30 in 30 - Sun-Kissed

"Sun-Kissed"

6x6"

Oil on Gessoboard

DPW

Here's another Hydrangea as I focus on painting white and light for the 30 in 30 this time around.

30 in 30 - Focus on Light

Looking for the Light

6x6"

Oil on Gessoboard

DPW

Sometimes it's hard to paint...and even harder to put things into words.

My good friend, a wonderful artist named Bob Raser -  left us this past Saturday,  after seemingly having cancer successfully removed and on the way to recovery and a normal life, before a sudden stroke changed everything...it was a devastating turn-of-events.  My heart goes out to all his family and friends!


I wanted to take the opportunity to share the joy of knowing him with you, in order that whomever might read my blog, will be up-lifted by the enthusiasm with which he lived life!

I will miss his voice, his smile and his wonderful energy!  As Maya Angelou so profoundly said:
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." 

He always made me feel better!

You can see more of his paintings following the link to his website. They are filled with optimism and sunlight, much like his personality".

He also made these wonderful video "ART SELFIES".   Here's a link to one of them.

Keep Creating!  And a big Happy Birthday to my mom!!!

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon Tea

11x14"

Oil on Linen Panel

Received an Honorable Mention at

Plein Air Ventura Invitational 2015
DPW

This painting was actually really enjoyable!  First off, I felt lucky to stumble onto a scene that had both atmosphere and a back lit classical car, and the opportunity to paint the view with a high horizon line!!!  Some of my favorite things!  I was a happy camper!!!   I also simplified more than usual - The fast changing light helped me with that:))
The car is owned by a really nice couple who is selling their house and they were both so sweet to offer me a cup of tea!  Did I mention he was British?...
The honorable mention was nice and you could say it sort of makes up for the fact that this piece didn't even get juried in to  the Ventura County Fair's Art Show....

This all confirms for me that it's more important to focus on how I feel about a piece and enjoy the ones where I attempt something new, than pay a lot of attention to the subjective likes and dislikes of jurors - either good or bad!

Which pieces do you feel good about when it comes to your own work?

Summerland Roofs

Summerland Roofs

8x10"

Oil on linen on board

DPW

I painted this one up in Summerland a few months back with my friend Shannon Celia (you can check out her great Seascapes on her website) There's a lot of pretty homes and buildings in that area, but this day I zeroed in on something that looked a little more like a shack.  I always look for subjects with a little character and wanted to explore cropping in on these buildings with the way they were intersecting and I liked the dramatic shadows the sun created.

Here's a painting on the area where we were standing to paint.

 Shade for Lunch

6x8"

Oil on Linen on Board
DPW

SOLD

It was right by the freeway off ramp, but with some shade it still made for an enjoyable paint out. 
What's the most difficult thing you deal with if you paint outdoors?

Hot Coco

Hot Coco

Oil on Linen on board

8x8"

DPW

Thrilled to paint my Artist friend Leigh Spark's dog Coco!  Doesn't she look like so much fun to paint - sweet thing?

Here's my second version:

Makes me want to paint more dogs:-)

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!

Reflecting on Dreams

8x8"

Oil on Linen on Panel

DPW

Afternoon Stroll

Afternoon Stroll

12x12"

Oil on Linen on board

DPW

The painting on top here is the Final version of the painting I started on location 2 years ago.  As with anything painted plein air it has a certain freshness to it that I love.  I just wasn't thoroughly happy with the foreground rock formation:-)  Worked on it the other day and even though neither of the photos probably captures the exact color temperature I feel that I resolved a few things...and it only took me 2 years?!:-)

And whether it's an improvement...only you cant tell.

I have a lot more paintings sitting around my studio these days, waiting for that final critical step...

Wendy Wash

Wendy Wash

Oil on Canvasboard

16x20"

My favorite part of this painting is probably the simplicity with which I painted the trees in the back.  I'm trying to say more by doing less.

It's a great local spot.  I love the fact that you can find water in this wash almost any time of the year and it's home to several kinds of birds and critters...right in the middle of Newbury Park.

Speaking of saying more with less.

I recently listened to a great podcast on the Ted Radio hour on "The Source of Creativity" and what it means to be in the flow.

From the website:

Part 2 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Source of Creativity with Charles Limb

About Charles Limb's TED Talk
What happens in the brain during musical improv? Researcher Charles Limb scanned the brains of jazz musicians to find out.
About Charles Limb
Dr. Charles Limb is an Associate Professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, as well as faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He combines his two passions to study the way the brain creates and perceives music. He's a hearing specialist and surgeon at Johns Hopkins who performs cochlear implantations. In his free time, he plays sax, piano and bass.
In search of a better understanding of how the mind processes complex auditory stimuli such as music, Dr. Limb has been working with Dr. Allen Braun to look at the brains of improvising musicians and study what parts of the brain are involved when a musician is really in the groove.

As artists I feel that we experience this state of being in the groove as well.  You know how some paintings just seem to flow without any effort...Why is that?  This Ted Radio Hour speaks to why that is and what happens in our brains when we are in that groove.

There is also this one phrase said by host Guy Raz on the show that really stayed with me in regards to getting out of our way....:
  
"... practice doesn't make you perfect, but it does help you stop thinking that you have to be"

I've been thinking about what it is that really makes us improve as painters/artists etc with time?  And what has struck me is that it seems to have  a little something to do with building confidence.

Practice helps build confidence in the fact that you start knowing more about  the technical aspects of the craft of course, but more than that, what it also seems to lead to (on a good day:-) is that:
With confidence - I can play more, be bolder with my paint and braver with my brush strokes etc. because in a sense - I care less about getting it right.  (or as this study explores; with practice, I'm shutting of that censoring part of my brain that gets in the way of the natural flow of creativity).


If you are an artist, what do you feel it is that happens with time, the longer you have painted and practiced?   What do you feel happens for you when you're in the flow?

A boat ditty

6x6"

Oil on Gessoboard

DPW

Here's a little ditty of a boat...:-)  A close-up of a boat in the Ventura Harbor.  Perhaps not a ditty though? as I just learned that a ditty is a short song...but I just like the ring of it!

Enjoy!

Cat on a Mission (at San Antonio de Padua that is)

Cat on a Mission

6x6"

Oil on Gessoboard

To Bid

It's been a while since I've painted a 6x6 and I had a great time working small and on gessoboard again today.   I've had this photo reference since I visited the Mission of San Antonio de Padua 2 years ago.    My friend Daggi Wallace and I took part of a paint out weekend with CAC and got to meet some great artists and paint plein air.   This was the room we stayed in (no frills:) and there was just something about the light coming in through the window, the beautiful curtains and the angles of those bed that made for a really nice composition that I snapped a picture of.  

Here is the website for 

The Mission of San Antonio de Padua

I kept the image in my files and tested it out as a value study a while back.  This is a great tool we practiced in William Wray's workshop, really pairing it down to see what parts of your image can be pulled together into one shape.     It needed a focal point and the cat seemed a perfect choice.

 There actually was a cat that lived at the mission so it even made sense to put one in.

A fun day of painting!  And it didn't hurt that I got to spend the morning with 5 other fabulous painters in our Monday Morning Painters Group.

Happy Painting!

Nantucket Walk

Nantucket Walk

Oil on Canvasboard

10x10"

Sold

Here's another piece that never made it into a blog post before it sold.   It captures one of the many sunny days we had as a family on the east coast last year!  It's also a reminder of how important it is to make sure you get a photo to keep of all the work you do:-)...

Underwater Wonderworld

Oil on canvasboard

20x24"

I'm happy to announce that this piece is being purchased by the Community Memorial Hospital for their Maternity and Pediatric Floor.   I have a special place in my heart for art being placed in hospitals to bring some joy to patients and visitors!

Barn Treasures

Barn Treasures

8x10"

Oil on linen on board

Got to paint by this old barn of Las Virgenes last year, through a call to a park ranger on the property.  It's a beautiful old barn and when peaking in we ( my painting friend Lyn and I), found a sign from a restaurant that was once open in Malibu....so many stories to be found!

When it comes to the painting...Shadows are an interesting challenge and I worked on the shadows to make them less severe and cut-out looking, which I think helped:-)

Edge of Afternoon

8x10"

Oil on linen on panel

The Railroad Play House

The Railroad Play House

6x8"

Oil on linen panel

2nd painting of the day Saturday.  Painting up in Naples with my friend Carolyn Counnas and members of the organization SCAPE (whose goals are to have exhibitions to help raise money to protect open spaces, to increase public awareness of environmental and conservation issues, to promote camaraderie and provide education for artists).   

 

Sometimes getting the first painting done opens me up to be more free with the second...especially if I have a limited time:-)

This building, I learned, used to be a playhouse belonging to the girls who lived on this property in Naples on the Gaviota Coast before it burned down.   I don't know if it was right by the railroad back when it was built...would have made me a little nervous Nelly as a mom for sure...

Used to be Thurman's Place

Used to be Thurman's Place

8x10"

oil on linen on panel

sold

I'm catching up and posting some paintings that somehow slipped through the cracks.

 

Life is filled with some wonderful coincidences.   One day this past fall my friend Shannon and I decided to go to Hidden Valley to paint.  It's this jewel of a valley tucked away, from suburbia, with horse stables and old farms - this being one of them...

On this day we precariously parked ourselves on the side of the road to paint the morning light on this barn when I thought I saw the owner in his pajamas on the property, changing something by an electrical box.   I quickly ran over and asked him if he wouldn't mind if we set up to paint inside his fence, and to our delight he said yes!  It was warm and there were a ton of red little bugs crawling around in the very dried out grass, but we were so happy to be a little further from the cars zooming by.

A couple of months later I have my open studio and my sister-in-law is telling us about this property she's looking at in Hidden Valley.   And as she describes the location it's starting to sound very familiar to me.  When I show her the painting and describe Thurman to her, we realize it is indeed the same property she was looking at...?!... The owner she met was always - in his pajamas...

Such a small world:-))))