November 28, 2009

Santa Rosa California











































I am working on a commissioned painting, which ended up needing to be done from a photo since the desired view is of California and not an easy plein air painter's drive from Bethesda. The challenges include working with photos that have little color in them and my need to understand the palette that best describes the light and color of Santa Rosa. I researched paintings at the Irvine Museum through an exhibit book "Palette of Light" as a starting point and I'm trying out colors I haven't used much before.

Here's the current state of the painting and the photos from which it has been created.



November 16, 2009

Light at Great Falls

I never made it to the waterfalls this morning -- the light coming through the trees stopped me before I even got to the path. The effect of a yellow sky and blue hills in the distance ... with a silhouette of fall trees!

November 11, 2009

Maine... in the Studio on a rainy day




I had started a painting in Maine this summer, liked the idea, but never got very far (was it the sunset or a bottle of wine that ended that painting session?). Today, with rain outside, I picked up my otherwise unusable start of a painting (below) and worked on it. I moved the horizon, altered the relative sizes of the boats, added the buoy in the front and touched color after color from one part of the painting to the next. The smaller painting is how it looked when I started.



November 9, 2009

Refinement of the farm painting

I had just 1/2 hour this morning to solve some of the issues with the shrubs, foreground, balance of color...

November 4, 2009

Birthday, Anniversary, Farm



Today is the 10th anniversary of my return to painting -- and it's also, not coincidentally, my birthday. 10 years ago, I decided to give myself a weekend painting workshop as a present. Today, the weather was beautiful and I enjoyed every minute of painting back at the farm in Poolesville.