Tree Reaching, Irvine Park 22x28 oil

Photographing my work makes me crazy.  For this one I pulled out the 35mm to see if I could capture more detail.  I just think one must see a painting in person to get it.  Taking a photo of a painting and then uploading it to the web seems to take the life out of it or redirects it.  Redirect, in that it may be brighter, duller, lighter, darker, less vibrant or more and so on to become a slightly different version than intended.  So I do the best I can.

Using An Old Subject

I love this old tree in Irvine Park.  I did the pastel on the left a few years ago and hung it on my wall.  Resently I removed every painting from my walls in my home while we paint and make improvements.  I sat this one against a wall in my everyday view.  It made me think that it needs to be bigger.  So today I started this one.  This is just an underpainting.  I have some thinking to do.  Stay tuned.

Sycamore Hill 8x10

Lovely morning in Irvine Park enjoying the sycamore trees. Great to get out and do some plein air.

Fallen Tree

Went out last week to Irvine Park to brush up on plein air painting.  In June I am going out plein air painting with Kim VanDerHoek's class.   It is always an adjustment to get set up and ready to paint.  Once ready I did enjoy just being in the quiet and painting.  I felt a little out of it in my approach.  I had too much paint on the surface and a whole lot of slip and slide going on.  I enjoyed being out with my friend Judy.  We both got in the zone and barely spoke a word.  It is very zen!  In the end I was unhappy with what I had done, even though I enjoyed every minute of being there.  Funny how that works.  I took it home and did not look at it again for several days.  In the mean time I did another plein air painting and then went back to look at the first one.  I decided it was a fine attempt and being critical at this point is useless.  Painting is an action.  It is always in movement; a continuing process to observe.  So it is my job to keep it in motion and observe the comings and goings of it's nature order.  

Reaching

One of my favorite trees lives in Irvine Park.  This is a 14x18 pastel that I did trying to capture it on a two dimension  surface.   I love the way it reaches of the sky and that it is a wonderful tree to climb.

The Road Between

 12x18, soft pastel

BEFORE MY MORNING COFFEE

6x6,oil, $75.00

Some mornings I have the chance to walk with fellow artist Dana Cooper in a local park.  We meet and walk all the way around Irvine Park which takes about an hour or so, depending on how many photos we take.  We see people we know and even saw a very rare sighting of a bald eagle.  They are not common to our area.  We later found out that he comes and visits the O.C. Zoo, which is in the park, and chats with a feathered friend of the same species that lives in captivity.  We have seen the water rise and the river totally dry as the leaves come and go.  Mostly it is a delight to walk and talk with a good friend ... and then stop and have some morning coffee and chat somemore.  Now that's the start of a good day.

Hot Morning by the Creek 4x6 oil

I went back to Irvine Regional for another look at the creek.  It was much hotter than last week.  I managed to paint three small canvases.  I think this was the best and the first done.  I will post them in progression.  My husband came along again and walked and read and rested.  I love the sounds in the park.  It was a really great morning.

Taking a Walk in the Park 6x6 oil

This was the second painting on Sunday.  It was a quicky 6x6.  I played more with color and trying to get a figure suggested in this one.   

Sunday in the Park 8x10 oil

Today is the day after the 4th of July and what a beautiful day it is.  I went out to paint...YES!  I am a lucky girl.  My dear husband encouraged and came along on my paint out.  It was wonderful.  He walked the dry bed and took lots of photos for me to use for painting, read a bit  and then put his feet up and took a nap.  I have got to say it was very nice of him to come along.  What a peaceful day.  

Not being out for a while I decide to try and take it a step at a time.  I scraped a lot of paint off with my palette knife and used it more than ever before, which was fun.  I did a second small 6x6 that I will post next.  Well back to work tomorrow.  I hope to get Karin Jurick's challenge done this week...will see.

Morning in the Creek 14x11 oil

I made a few changes based on some suggestions I got. (above) 

I was out in Irvine park on the first real good day in a while.  It was clear and not windy and not too cold.  This is a north facing view.  In an attempt to push myself I decided to work bigger.   I was not able to finish on site and worked on it more at home.  I had trouble with values and then color and in working on it  at home I feel I lost that freshness of working fast on site.  I don't believe that it is finished and I really don't know what to do.  It just does not have the excitement that I felt getting out and painting.