A Morning Sycamore Tree

" Morning Sycamore"

8" X 10"

Oil on canvas covered panel

I usually toss between two trees, eucalyptus and oak, which is a bad habit but in my defense I love both trees and they are plentiful where I live. Still, if Lennon & McCartney only wrote love songs we'd have never heard Sgt Pepper, I Am The Walrus or Glass Onion right? So, it was off to paint a Sycamore tree for me.
This one was found close to home in the local mountains. There is a stand of trees of mostly sycamore and oak right before one of the valleys. It's my favorite part of that drive and I've stopped there many times to get reference photos or just drink my coffee and enjoy a very special place. All of the land off the road belongs to local ranchers and No Trespassing signs line the gates on dirt roads that go in. It must have been a much better world back when ranchers did not fence in cattle on their land...have you ever wondered how many very cool things must be on private property that the public will never see? Not that all of the public would want to but there are those that would. Artists, writers, poets, photographers...all stop at the No Trespassing sign. Maybe there is a good point for trespassing to begin with.

Ecstatic...by Association

...my pen & ink piece. Around the corner was one of my paintings and across from that "The Widow Maker" by Thomas Hoyne! "

The cool thing about being in an art show in a museum is just that...it's in a museum. Museums usually have rare and wonderful things in them....hence, your work will be in a venue with such items. I am in a show at the Ventura County Maritime Museum and they have an awesome collection of Marine Art. 2 pieces of mine, a pen & ink piece and an oil painting, were not 5 feet away from the painting "Widow Maker" by Thomas Hoyne! AWESOME!! Even better, they were not 10 feet away from "Shaming The Gulls" by Hoyne. In this same room were pieces by John Stobart, Roy Cross and Christopher Blossom not to mention the late David Thimgan whose painting "Abbie off the Northern Coast" was there.

A detail of "Abbie Off The North Coast"
Artist, David Thimgan

I also have to mention they had paintings in this collection by some of the most incredible Dutch painters too. One who comes to mind is artist Hermanus Koekkoek Sr. whose painting "Mending Nets by the Shore" is simply amazing. Some had the most luminous quality. Just having my work hanging in the same room with these artists was one of those bonuses in life that you never forget.

A detail of "Mending Nets By The Shore"

Artist, Hermanus KoekKoek

I am compelled to urge anyone living near the California coast or who is visiting it that has an appreciation for Marine art to visit the Ventura County Maritime Museum...which is actually located in Oxnard, California. Seeing this wonderful art is worth the trip.

R to L - Sylvia Waters, Louis Stephen Gadal, Me. We are all members of the International Society of Marine Painters as well as members of the Coast Guard Art Program.

Syrah Vineyard Light

"Syrah Vineyard Light"

8" x 10"

Practicing to get better at doing morning light in a vineyard. This was the early morning light hitting the Syrah vineyard at Tres Hermanas Winery. Not sunrise light...more like 10:00 am light. The reason for that was the show we were in didn't start till 10AM so I hadn't got there until just before that and had to set up. Due to the lack of any crowd (wine at 10AM?) I decided to poke around snapping pics for later use.


So, this is my version of light in a vineyard...not a big old vineyard scene either...just working on light up close....doing vineyards up close like this is a whole other animal too. This is one of those paintings that looks really cool from about 5 feet back, hahaha....try it!

A California Landscape

The working title of this painting is affectionally known as "20X40". No name yet so the size of the canvas works just as well. I borrowed some of the ideas from the last 2 paintings and used them on this one. Nice to do a large piece now and then...I think I'm gearing up to do a really large painting one of these days...maybe 30" X 60". The trouble with large paintings is where to put them not only in drying time but in between shows. I've only got so much wall space.

Here is a work in progress pic and one of the finished painting.

"20X40"

California Impressionist Feel

"California Poppies"

8" X 10"

Oil on Canvas

I don't know why but everytime I grab a small 8"x10" canvas and plan to just whack out a painting in an hour or two it becomes a multi-day monster! I started this one 2 days ago late at night. My thoughts were to just do a quicky to build up smaller pieces for the Artist Studio Tour in November. I had just finished the last wide-format painting and still had good wet paint on my palette....why not do a quick one with the left over paint! Makes sense eh? Not to be had.

At first it all went well and I was almost finished but then kept looking at the sky wondering why it didn't look right. I've been looking a lot lately at the works of Early California Impressionsists such as Grandville Redmond, Edgar Payne, Angel Espoy...and more, and felt compelled to do a sky more to that liking. Once I added some warm Indian Yellow to my sky I began to see a different completed painting that I now wanted. So, I went back down to the mid and fore grounds and began redoing, adding, deleting and experimenting with small subtle changes that would give the painting an older turn of the century look and feel. It's not quite on the money but to me the feel is there and if I pursue this some more I can see dialing it in more to my liking. I won't go for the exact same look because I have my own style that will stay in the paintings but the combination is something I'm excited about seeing.

a detail of the painting...

Central Coast Poppies

Going wide again and using one of my earlier paintings as the study to work from. I actually entered the study into a show but won't know for a while if it gets juried in so I want this one to show locally. I was hoping to do maybe an 18"x24" on this one but didn't have a canvas laying around. I had 2 12"x24"'s leaning against the wall so that explains the wide format. Besides, wide is always cool.

I like doing the trees in this type of lighting and I always have a fun time experimenting with the various shades of green and darkness at the base of the trees. Having fun while you paint sure makes it worth doing and gets rid of the stress. The background mountains look more like the San Gabriel mountains down near Pasadena than the Santa Ynez mountains up here. Guess my roots are finding their way into my painting. This scene could very easily be looking across the San Gabriel Valley from the hills in San Dimas or the Covina area....but way before we jacked it up with a zillion houses and businesses.

"Central Coast Poppies"

12" X 24"

Oil on Canvas Covered Panel

Some detail shots of the painting....

Santa Ynez Vineyard Scene

"Evening At The Vineyard"

9" X 12"

Oil on Canvas Covered panel

This vineyard is located off of Refugio Road near Santa Ynez. I've done 3 paintings almost in the same spot here. It's great because there is so little traffic on this road but it is sort of on a plateu so it is always breezy and you have to watch your rig from being blown around. This scene was painted Alla Prima from a photo I had taken one night while on a photo hunt of the vineyards. Just a fun painting of a sunset over the vineyards...

Solvang Hillside

"Morning Hills"

9" X 12"

Oil on Canvas Covered Panel

I live in an area surrounded by rolling hills. In Winter it looks like we live in Ireland and in Summer it has that classic golden rolling hills look of California. I'd say it is my area only but these hills are found all the way up into Northern California. I decided to try and capture early morning light diffused with the haze we get a lot from cold ocean air drifting into the valley from the Pacific Ocean.

Our distant valley mountains to the north are the same dried grassy golden color but due to Aerial Perspective turn a great shade of pale light blue...this makes for a great contrast against the foreground oaks and eucalyptus trees with their dark greens and browns. The colors used here are my normal palette of Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. A limited palette that keeps color uniformity in check and has enough colors to produce most of the landscapes I paint. The key to doing a painting like this is simple, keep your background and mid-ground colors less intense than your foreground colors. To achive this I use a mix of light grey that I add to the background and mid-ground colors. You can either use Paynes Grey mixed with white to get a light grey or you can mix it with spare paint off of your palette....some white, UBlue, ACrimson etc.... I use whatever is handy or available at the moment.

A detail of the painting....

Valley Nocturne

I've painted this scene in it's day setting and it came out pretty cool. 2 paintings down the line I decided to try painting it in a night scene. As I started to do a very rough sketch I decided to do it from memory and change a few things that I didn't think I needed from the first painting, moved a few things around and elliminated a few others. I just needed the perspective of the scene not the original painting.

The purpose was to try another experiment in painting the colors of night skies. Blues, blacks, greens etc. I'm trying to find a version that really strikes a chord in me that I will use more often. I will use various hues but I'm sure there is one that will excite me more than the others.

"Valley Nocturne"

9" X 12"

Oil on canvas covered panel

Foxen Canyon Vineyard

" Foxen Canyon Vineyard"

12" X 16"

Oil on canvas covered panel

While doing the show at Tres Hermanas winery I snapped some reference photos during one of the many lulls. This scene came from one of the ref's in early morning of their vineyards producing the grapes for their Syrah wine. I'm pretty happy with it except I wish I had subdued the sky a little more to keep that bleached out sky look from the bright morning sky. Seems lately I always aant to add some blue to produce some cloud formations no matter how light they are.

A Large Floater

I felt my vineyard scene painted earlier would look cool in a floater frame...gives it that finished look, so obviously I made one. This was my largest frame, 36"x36", and it came out pretty good I think.

Here are a couple of pics so you can see just how big that size really is.

Leaned against the washer and dryer it looks pretty large. Looks very cool over a fireplace. Painted one last year the same size and everyone liked it so I'm guessing this will get good reviews.

Here you can see a side view sitting on the easel. The painting is just sitting inside the frame waiting to be mounted correctly with screws. After that I'll wire it up and see how it looks hanging. I'm going to take this to the vineyard show at Tres Hermanas this friday and see what the wine crowd thinks of it.

Passport Show

I'll be showing my work at the Tres Hermanas Winery as part of the Santa Maria Valley Art & Wine Passport. The passport is something you buy that lets you go to several Santa Maria Valley wineries and sample the wares and also see some cool art by local artists such as me! If you don't want to get the passport you can still come by the Tres Hermanas Winery where I will be showing my work on a cool new display rack. Come on by and say hi, see some awesome paintings and oh yeah, have a drink of wine!...you're buying!

Tres Hermanas Winery is a working cattle ranch and vineyard growing mainly Syrah grapes. I love syrah...it's a cool wine and they also have others as well as a big gift shop and it's all located in the heart of awesome looking wine country here along the Central Coast...take a breath Ron!

Get in your car and come see me!

Blatant self promotion at it's finest...no subtleties!

No subliminal messaging!

Get in your car and come see me!

Here are the details...

Tres Hermanas Winery 9660 Foxen Canyon Road, Santa Maria, CA

located half way between Santa Maria and Los Olivos between

Zaca Mesa and Foxen wineries

Phone 805-937-8451

July 25,26 &27

10 am - 5 pm

A Winery

My daughter went to a show of mine at the Domain Alfred vineyards. I forgot my camera and asked her to use hers to get some reference photos while we were there. I spotted this sene in one of her photos and decided after cropping what I liked about it to paint it.

I'm still debating on going back into that middle section of vineyard to adjust it a bit to make the distance work a little better. I also am rethinking the intensities of the background hills and that Yellow Ochre I used there. The seperations look a little too stark so I'll probably touch them up.

Either way, it was a fun painting to do and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Making Affordable Canvas Panels.....

I've made canvas panels before and posted on my Blog about it with pics. If you want to read about that go back into the archives. I've made some new ones using a different method...much faster and cheaper.
Making your own canvas covered panels requires whatever wood panel you choose, I used Untempered Masonite panel, Glue, Canvas...and that's it! You can also use MDF, Birch, Luan etc...it's up to you.
I had to go to a small lumber yard to find the Untempered masonite by the sheet. You can't get it at Home Depot I've looked. Seems they only carry Tempered masonite now. The difference is the oil impregnated in tempered Masonite. There is a possiblility it could leach into your oil paint....I honestly feel the jury is out on that belief though. I have used it and sanded the oiled surface off before gluing on the canvas so very little oil would even contact the glue...which dries hard of course and then any oil that got to that would have to soak through the canvas...and the gesso and then finally make it to the oil paint. That's a lot of travelling and ask yourself this...have you ever met an artist you personally know who has ever had this happen to them? I don't.
So, to play it safe I found my supply for 3/16" thick Untempered masonite. How do I know it is Untempered...because the sign said so and of course it is much lighter in color than Tempered masonite which is a very dark brown color.
Anyway, all you do is cut up the masonite to whatever size panels you want. You really don't want large panels because once you frame them they can get pretty heavy. You don't want your painting to come flying off the wall dragging a hunk of plaster or drywall with it in your customers house right?...so stay small. Maybe 20" X 20", 16"X 20", and anything smaller. I made 8"x10", 9"x12", 11"x14", 12"x16", and 12"x24"s.....all from that one large sheet of masonite.
Glue....you can read an awful lot on what type to use. Theres Gak100, Miracle Muck, YES Paste, Lascaux 498. Whatever you really can afford. You can find more info on some of these products on the Judsens Guerilla Painter website, Makers of fine pochade boxes.
This time I decided to go with just normal ordinary Elmers White Glue....why? I've recently run into a pretty mega bucks painter who has been using it for years...no problem. Also, I read a book by another mega bucks painter who is well known throughout the globe and he uses it. Good enough for me. Rabbit skin glue? They have recently found out that there is some sort of mold that develops in that glue and I'm sure it will become an issue....so no rabbit skin glue for me.
Canvas...whatever weight you choose. I used Fredericks brand cotton duck. Affordable.

The process is simple, cut your panels to size, apply your glue and lay the canvas on it...press with your hands to flatten it and then stack something on top of it to weight it down while it is drying.
Here are some pics to show how I did it this time.....

Here is the panel cut to size. This time I decided to apply the glue to the rough back side leaving the smooth side for the back of the finished panel....just looks better. Behind is my canvas pre-cut 1'' or more larger than my panel. Also are some drying 9"x12"'s with weights on top of a scrap piece of panel.

I then applied the glue pretty evenly with one of those throwaway brushes that was wet to ease spreading the glue out.

Then you just lay your canvas on top of that and smooth it out with your hand....I also rolled a brayer over it to roll it as flat as possible. Not necessary if you don't have one but if you do it helps. If you buy one get a wide one. Mine is pretty small but did the job.

Then you let it dry. I do a bunch at one time, stack them and put a scrap piece on top with whatever weights I can find...you can use books too. The Elmers dries in an 1-2 hours but you can leave it overnight for extra measure. Then you just trim it. Lay the panel canvas side down and use the edge of the panel as a guide while you cut off the excess canvas with a utility knife.

These have a great tight bond and look very similar to a very famous brand of panels that cost much, much more.

Cool edges huh? If I had tons of money I'd just buy them but since I don't making them is a very practical alternative....and it is very easy!

Build an Oak Floater Frame

This is a floater frame for a gallery wrapped canvas. It is called a "Floater" because the frame is built larger than the canvas and then the canvas is mounted inside the frame and attached by screws to the back of the frame. This leaves a gap between the frame edges and canvas and appears to make the canvas float inside of the frame. Very cool looking!
You can buy these ready made or have them made per your dimensions if you look around online or talk to your local framer. Since my framing budget is nowhere near that of many painters whose names you know I made this one myself...it is my second floater frame I've made and came out pretty good I think.

It is made of Red Oak strips bought at Home Depot, 1"x4". I then saw it down to the size I need on a table saw. The corners are miter-cut on the table saw and then glued and nailed together...it's sanded and then rubbed with wax to protect the wood and enhance the wood grain of the oak.

Here is the procedure for those of you do-it-yourself types.

Here is the Red Oak purchased at Home Depot before cutting down to lengths to work with. Cost is about $2.50 per foot.

I then cut the length into 4 pieces. Then cut the width for the sides and back and then cut miter cuts where the 2 pieces will join at 90 degree angles. The miter cut is a 45 degree cut.

The next step is to assemble the four sides of the frame with wood glue and either small finishing nails or brads. I used brads shot with an airgun (fast!) but a hammer and finishing nails would work fine. If you used an epoxy glue you could probably skip nailing altogether. I was working alone so having this little clamp to hold the corners is great! I should have bought two though.

This is a crummy picture of the next step...nailing the back to the sides but you can see how the miter cut works. It gives you a nice joined edge

That is the basic assembly. Let it dry overnight and then sand all the sides and edges. I sand a smooth radius around the front edges and corners too. After that you wipe it down to get the sawdust off of it and then start rubbing in the wax. I used a wax with an orange oil in it to protect the wood. I love this step because now the oak really shows it's beauty.

Here is the whole frame waxed up....nice! From this point you just drill holes in the back of the frame and then place your painting in there...get the sides even and then screw into the back of your strecther bars to hold it all together.

Here is the frame and painting mounted together.
Here you can see the gap between frame and canvas. Also, the corners and edges. Notice the side nails are placed at bottom and top of frame so you can't see them. The back is nailed from behind so you can't see those nails either.

It looks like a ton of work but this second frame was much easier to build than the first...all of the figuring out was spent on that first one. I've seen versions of framing paintings where they built the frame flush with the edges of the painting and made no back at all. I've seen one like that made that was simply built of pine and then sprayed with black paint and it looked pretty cool too. Just a matter of what results you are looking for.

If you kept the edges all flat without the miter cuts and could find the wood in the correct thickness you could build this frame with just a miter box made of wood or plastic. It's just hard finding the wood in the right thickness. My wood is 3/8" thick and I started with 1" thick wood. That's why you need a table saw to do this. The table saw is also needed to cut the miter cuts. It's a fun project though....give it a try sometime.

UPDATE.....here is a pic of the back of the frame showing how the canvas mounts to the frame. The canvas lays flat against the back of the frame. Your stretcher bars of the canvas will butt up against the back of the frame. All you need to do is center the canvas in the frame and drill a pilot hole through the back of the frame and into your stretcher bar. Then simply put a screw in to hold your canvas to the back of the frame. I used 4 screws to mount this painting. To center the painting I use either pieces of foam core or bits of old mat board placed between the frame and the edge of the canvas...just add pieces until the painting is even on all 4 sides. ANOTHER UPDATE....Here are some additional pics of the assembly of the frame. Again, the shape of the frame is an "L" for each side of the frame. I did a mitre cut on each piece where they are glued together forming the "L". A mitre cut is a 45 degree bevel cut (actually any degree of bevel). For additonal strength I shot 3/4" brads, which are like finishing nails, in from the back of the frame....see diagram below.

Instead of brads you can use small finishing nails. I bought an air powered brad gun, which is a lot like an electric staple gun, at Harbor Freight for about $20. I already had a compressor to run it. I'm sure they sell manual or electric brad guns too....try Home Depot.

Here you can see from the behind the frame looking down from the top. The brads (circled in white) are shot from the top and from behind the frame. This keeps the viewer from seeing the brads when the frame hangs on the wall. Brads at the bottom of the frame are shot upward...the reverse of these tops ones. You can also see the mounting sheet metal screw going through the back of the frame and into the back of the stretcher bar holding the painting to the frame.

By shooting the brads from the top and back of the frame you end up with a smooth brad-free frame side like it is shown below. By using the bevelled mitre cut to join the sides and back you have a seamless joint.

Show in Ventura, CA

"International Waters Exhibit "

August 2 - October 15, 2008

Maritime Museum - 2731 S. Victoria Ave. Oxnard, CA. 93035

Tel: 805-984-9620

2 of my works have been juried into this show. "Eureka Boatyard" & "Motor Lifeboat". This is the 2nd show featuring the works from members of the

International Society of Marine Painters.

Show Reception - Saturday, August 16, 2008 3-6PM

I'll be at the reception in case you want to stop by and say "hi!"

Coos Bay Oregon Show

I have had my painting "Morning Boats, Rogue River" juried into the 15th Annual Maritime Art Exhibit at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay Oregon. Here are the details....

Show Dates

July 19th - September 20th, 2008

Where

Coos Art Museum, 235 Anderson Ave. Coos Bay, Oregon.

(1 1/2 blocks west of Hwy 101 in downtown Coos Bay, Oregon)

Show Reception

Saturday, July 19, 2008

3:30 - 5pm

Santa Ynez Meadow

This painting is another in my attempts to better myself painting-wise with trals, native grasses etc. Not so much to learn on this particular one as just for the fun of it. I composed the scene as I painted it starting with the sky and working down.

This working without a ref is really a nice change and much faster than having a scene to capture. Here you just add whatever you want and make it look good. Pretty fun stuff.

"Santa Ynez Meadow"

9" x 12" Oil on Ray Mar panel

Backyard Nocturne

I live on a sloping part of a hill called Chalkhill. Don't ever dig here...it is mostly chaky rock and adobe...the creek close to my house is what the Spanish missionaries used to get adobe to build the Santa Ynez Mission. Don't dig here! I took a pic one day of the corner of a field where we planted a large garden last year. I was looking at it and decided to make the scene into a nocturne. First I cropped the part I wanted and then got to painting. Here is the result...

Here is the reference photo I worked from....

More Mojave Desert

"Mojave Wash"

Did this one recently to add to my paintings done of the Mojave desert. It's good to paint something else besides scenes of the Central Coast of California. This is a small wash running through the desert caused by flash floods from the strong rains that come at times. It is a small 9"X12" painting.
A Detailed image of the painting......