Caliente Mountains

There are 2 mountain ranges that border the Carrizo Plain, the Temblor Range and the Caliente Range. This scene is looking towards the Caliente mountain range to the west of the Plain. The area is rugged and breathtaking. I was so fortunate to get there this Spring while the plants were still blooming. Soon the heat will come to the Plain but it goes with the territory.

"Caliente Mountains Afternoon"

8" X 10" Oil on canvas covered panel

A detail of the painting...

Carrizo Plain...again

"On The Carrizo Plain"

12" x 16" Oil on canvas covered panel

I decided to do yet another painting of the Carrizo Plain. I'm sure I will do many more in time so bear with me. This scene was painted simply because I love painting trails. I took a lot of photos out there where I saw trails leading off into the wilds. This particular one led to the foothills of the Elkhorn hills near the south entrance to the Plain.

The other thing that caught my eye was the immence distance there is across the Plain and the effects that causes on the atmosphere in the scene. There is an almost hazy effect on the distant mountains. I love how the details of these mountains were soflty blurred simply because of this hazy effect from nature. Very cool to see and paint. Below is a detail of the painting....

Here is the reference photo that I worked from. As you can see I cropped the area that I wanted and worked from that. This ref photo actually has many paintable scenes in it...you just have to spot them and grab your brushes.

See that cloud? Do you realize that cloud runs across the valley which means it was at least 5 miles long!

Carrizo Plain...in Bloom

I took some good reference photos on my recent journey to the Carrizo Plain. The Carrizo Plain is located west of the town of Taft which is west of Bakersfield. The San Andreas fault runs the length of the eastern side of the Plain and this is one of the best places along the fault to view it since there is very little erosion up there. They get very little rainfall which means erosion damage is almost nil along the fault.


This view is part of the Elkhorn hills in the foreground and in the distance you can see the Temblor mountain range. It's beautiful up on the Plain and clouds so low you feel you are almost on the same level as they glide by.

"Carrizo Plain in Spring"

12" x 16"

Palos Verde Mustard

" Palos Verde Mustard"

9"x12"

Last year I went to Portuguese Bend to paint mustard. Had a great time seeing painter friends of mine and meeting some new painters. While there I strolled around snapping reference photos and this painting was done from one of those images. It was getting late in the evening and this bit of trees across the field of mustard grabbed my attention.

Here is a shot of the reference photo. This field of mustard looked so awesome as the light began to dwindle before we left the area. This is a very cool spot not readily open to the public. I was told this field was actually a bean field back before WW2 and was tended by the many Japanese that lived in the area.

Azusa Canyon Morning

"Azusa Canyon Morning"

12"x16"

I think with most artists there is a love for light and it's effects on color. Naturally this would cause artists to love morning and evening light...both my favorite times of day and the best time to head out of the house with a camera or pochade box if you are quick enough to catch it on your canvas. I suppose you could spend the rest of your life just trying to capture evening light and it's many variations of light on many scenes....happening daily! Morning light is just as spectacular but I think in a more subdued way. Cool colors frequented by explosions of warms.
This Easter morning I headed up into Azusa canyon to take some reference photos of morning light and it's effect on the canyon walls. I wanted to get shots of the pale filtered light and then try variations of that in paintings. This one is my first from that trip and I pushed the pale light that would recede on more distant background mountains. If you look at my ref you can see that the pale light was darker and really made the foreground hillside foliage contrast better. On lightening the background hills I lost some of that contrast...but that's ok, this was about pushing that pale light, not contrast.

Foxen Canyon Mustard

"Foxen Canyon Mustard"

12"x16"

Spring has arrived and the wildflowers are growing throughout the hillsides of the Central Coast. Poppies, Lupine and Wild Mustard are giving off wonderful color splashes that photographers and artists are snagging up left and right in their works.


This scene is off of Foxen Canyon road just above the Firestone Vineyards just north of the small town of Los Olivos.

Azusa Canyon Wash

This scene was painted from a reference photo taken Easter morning. Azusa canyon is a short drive from where I grew up in Pasadena. I've spend many a day up in the canyon. I even caught my first fish just below the canyon at a place called Happy Jacks Fish Farm. Across the street there was a pasture with buffalo grazing. Both of these places are long gone with condominiums in their place. Glad I was raised here before the great disappearance!

I have collected several reference photos of this scene taken from the freeway as I drove by. California Impressionist painter Elmer Wachtel painted the same scene probably 30-40 years before I was born and was most likely setup where the freeway now is and where I took my ref photos out of a speeding car window. Not to be in the exact same spot, I drove to the west side of the wash and took a new reference photo from there. The wash is now fenced off to the public but I made do. I didn't want to paint the smaller dams in the foreground so I just winged it with my own foreground version.

Here is my reference photo.....

And here is the finished painting of mine...

"Azusa Canyon Wash"

12" x 24"
My reference photo doesn't show the wash at all. The dams block it out but I've seen it enough times to just paint it in. At the base of the mountains I added suggested buildings and homes so this is actually a little of both the past and present.

Details.....

In The Figueroas

I took my daughter up to the Figueroa mountains last week to get some ref photos of the wildflowers and managed to get some good late afternoon shots. This scene looks over our valley and had these great rocks in the foreground so I decided to go for it. Despite my lack of confidence with painting rocks I think the end result doesn't look half bad. I'll continue to work on rocks down the line since that is what I feel is a painting weakness of mine.


Here it is up on the easel. The top, or background area, is finished and I am blocking in the foreground colors.

Here is the finished piece below

"In The Figueroas"

16" X 20" Oil on Canvas

Gallery In The Vines

North of where I live is a place called Edna Valley near San Luis Obispo. It is here that I have my work carried by Gallery In The Vines. It is run by Ex-NY artist Patti Robbins and her husband Robbie....great people! I know, they run it and I'm in there so they have to be great people...no, they really are. Patti is super nice and really understands artists because she is one of them.

I went there yesterday to switch out some work to help spur sales and it's what we do every now and then to keep the work in there fresh. It's always fun to see how the new work will look hanging under lights in somewhere other than my house.

inside the gallery....

Thanks to our sagging...no, demolished economy there have been little art sales lately. Can't do anything about that except paint better while the sales are slumping so when they come back I'll be ready with new work. I don't know why it is but going to any gallery always gets me charged up to do newer, better work....everytime! Sometimes it is because you see someone elses work that inspires you...sometimes it is just seeing your work in there and thinking to yourself I can do better....I will do better. In my situtation it is usually either of these two reasons 50% of the time.

3 of my pieces on the right side...

There are 2 other artist friends from my Guild in there also. I love going in there to see their work under the lights in a gallery environment too. Both very good artists and I'm really proud to be in there with them. Lets hope that galleries across the nation can manage to hang in there despite the lack of sales. Artists are doing what they can to hang in there too and it's getting really interesting.....

Tonal Visitation

"Alisos Canyon Sunset"

12" X 16" Oil on masonite panel

I had this reference photo of a sunset and decided to try painting it. I decided to use less detail to produce a painting in a more tonal vein. I like the look of some tonal paintings and thought it would be neat to give it a try and came up with this piece. Maybe I added a bit too much detail for a really true tonal painting but to me this is in that direction and it was a fun piece to work on.


I was just up yesterday switching work in the gallery I'm in at Edna Valley. I decided while there that I need to do more work for that area so I need to move off of this one and get back to work. Still, you have to stop once in a while to experiment for your own mental health.

Spring Show

The Artist Guild of the Santa Ynez Valley had a show in Los Olivos this last Saturday. I was one of 3 artists who were going to paint plein air in the park next door during the event. There isn't much to paint there so I decided to paint a scene where I could put in some wildflowers that I recently saw up in the Figueroa moutains the week before.

Spring brings the California poppies and Lupine. The Figuroa mountains are a close drive and I went up there the previous Monday and Wednesday taking photos for reference material and also scoping out some painting locations for future plein air work. As you can see the poppies and lupine were out in force in spots right along the road.I started my painting during the show and pretty much finished it. When I brought it home I put in the poppies and lupine. People come up to talk and I needed to work out show so I couldn't finish it there. Anyway, shows are a fun time to visit with fellow artsts and relax a little from the painting chores in the studio. Here is my finished painting. The lupine and poppies were on my mind since seeing them so it was oln yfitting to add them in this scene. Mine are toned down a bit since I like subtle color work anyway. I'm happy with it.

Valley Poppies

Another scene painted to work on shadow and distance. This is no particular area around here but working from imagination. I'm sure this valley in various areas looks very similar to this scene. Spring rolls around and the California poppies begin to bloom all over the place. The Lupine should be blooming soon so I'm keeping my eye out for it.

"Valley Poppies"

9" X 12" Oil on Masonite Panel

I will be in a show with my local artists guild this Saturday and will probably paint outside with a friend of mine, Syd McCutcheon. I'll probably do a similar scene to this one since there isn't much to paint in the park where we will be painting at. I did this one to warm up for the show. Took me about 2 hours today so I think I'll be ok for Saturday. I'd hate to get out there and draw a blank for a subject or totally goof it. I'd like to be able to do one of these in less than an hour but I'm still not able to paint that quick using my imagination. Sometimes you have to see in your mind what you want and then make that happen with the paint. Sometimes you paint it but don't like it so you think of something else that works so this stuff slows me down a bit.

The Same Scene

I painted this scene once before this last summer I think. I wanted to give it another try to work more on the shadowed areas of this scene. I really like afternoon light and the variations of light and shadow that time of day brings. I absolutely love what the sun does to color at evening too...that wonderful golden time of day. Theres only a hint of that light in this painting as it is just prior to that time of day...but there was this great shadowed area to play with so it was worth another shot at re-doing this scene.

"Evening Near Lompoc"

9" X 12" Oil on masonite panel

Sisquoc...and clearing haze

"Haze Clearing Near Sisquoc"

15" x 30"

To be honest, the small town of Sisquoc is about a couple of miles down the road if you followed that fence line meandering off into the distance in my latest painting. This ranch is in the Santa Maria valley right before you turn south for the drive through Foxen Canyon. Santa Maria valley heads right down to the ocean so they get great fog in there. Just a fun painting to do....

a small detail shot....

Coast Guard Project

I'm a member of the Coast Guard Art Program ,COGAP, and each year submit work for consideration for the Coast Guard art collection. Jurying is done in New York at the Salmgundi Art Club. Last year I had a pen & ink drawing juried into the collection and 2 weeks ago I was notified that my painting, "Vertical Insertion", was juried into this years collection. The painting is off a Coast Guard team being pulled back into a helicopter during traning exercises in Texas.

The painting was done from a reference photo taken by a Coast Guard member. I liked the photo because of the gorgeous background sky and clouds. The main subject, the helicopter and men hanging on the cable were something I had never done in a painting so I figured it was time to give something like that a try.

I started with a good sketch of the scene I had cropped out of the photo since the entire picture taken by the Coast Guard member wasn't needed.

After I was happy with the sketch I then blocked in my colors for the sky and clouds and then began to blend all of that with a fan brush until it looked the way I wanted. I painted around the helcopter and men on the line below. Sorry for the glare on these early photos...too busy painting to worry about lighting.I then began to paint in my darks and the grey areas of the helicopter. My oranges would be blended into these colors in areas.

After that I began to paint in the rest of the helicopter paying attention to my edges. The Coast Guard wants work the resembles their equipment accurately but there is room to not have hard edges and I could have gone softer there if I chose. The back wheels looked a little low so I will paint over them and move them higher later.
Here you can see those wheels painted out and waiting for the new wheels to be painted in. You can see the area left unpainted for the men on the cable...I left them last so I could adjust their position with where they should be under the winch since most of my outlined drawing of them was painted over by the sky blending. After the helicopter was done they were added last and this is the finished result.....

The blurred motion look to the blades was created by painting in some of my dark mix and waiting for that paint to set up to a tacky state. Then I used a dry brush to feather the paint into what you see here. This scene was in late afteroon light...almost twilight which gave that sky such wonderful colors.

Once notified by the Coast Guard of the painting being accepted into the collection I then varnished the painting and when dry sent it off to Virginia. It will be framed by them and displayed at the Collection Reception at the Salmagundi Art Club later this year...June I think. I'm welcome to fly to New York for the Reception but I still can't afford to do that. They will present those of us who had work juried into the collection with a really cool looking certificate and photo of the painting in this huge book-type binder along with a letter of thanks. It's really an honor to be included into the collection. The work is donated to the Coast Guard and will be available for display at various Coast Guard installations or other government locations. It's all pretty cool!

Mojave Desert

I decided to paint a desert scene since I really like the desert and don't get to see it as often as I wish. In Pasadena a drive to the Mojave desert was just an hours trip over the San Gabriel mountains on Angeles Crest Highway. Places like Palmdale, Mojave, Four Corners, Phelan, California City and Pinion Pines were fun to drive up to. The fun of exploring the high desert, which is what we called it, is almost impossible now due to the God awful housing development that has taken place since the early 80's. The ruination of the desert I call it.


Back in the early days of the desert there were a lot of guest ranches out here and at one time agriculture. My Dad rented a houseboat on the Colordo river and we had to travl across the Mojave in our blue 1963 Chevy Biscayne station wagon complete with desert water bag hung on the front of the radiator grill just in case. Crossing te high desert still could be a major deal then. Nowadays these same roads are dotted with McDonalds, In-N-Out Burger and Taco Bell...not to mention the occasional Outlet stores for that last minute super deal we are all looking for in tennis shows or jeans. If you grew up watching Death Valley Days it is really hard to appreciate driving across Pearblossom highway and seeing the trash and furniture left scattered along the roadside. Enjoy what you can of the Mojave before developers convince even more of the masses to move to affordable country desert living.

"Floor of the Mojave"

12" x 16" Oil on Canvas covered Panel

Storm Clearing Santa Ynez

Did this painting to practice my cloud work. I love the clouds we get here in the valley and Winter brings spectacular clouds for reference material. These clouds were from a storm that brought rain about a month ago and I waited to get them on film as soon as the sorm began to break up.

Some clouds are just so spectacular that I won't paint them because they will look contrived...like trying to build this monster sky painting with unbelievable clouds....some skies here have totally looked unbelievable. I have them on film but no one would believe it if I painted them. I usually tend to tone my clouds down when painting them but they would still be hard to imagine to most viewers.

"Storm Clearing Santa Ynez"

12" X 16"

Oil on canvas covered panel

Santa Ynez Valley

"Central Coast Splendor"

12" x 24" Oil on Canvas

I was able to paint this one Alla Prima yesterday despite all the fun of having 2 teenaged daughters and their multitude of dramatic events. This explains why I love to paint late at night! I used to think painting was something you could do like drawing...anywhere, anytime. Nope. Painting demands a lot of concentation, (whether you know you are doing it or not). Lifes daily occurances really throw you loops and makes painting take forever at times.

This painting was done mainly to just get better at depicting these scenes of the central coast. One day I will do a fantastic painting of the central coast capturing it's beauty in any light. This is a springtime scene with green hillsides and wildflowers...I chose white instead of doing lupine or poppies again. Did a couple small touch ups this morning and I think it is where I want it to be...for now.

I like to ground the trees with bushes at it's base and dark shadows there. That method seems to work well.

Making that trail meander into the painting was fun...gives the painting some added depth too. The grasses you see here are just vertical strokes with a knife. The base for the grasses are just vertical scumbling with the knife done prior to any grass blade highlights. The dirt areas are also scumbled in with a knife...to finish that off I flick tiny grasses up into the dirt from below. A fun painting to do.

Santa Ynez Eucalyptus

" Over the Valley"

9" X 12"

I did a painting earlier and cropped some areas of the painting to post online. This painting was inspired by one of those little detailed images of that earlier painting. I did this on masonite panel which gives it a softer look unless I go with a bit thicker paint. I like this one as it reminds me of the valley here as seen from one of the hillsides.

...and some details....

Ref As A Guide

"Trail at the Bluffs"

12"x16"

Oil on Canvas Covered Panel

I started painting this scene months ago...summer I think. I worked from a reference photo I shot at the bluffs in Carpinteria. I made several changes along the way since I wasn't jazzed about the painting as it progressed. I started it with wanting merely to capture the grasses in sunlight but realised I really didn't like their color. There was no trail here so I decided to put it in since it looked boring with just the grasses. I added a large greaseplant since there are some in the area.

I've asked 2 people about this painting here and the really like it...I'm not that crazy about it. Somewere along the line I think I lost my drive to finish it so it sat. Today I sat it back on the easel and tried to finish it...making even more color changes in the grasses. I'm still not sure what doesn't look right to me with this one so I'm going to let it sit again.

I think this detail shot shows the best part of this painting to me. Maybe I'll do another painting using just this detail as a reference...now that's an idea!