Still On The Water

A few weeks ago I started plein air painting again. It had been a long time and I was very fortunate to attend Kim VanDerHoek's plein air Thursday morning class. Just finished 4 weeks. It rekindled my love of being outdoors with paint and a brush. It can be overwhelming and inspiring.

Hanging On The Line

Time to answer the call even if I dropped the ball.  I feel a little rusty after a nice family brake.  The holidays were full and fun...oh and the stomach flu came visiting.  Noise filled our house for a few weeks and I welcomed the familiar sound.  I am so very grateful and feel very blessed.  Now it is time to get back in the studio.  I spent a few days cleaning and tossing and evaluating my work.  In the process of doing that, I painted this little 6x8 oil and it did not come easily.  Painting is not like getting back on a bike.  

So I am looking forward to pushing ahead in 2012.  Best wishes to all of you in the New Year.  Thanks for all your comments and views of my blog.  You keep me motivated.  Thank you for all your support.

This painting is available by bid through Daily Paintworks.  I decided to start my bid price at $25.00, which means if you are interested you might get it for $25.00 plus S&H.  So check it out and click on the link to follow or bid.  Have fun.

Bid here at DPW

City Light

6x6, oil

This was a night scene in Chicago from one of our many walk about last summer on vacation.

"IN SEASON"

6x6, oil on raymar, 

Fun morning painting with fellow artists.  Painting can be isolating and so it is fun to get together to paint, gab, exchange thoughts and share a cup of tea or coffee with friends that paint.  I love setting up still lifes and more often than not, way too may options to paint.  So I turn my kitchen into a studio.  What better place to end up when having a comfortable gathering.  I was fortunate to have Julie Hill, Dana Cooper and Kelley Sanford via cell phone to talk art and laugh and just have fun.  Dana and I have know each other for a while, but Julie and Kelley are the unexpected gifts of being a daily artist on Daily Painter Originals.  Telling me once again how important it is to step out of my comfort zone and join new things.  You never know what will happen when you put yourself out there.

"COASTING ALONG"

6x8, oil on raymar, sold

Looking north along the coast from Dana Point.  

"THREE PART HARMONY"

6x6, raymar panel, sold

Here is another of the paintings completed on the Dewberry/Cooper Paint A Thon day.  I was so happy to push my colors beyond my comfort.  Love days like this.

"DREAMY AFTERNOON"

6x8 oil on canvas panel, $85.00 + $10.00 s&h

This painting started from a walk I took through a local park where there are houses that are built right up to it's borders.  The vision is that these houses have land that goes on forever.  The truth is that it is only a dream.

"IT'S A DOGS LIFE"

6x6,oil on canvas panel. $70.00 + $12.00 S/H

Back in May I went down to see the Balboa Island Art Walk, which a few of my artist buddies from Daily Painter Originals were participating.  It was a great people watching day and of course, dog watching too.  Everyone was out walking their dogs and checking out the artwork.  Except for the cold weather it was lots of fun.

"LOOKOUT POINT"

5x7 oil on canvas board

Hiking in the local mountains has been a new adventure for me.  I am amazed at the massive areas of land with trails for biking , horseback riding and hiking.  It is a whole new world.  Last year and almost every year there are fires in our local mountains.  This area has grown back beautifully with only the black chard tree trunk and branches scattered over the landscape to remind us just how venerable nature can be.

Need A Little Vitamin "C" 6x6 oil

Today I had my second meeting with "Kevin" at Cynthia Grilli's workshop.  I really had fun.  The only thing is I forgot my camera.  So I will catch up with that next week.
In the mean time I had lots of paint on my palette from today.  I have been enjoying these tangellos with hope of getting a little needed vitamin "C".  I think it is just not enough and the cold is coming and the headache is here.  One thing nice about still life is I can sit and be still while I paint.  I am not much for doing nothing.  Painting takes my mind off my nose and head and all the woes of not feeling 100%.

Bartlets and Tangello 6x8 oil

Here is one more quick still life I did while in Ojai. We went on a wonderful hike in the morning, had lunch in town and then some went shopping. I took the time to paint these wonderful pears and little tangerine.

The fruit was on a table by the door and the nature light lite the fruit. I did an under painting with burnt sienna, yellow ochre light, utramarine and titanium white. Using these basic colors I blocked in values. This made it so much easier to work with color and the underpainting created harmonywith the colors glazed on top.