a Painters Blog

Yosemite National Park

2007 22×28 Cathedral Rock

I have lived in California nearly all of my life and I made my first trip to Yosemite this past week.

WOW!!! Sensory overload…GOD ALL THAT COLOR! I am a little speechless because I never expected the color. I have painted in a lot of beautiful places but the only thing in my opinion more surreal and colorful is Crater Lake in Oregon. Yosemite is truly a colorist’s paradise.

The above painting will be at The Vault Gallery in Sonora, Ca for the Yosemite Show.

I almost didn’t post this painting because the jpeg format is butchering the color. It loses all the subtle temperature changes and grays that makes a painting beautiful. Oh well….

Pacifica, California

2007 24×30 Pacifica, Ca

It seems like every time I blog I am apologizing for not blogging more.

Things have just been crazy lately. Between shows, delivering and shipping new work, new galleries and my workshops…I am about as swamped as I have ever been.

For now, here is a painting I did on Saturday in Pacifica, Ca. This is what painting is all about…a gorgeous view and good company. What more could you ask for? Enjoy!

Davenport, California

2007 24×36 Shark Tooth Beach

I went out today for a bit of Plein Air with artist Mike Baily. Mike picked an area call Shark Tooth Beach which was absolutely gorgeous. I need some coastal paintings and it is always nice to have a local show you great painting locations. The trouble with the California Coast is many locations are hidden from the road. Unless you know just where to stop you would never know what a great location it is.

This painting started rough but pulled together in the end. The biggest challenge in this painting was the shade area of the rock had to be just right or the painting would never work. Because there is so much reflected light in the cove I needed to find a nice warm/cool gray. Every color affects every other color around it. Towards the end of the painting the light had shifted and I couldn’t help myself and changed it quickly to this. Luckily everything was finished and it was only a matter of changing the shapes of a few things and warming up the light areas. I really am not much of a mid-day painter the lighting is never dramatic enough to inspire me. I usually prefer early morning or late afternoon but we got off to a late start.

I also got a sneak peak as Mike prepares for open studio. WOW! He has tons and tons of paintings for those of you visiting his studio. For more information visit his blog.