15 minutes with Claudia

Of the 15 minutes Claudia "sat" for me, she agreed to look up from her book for about 2. She said I look at her all the time and should know what she looks like.

Open Door at the Store?

I've been puzzling over how to deal with the effect of looking into the store and seeing the reflection at the same time. Since it's snowing out, I took some studio time to try out opening the door and putting figures into the mix. I also moved over the glowing Apple, although I still think it looks too far right. I might have to move the store wall to the right to solve the problem.

Emphasis on the tree trunk -- and it's done

The Real California Sky

Two California natives helped me look at the painting again and I've made a few changes. The biggest one is that the sky is no longer defined by my East-coast sensibility, which says if there's mountains, there's clouds. What I was reminded about California is that the blue of the sky is potent -- and that what I was interpreting in the photos through East-coast eyes was really blue sky.

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.

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!

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.

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...

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.

It's Done!