Behind Flights

Behind Flights

8x8"

Oil on Gessoboard

DPW

Doesn't happen often, but this one almost painted itself.  I've been really in to capturing strong contrasts of sunlight in my subjects lately -  where the light is almost white, giving the shadow areas more color.  The reference photo for this one was taken by the Santa Paula Airport where I stumbled upon some old cars long past their driving age as I walked around and it had the perfect strong light to achieve what I wanted....I even found an artist painting in one of the warehouses there.  You never know what you will find out scouting locations.   Had an easier time with the architecture of the cars too.  What do you know?... practice might be making it a little easier:-)

Happy Painting!!

And check out this great post by my artist friend Dan LaVigne on leaving our baggage behind and trusting, in our artistic process.

The Farm Cart

12x16"

Oil on linen on panel

DPW

can be purchased through this gallery

http://www.pleinaircarpinteria.com/

For this painting I left the background really simple to be able to push the atmospheric effect and to concentrate on what was in light versus shadow.

Here's a great post I found on John Pototchnik's blog:

John's Blog, 
Saturday, September 3, 2011

Is OPA Judging Rigged?

 An Inside Look at the Oil Painters of America Selection Process

where John describes what the Judges for OPA (OilPaintersofAmerica) look for in judging artwork.

I found it really interesting in looking at my own work and as a check-list of sorts:

OPA – Scoring system according to John Pototchnik…

"5 judges started with 924 entries that were graded using the scoring system. grading the top 190 the same way to arrive at those with the highest accumulative score that were selected for the show.

Paintings were graded on a scale from one to seven.
Paintings were evaluated based on design and execution.

The best works had:

· One dominant value,

· A dominant color harmony,

· A clear center of interest,

· Balance,

· Accurate drawing,

· Convincing value relationships,

· Consistent and believable color temperature relationships,

· Appropriate variety of hard and soft edges, and

· Varied and interesting paint application.


Get all those elements right and you ended up with a seven...in the top 1-3 percent of entries."

A Walk to the Beach

A Walk to the Beach

10x10"

Oil on Linen on Board

DPW

Excited to be displaying some of my paintings at the "En Plein Air Gallery" in Carpinteria this next month!  It's a small treasure of a gallery owned by artist Leigh Sparks and located in this quaint small sea-side town south of Santa Barbara.

I will post more of the paintings I've had a chance to do locally in the coming days!

The address is 963 Linden Ave, Carpinteria, California 93013, if you'd like to come and see them in person! or see me painting around town:-)

A window to the Soul

10 x10"

Oil on Linen on Panel

Another opportunity to have fun with a light building.  This is a restaurant behind the Portola Hotel and I took the photo last year,  early one morning as I was scouting locations to paint at the Plein Ar Convention in Monterey.

Daily Commute

 Daily Commute

6x8"

Oil on linen on board

DPW

Feels like a month since I last posted...and it is:-)  I've been painting, but also doing some rewarding volunteering with a focus on our kids.   And that's all in between Open Studio Events and getting ready for other exhibits.

I loved the forced perspective of this view...picture snapped on Balboa Island by the ferries going back and forth every few minutes.

I'm looking forward to posting some more of what I've been working on!