Happy Tuesday!

The Gardener Store, at the Ferry Building, San Francisco

Still Dreaming

Trees on the Horizon

This is the same painting from the last post, with a little more work on  the trees. Still having fun with color, and lots of paint!

Wait for Me

One more painting from the plein air class. Still focusing on the light and dark value patterns. This was done in Tiburon, near the Lyford House. This location has a really beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay, with the east bay and the city showing across the water.

The Last One

This is the last painting of this series. I ended up with twelve of these HWY 25, drive by paintings. They really look much better as a group. I will take a photo after framing, to show the final result. The framing, will be finished tomorrow, the hanging on Sunday! So happy to be done, almost!

HWY 25, Again

Still doing some last minute work for the Southwest exhibit. I would like to replace a few of the paintings, that didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. We are winding down, and looking forward to moving on to something new! Can hardly wait!

The View from HWY 25

Still, one more view from HWY 25. Also, taken from the passenger window on the way from Santa Fe to Albuquerque. After a very busy few weeks, I'm still trying to squeeze out a few more paintings from the highway. This is all in preparation for the upcoming Southwest exhibit at the Lafayette Gallery, opening Oct. 12. Hope to see you at the opening reception, Oct 22, 6:30 to 8:30.

More From the Road

Once again, somewhere between Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. I love this this drive. It takes a little more than an hour to go from the the airport in Albuquerque, to Santa Fe. It is wonderful to see the wide open space, and the huge sky. It is peaceful, and calming, compared to the high energy, hustle and bustle of the San Francisco bay area. An immediate feeling of serenity takes over, somewhere along the highway. I think it has to do with going from the most populated state, California, to the least populated, New Mexico. It's all good, both the hustle and bustle, and the peacefulness. What makes it all the more wonderful is the contrast, the best of both worlds!

On the Road Again

Another drive by painting, taken from a photo somewhere between Albuquerque, and Santa Fe. I'm still working with these same photos, while trying to prepare for the next exhibit at the Lafayette Gallery. This exhibit will open on Oct. 12, and have a Southwest theme. There will be more to come, all with the southwest as the subject matter, stay tuned! To all, have a very happy weekend!

Back to Where I Left Off

I decided to go back to my last landscape and make some changes. Here is the revised version, which looks a lot like the first version. It's interesting, whenever a painting is finished, I can see things that I wish that I had done differently. The good thing about small paintings, is that it is so easy to just make another one, and that is exactly what I did. Ah, if only the rest of life were so easy!

One More Drive By

Here is one more of the same area as yesterday's post, actually somewhere between Lake Tahoe and Quincy. This was painted from a photo taken from the passenger seat, while on the highway. Still having fun experimenting with landscapes. At the same time, thinking that I should review, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting.

Out of the Comfort Zone

This was done from a photo taken from the passenger side of the car, while driving somewhere between here, and Lake Tahoe. I enjoyed painting something "out of the comfort zone", and am excited to try some more of these drive by landscapes. Goodness knows, I have a whole stack of photos, taken from the car, just waiting!

Going Green

In the midst of the holiday fray, I've had no time to paint. My familiar escape has been sorely missed. Finally, yesterday, I squeezed in a little painting time. As we all know. it is always a challenge to get back into painting after a long break. After several false starts, I was finally able to complete this small painting. This painting was based on a photo, taken from the passenger side car window, while driving between Killkenny, and Dublin. Everyone, just having returned from a trip to Ireland, always comments on how green the country is. It is really true, everything is very green, and not just green, all different varieties of green. I tried to capture that sense of greenness. It is everywhere. Just the opposite of California, where for most of the year the hills and fields are brown. There will be more. I have a small stack of photos, just waiting to be turned into paintings! Can hardly wait!

Leaving Santa Fe

This was done from a photo, of a mesa, taken from the car window, somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The desert is unusually green, because it was early spring. I am trying to integrate some of the ideas from my landscape painting class, with my usual way of painting. It's a good start for me. At the same time, I can see that I need to spend more time with this. More to come!

Friday's Class

Friday was the final day of the landscape portion of Carol Tarzier's class. The lesson was about the use of perspective. This painting is, once again, another start on a, yet unfinished, landscape. The concepts of vanishing points were discussed as a means to create perspective. Again, we used the peach ground, with a purple drawing, not too warm, and not too cool. Diane left a comment on an earlier post, asking me to include some of the ideas that were being presented in the class. In response to Diane's request, I'll try to present some of the main concepts that Carol emphasized, at the same time, try to keep it short, and simple. So here goes, the most important concept involved the idea of the basic values used in landscape painting. Usually the lightest value is the sky, the source of light, the next lightest is the ground, which receives the light, followed by the distant slanting plane, usually the mountains. The darkest value would be the foreground verticals, such as trees. This information must be very familiar to experienced landscape painters. To me, learning about the four values was all new information, and it all made perfect sense. If interested, these ideas are presented in more detail in John Carlson's book, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, which is an assigned text for our class. Learning about landscape painting has been a whole new experience for me. I learned a lot! Thank you, Carol!

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Happy Halloween and Friday's Class

Here we are, it's Halloween, and we're in between trick or treaters. That means it's time to post my efforts from Friday's class. By the way, this photo is not blurry, this is the way the painting actually looks. Our lesson on Friday was about painting reflections on water. The main idea is that the clarity of the reflection is based on the stillness of the water. The smoother the water, the more mirror like the reflection. The choppier the water, the more uneven the reflection. Also, the closer the object is to the water, the larger it appears in the reflection. In the above example the tree would appear much larger than the distant hills. Anyway, this is just a start, the initial drawing, with the lights, and darks, blocked in. It needs more work. So far, I have started five small paintings in various stages of needing more work, and our critique is next Friday. I have to get busy! Yikes!

Friday's Class

Friday was one more class with Carol Tarzier. She is such a wonderful instructor. Each class begins with a demo of Carol painting a landscape, from a photograph. After her demo, everyone paints the same landscape, using the same photo. So simple, but such a great way to learn. Never having done landscape painting, this class has been wonderful for me. I feel that I have learned so much, already. Carol also gives a short lecture in the beginning of class, based on ideas from the book, Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting, by John F. Carlson. This is all new information for me, even though this book has a original copyright date of 1929. Some ideas remain timeless!

Back to Class

Just finished day two in my painting class with Carol Tarzier. Here is the new landscape that was just started in this recent class. So many new ideas, that my head is spinning. So inspiring! Looking forward to more! Learning is a never ending adventure!

Just Starting

This is the beginning of a landscape painting that I did in last week's painting class. Actually. my first attempt at landscape painting. Carol Tarzier is so inspiring, a brilliant teacher, and wonderful artist. I have enjoyed her so much already. Carol recommended using an apricot color for the ground, and purple to make the preliminary drawing. Those two colors are just beautiful together! Stay tuned for more updates on this W.I.P.