, haha.

  

Eaton Canyon Sycamore Painting in Frame

"Eaton Canyon Fall"

20" X 24" Oil on Canvas

Eaton Canyon Painting Preview

Framing a painting before it is ready because you just can't wait to see it all framed up.

This painting isn't completely dry nor is it varnished yet. Everytime I walk into the studio though there it sits leaning against my bookcase drying away and waiting to be varnished and framed. It is one of those paintings that for some strange reason grows on you...well ok, on me. Of all of my sycamore paintings so far this painting I feel has the best work on the trunk. Each time I look at it I like it more and more.. It's becoming an old friend. I just had to see what it would look like once it's framed so I took one of the same size down from my living room and popped this one in it. Ahhhhh! If I was buying my art this is the one I'd buy, hahaha. Of course, artists see paintings differently...the small achievements, the failure....they know the work put into it and the goal to begin with. Only the artist knows how close they have come to their goal with each piece. We just see our paintings in very different ways than the public does. This one is my favorite for now. All of those moons and stars lined up just right and bam, it was done. Looks really cool in the frame and it going to look killer once it is varnished.

Refugio Beach

"Refugio Beach Afternoon"

16" X 20" Oil on canvas

Refugio Beach Painting

I haven't been to the beach in a while but had reference photos that I had taken in the past and decided to go through them looking for a beach scene. I needed a 16"x20" painting for a show later this year in Santa Barbara so I want to show paintings of that area. A nice beach scene would do. I had gone to Refugio Beach which is right off of Hwy 101 down the coast. Refugio is a beautiful little beach that also has a campground nearby, a small store and trails up on the bluffs nearby. I started this one yesterday morning and last night it as pretty much finished...alla prima. I did some small touches to it today and figure this guy is done. I liked the large foreground shadow in this scene. I'm really enjoying shadows lately and thought painting a big shadow on white sand would be lots of fun...it was. At first I painted in this violet mix leaning towards the blue balancing it with white. It is kind of tricky since it appears like a flat blue violet when you put it on the canvas. Only when I added the details of the highlighted sand color and the dark seaweed did it look right. It's really a trip not knowing if the color value is right until these other elements are in. Fun painting.  

Into The Coast Guard Collection

 USCGC Stratton in San Pedro Dec 16, 2011

Coast Guard COGAP 2013 Collection 

4 Paintings of Mine Have Been Juried Into the 2013 Coast Guard Art Collection

I was happy to receive an email from the COGAP program coordinator, MaryAnn Bader, letting me know that 4 of my paintings were juried into the Salmagundi Club in New York. These paintings were painted after my depoyment with the Coast Guard National Security cutter Stratton. I boarded the ship in San Pedro CA and sailed with the crew to it's new home port of Alameda, CA in San Francisco bay. My mission was to collect reference photos of the ship and crew and then create paintings of this new ship to the Coast Guard for it's art collection.
These new National Security Legnd Class cutters are the replacement for the aging and smaller Hamilton Class cutters currently serving the Coast Guard. The Stratton is the third cutter to come online for the CG and I was very fortunate as an artist to be allowed on board for the trip to San Francisco. My thanks to the Captain and crew of the USCGC Stratton for my time aboard.
My paintings will now be shipped to Maryland where they will be framed and prepared to be included in the upcoming show of the new 2013 collection at the Salmagundi Club in New York. Yahooooo!
Here are the 4 pieces that were juried in to the 2013 COGAP collection.

Santa Ynez River and the Large Pochade

The members of PACC met yesterday to have our monthly paint out down at the Santa Ynez river just south of the town of Solvang. It is a great spot to paint but was much better about 2 months ago when all of the trees were in full Fall colors still. I was out of 9"x12" panels so I decided to break in my pochade box that I built to handle 12"x16" panels. Had to run down to the garage early in the morning to make an adjustment for the mounting plate of my tripod but that went smoothly. I also drilled to holes in the sides to mount my brush caddie too....can't do without that. Some gusty winds helped to evaluate the pochade box in a real life situation but that puppy hing in there and worked just fine.

I need a wet panel carrier for 12"x16" panels though so I'll make one and probably bungy it to the pochade box when hiking in or out. If you look at the small pic of my other pochade box, the 9"x12" you can see the size difference by looking at the brush caddie. On the 9x12 box it is almost flush with the top of the box....it is about 3" shorter on the bigger pochade box. The only drawback to this larger pochade box is that it won't fit into my backpack so it gets carried by hand. Maybe I'll make some sort of handle for it. It's not that big of a deal since I only paint on larger sizes like this once in a while. Overall though it worked great. If you are interested in building a pochade box check out the link to the right for Jim Serretts blog....he's the man with the plan.   

...And Yet Another Floater Frame

I had more fun building this floater frame a few months ago to replace a painting we had over the fireplace. The older painting was a gallery wrapped painting and I had just finished this new piece on standard stretched canvas which is 5/8" thick stretcher bars I think. I picked up a piece of oak at out local lumber yard that was slightly over 6" wide. I wanted to make this floater frame with 3" deep sides so this would work.
I cut all of the side pieces on my table saw and began piecing it all together. I won't post any dimensions because these frames I make are always different dimensions depending on the size of the painting.

 After all of the sides and back pieces were cut I glued and shots brads into the corners to keep it all together. What you see here are the side pieces and two strips placed inside to attach the painting to. Long wood screws go through these wood pieces and into the back of the paintings stretcher bars...that is how it mounts.

To reinforce the frame I add strips of wood along the back making the frame basically an "L" shape.

Here is a closer view of the corner before the back piece is added. You can see the small brads shot into the corners. These are later covered with wood putty so you don't see them.

Here is a view of the back pieces now mounted to the sides. Any gaps in the wood are filled with wood putty and then sanded.

....and here is that same area after sanding, staining and rubbed with wax....looks cool!

After the frame is all glued, nailed together, sanded and stained it is then rubbed with furniture wax to protect the wood and give it a nice luster.

  Once that was all done I mounted the painting. It is centered and then the screws go into the back wood pieces and into the paintings stretcher bars. Since you have to work in the back putting in the screws it is easiest to do all of the mounting standing the frame upright. I use the little corner tensioners that come with stretched canvases to level the painting and then just do all of the drilling from the back

Below are a couple of detail shots of how the painting stretcher bars mount to the center mounting bars. Basically, you predrill holes into the mounting bars. Then you screw through the mounting bars directly into the back of the paintings' stretcher bars. If you look at the photo above you see I used corner wedges stacked up the the height I wanted the painting mounted to the frame. Then all I had to do was move it evenly from side to side and then drill screws into the back to attach the painting to the mounting bars. My stretcher bars are 5/8" thick, the mounting bars are 3/4" thick...both of these fit well into the 3" deep frame.

...a little closer view of the mounting bar and stretcher bar area.....

And then it is all done and ready to hang......

To get an idea of the size of this frame that is a french easel it is leaning against...big frame! Doesn't weight that much because the wood is only about 3/8" thick. To keep the wood from bowing is one of the reasons the back pieces are attached to it...they stiffen the frame. 

More Douglas Preserve Painting

So on my way out of the Douglas Family Preserve, (or, the Wilcox Property), Out of the corner of my eye I see a small flash of color. Turns out to be a lady out walking and she has on this bright red jacket or shirt and it caught my eye. All of my painting gear was in my backpack and my camera was in hand so I snapped a quick pic on the fly. I like when someone is near big trees to show the scale of the tree height. Later I was looking through my pics of the area and came across that photo. I took it into Photoshop and zoomed in on that area with the lady and liked how there was this nice gap in the treeline showing the distant mountains in the background....I live on the otherside of those mountains in the Santa Ynez Valley by the way.
I cropped that area and decided to paint it.....nice distance with the mountains while at the same time giving good contrast with the foreground trees. Couldn't do the height because I wanted to go horizontal not vertical....purely a framing decision. Here is my cropped area........

  I cropped about 5 or 6 different scenes based on this area of the photo but this one worked for me. I really like eucalyptus trunks.....nice creamy whites/pinks/gray and a bit of orange on the bark. Long slender trunks with gentle curves and all of that green foliage and skyholes.....they are just too fun not to paint.
Here is my finished painting below. I didn't want the houses in the dip in the landscape nor the lady walking in there....just a personal thing. I also pushed the background more than what's there to give the painting more depth than what nature was offering me. The visibility was awesome that day making the backgroundtoo intense for a painter so I use artist license to grey it down pushing it into the distance.

"View From The Douglas Preserve"

12X16 Oil on Panel

Douglas Family Preserve

It's been a while since I've done one of these so I'm going to post this one with work in progress shots. These are always fun to do because I like seeing a painting progress to it's finish. I painted this scene today starting this morning and finishing later this evening. This one is from the Wilcox property, or the Douglas Family Preserve if you want to go by the new name of the area.

 1 ) Above shows the block in...laying in the base colors of each specific area of the scene. When I block in I tend to start with the sky and background, then move forward from there. I spend a little more time with the background trying to actually finish it up before moving forward so the trees back there are pretty much about what they will look like when the painting is finished. Later I will do some small tweaking of the background to tie it in with the foreground more but not much.

2 ) My foreground shadow colors are in and later I will add the highlights there to give that large shady area some dappled light coming through the trees overhead from the left and slightly behind the scene here. The tree darks are put in as thin as I can get them before they lose too much color....you don't want them transparent. I use copal painting medium to thin it and that also helps it to tack up a bit before the mid and highlight colors are painted over it. What I don't want is for that area to dry because I don't like painting on dry paint. I like it tacky so I can blend into it where I want it.

 3 ) Once all of the colors are in I start working the trees. In this painting that was the longest process. On large canvases it is easy to get a little depressed because it is all done by eye...just working the trees till they look right. The larger the painting the slower that all goes and it seems like they will never get done. Eventually they start to happen and the mood changes drastically, haha. I imagine working with glazes can give an artist the same feelings...."when is this going to start working???" I take breaks doing the trees because each time you come back to the painting you see areas that need adjusting. Getting the colors right on the trees will really help add the right light to the scene too so it is a lot of mixing to get the right greens. After the trees were finished the next step was to add the highlights in the foreground shadows and then go back and tweak, tweak, tweak the entire painting to pull it all together....you know, the fun part!

4 ) ......and all finished! In painting these scenes of the DFP I have found my "way" of painting in the foreground shadows. I don't worry too much about painting them in exactly the way they will look at the finish. I mix up a dark violet and paint it in...it was either going to be more blue or more red depending on what I wanted....I like more blue but the actual color was more red because of the dirt here....it was a very reddish dirt. Later I add my highlight colors, sort of a dirty pink, I go over some areas of the shadow with either that color or a mix of light blue which lightens parts of the shadows....you can see it in the lighter areas of the shadows. This lighter area gives the illusion of shadowed pink dirt. This is done mainly in the foreground area of the shadow and would be areas in shadow that are getting more reflected or diffused sunlight. In reading articles about painting shadows they tend to have you put your strongest darks of the shadows in the foreground area. I imagine that is an art rule and generally it is probably the way to go. Here in this scene the shadows were varied depending on how much light was being blocked out by thick or thin tree foliage. The other reason I painted the shadow this way was to vary the large dark mass of shadows....instead of a large flat dark area I have "holes" of sunlight streaking across the shadows in random shapes and the values of the rest of the shadows are varied. This keeps it interesting for the viewer, elliminates a boring large flat area of the painting and makes it fun for the artist to play with values. Hope you like it.    
 

Elverhoj Opening Reception

We had a really good opening reception for the Elverhoj Museum show on Saturday evening. This show was a 6 artist show and we all know each other so it was fun to be in a show together. Some are old friends who I've known since I moved here and it was really nice to hang out with them. We had a good crowd that seemed to be pulsating in attendence leaving time in between it getting really crowded to talk to each other. I think by the end of the reception 4 paintings had sold which was great except none of those were my sales, but hey, like the song says, "sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug" and if you can't handle that art is not the career to be in.
I had a great spot for my largest painting of a sycamore tree as you can see in the pic below....

 Maybe I didn't mention it but the Elverhoj is a Danish museum built in a Danish farm house that was owned by 2 artists who did pottery in a studio that is now the gallery area. They heated that room with a large fireplace and had their kilns outside behind the studio. The rest of the house is the museum decorated with things a house like that would have an other Solvang historical artifacts. Lots of charm.

Linda with my friend and artist Carol Wood. Carol is my favorite painter in the valley and the most down to earth person I know around here. I have never been around Carol where we didn't laugh...she's that much fun. Linda of course is always my running buddy. While there we bumped into a couple who live on a super large ranch just outside of town. His father was one of the founding members of Solvang. They let me go up to their place to paint or take reference photos. I was glad to run into them because I need to go back to their place to get some better shots of a canyon with a meadow filled with oaks. They gave me the green light to come up anytime. Yahoo! 

   The museum did a great job of hanging the show and getting the word out. Good crowd, sales, excellent lighting etc. Thankfully, the museum is only 5 minutes from my house so it is the most affordable show I can do in this awful economy. Maybe I'll make a sale before the show is over...ya never know.

CAC City Lights Show

California Art Club

"City Lights"

Jan 18 - May 21, 2013 

 

I was very fortunate to get one of my paintings into the California Art Club "City Lights" show held at the very swanky Altadena Country Club. My painting, "Bookstore Flowers", was juried in to the show which made me very happy since I was unable to submit anything into the last 2 shows the CAC had due to scheduling problems I had. I really hate missing some of these shows because it is the only time I get to see some of my artist friends I know down that way. Over the years I've made some really good friends that are doing some wonderful work. Marian Fortunati and Laura Wambsgans are the sweetest people and very talented artists and they both had super pieces in this show.I'm hoping they both make sales!!!
If you can make it to see this show do so because the work I saw that was turned in was incredible....has to look even better hanging and lit up.

Altadena Town & Country Club

2290 Country Club Drive

Altadena, CA. 

Phone - 626-583-9009 for details  

Wilcox Property

"Wilcox Property Shadows"

12x16 Oil on canvas

 Another painting from my visit to the Wilcox Property in Santa Barbara. Actually, this area is now called the Douglas Family Preserve but most call it by the old name. The first name came from the fact that it was the Wilcox Nursery...then the area was going to be developed but Santa Barbara residents bought it to keep it undeveloped.....and that's where the second name came from, actor Michael Douglas donated $600,000 to help with purchasing the property....a good guy with 600,000 reasons why it should be called the Douglas Family Preserve. On a great sunny day, walking in the shadows of these old trees and looking down into the swells of the Pacific ocean below the bluffs it doesn't really matter what name it is called....it just feels good.
The morning shadows were just so cool there that day. I'm glad I got there early. I really would like to go back down there in late afternoon and see what the lighting is like. The cool thing about that place is the nice stands of eucalyptus, pine and coastal pines. There are many other types of trees there and the trails under the strees reminded me of hikes in forested areas in Washington and British Columbia. Very cool place.

A detail of the small coastal juniper.....rough bark and big branches shaped like banana trees.       

   

Elverhoj Museum Show

I will be part of a 6 artist show at the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art in Solvang from Feb. 2 through April 28 2013. The show is called "The View From Here" and features 6 local artists presenting their interpretations of local scenes throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. I am honored to be a part of this invitational show and am looking forward to having my work shown at the Elverhoj. If you live close to Solvang please come by the museum on Saturday Feb 2 to the Show Reception between 4 to 6 pm. Also, on Saturday March 2nd there will be an artists panel discussion that I will be participating in.

Here is the show card below....for more info please contact Esther or any of the other fine people working at the museum....805-686-1211

Ted Goerschner

Ted painting in the Los Olivos Quick Draw

 Ted Goerschner

1933 - 2012

When I was painting with PACC down in Santa Barbara recently one of the members told me that Ted Goerschner had passed away right before Christmas. I was working on a painting at the time and was stunned to hear of his passing. The rest of my time painting was spent thinking about Ted. The one thing I personally know about Ted is that he was such a nice man and that I wish I had known him more than just that.

I first met Ted when we were both setting up our gear for the Los Olivos Quick Draw 2 years ago. Ted was represented by the same gallery I am in down in Pasadena, Galerie Gabrie. I'm positive Ted didn't know this since we had never met so I walked up to him and introduced myself. I had heard he was a straight forward no nonsense kinda guy and could be intimidating. It turned out he was super nice and I liked him instantly. 

If you have never seen Teds work that's probably too bad for you. You'd probably have to look it up online but I can tell you now you will only see pale images of Teds work. I had only seen his work for years online and thought it was good. Then, at our studio tour a few years back I saw my first Goerschner painting in person....hugh difference. If you ever get the chance to see one of Ted's paintings in person you will be in for a major treat...his color work was just awesome. Rich darks, intensive brights and a wonderful range in between. You really have to see one of his works in person to really get the full effect of a Goerschner painting. I have Ted's book on painting, "Oil Painting, The Workshop Experience", and in it he has the most killer dark greens in his snow scenes. Ted also had the most wonderful purple/violet color for distant mountains and a great violet tone used for shadows. Some guys make you drool with their painting and Ted could do that easily. Ted was a Master Painter for sure and he is going to be sorely missed by many.