It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit Saturday in San Francisco! This is incredibly unusual…too hot, really. I put my backpack on full of supplies, and headed out for the 1 mile walk to Golden Gate Park. Then, as I was walking down, I saw this view. I’ve painted the house on the left once before (I’ve heard it belongs to James Hormel, the first openly gay ambassador appointed by President Clinton), but decided to focus on the drop off of the road and the palms leading down.

Enjoy!

Descending Palms (Duboce Ave) - Oil on Linen - 8×10

I had the pleasure of painting with Brent Jensen today in Golden Gate Park. Brent and I met years ago at a plein air event, and have tried keeping in touch while he’s moved about the country. Check out his work, pretty great, right?

I returned today to a couple icons of the park I’ve painted before: The Conservatory of Flowers (here) and the Golden Gate Pavillion (here, here, and here). Although I’ve painted these subjects before, all the other factors that go into a painting made these unique. The weather was fantastic, the light and sky clear.

Golden Gate Pavillion - Oil on Linen - 12×9″

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I’m very happy with the color and composition here. I added shadows over the path and grass at the bottom, to create arrow shapes that guide the eye into the painting. My only hesitation with this one is this: the color of the red columns is a close to that of the nearby tree on the right. One the one hand, it ads color harmony to the painting, on the other I wonder if these should have been separated a bit more. Thoughts?

Conservatory of Flowers - Oil on Linen - 12×9″

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This painting of the Conservatory turned out to be more complex that I’d originally thought. Mixing architecture and nature is always a challenge. I’m happy with this one too, expecially the values, which I think read pretty well.

Another study, based on my photos of Venice. I enjoyed painting this one a lot. I enjoy mixing the subtle earthy tones of old buildings or nature with man-made shocking colors, like the clothes hanging to dry here.

The photos aren’t great (taken with my camera phone), so when this finishes drying (in the Wedgewood Stove, as always), I’ll take a digital scan. I strung together four photos of the work in progress, imported into iMovie, and made a short video now on my YouTube channel.

Venice Laundry - Oil on Linen - 10×8

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Click on this image to get to the YouTube video. Enjoy!

click to view

Hung out at home today, so went through my digital library to find images to paint. I’ve always loved this late afternoon shot of Venice, in the “Golden Hour”. This is a small study, but I may work on a studio version as well. The light really was this orange, and hitting the red brick buildings, made it just sing “fire”. Don’t know if it’s too much. I wonder too if the shadows striking the buildings on the right is reading well. They’re cast shadows from the buildings on the left.

It was fun adding pure bits of color here and there to represent people in the background, and on the boats. Man-made colors against the calm of nature makes for nice variation.

Venice Canal - Oil on Linen - 10×8″

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Another full day today painting! I took off a bit early to soak in the hot tub. Perfect. Tomorrow we paint the figure, which will be a nice change of pace.

Here’s Camille’s first demo start (Wai’oli Hui’ia Church, 1912). The lighting conditions were overcast. You can see how she starts with flat masses of rich color. No modeling at this point. She also knows where she’s headed, eg, the far-right middle spot of Magenta will end up being a clump of trees. She’ll work green into it later, but for now she’s making it a rich red to bring it forward, and due to the fact that overcast days emit a cool light, which means warm shadows.

Here’s the near-finish.

I really like the composition in her second demo. Again, the light conditions where overcast, so a cool light, warm shadows. Remember that everything is relative. She carefully placed color notes in relation to each other, both warm/cool and value.

Here’s the finished study.

As for my work today: the day shifted from cloudy to sunny every few minutes, so I split my canvas in half and worked back-and-forth, sometimes minutes apart! You really can’t paint “the light” if it’s constantly shifting, so if you’re painting in conditions like these, consider splitting your canvas, or bringing two to work on.

The sunny version on the left is just the start, it didn’t stay sunny long enough to finish. I’m happy with the gray day side. I went back-and-forth quite a bit between color spots to get them to harmonize and read (by value). Overcast days are a great time to learn, because you’re not “chasing the light”. Even so, the cloud cover varied quite a bit, so it was definitely a challenge.

Here’s the finish:

Wai oli Hui ia Church (Overcast) - Oil on Linen - 8×6

More mixed weather today, sun in the morning, overcast in the afternoon. I have two images by Camille, one for me. I only kept one as I spent the morning doing several starts, wiping off each start as I went.

Here’s her first start in the morning:

Here’s the near finish…she said she’d adjust a few areas, but it’s close and again shows you how she transitions paintings. Note the dark warm shadows in the foreground trees, the high intensity warms in the sky (that she later tones down to read as blue); and feeling of atmosphere she creates.

She then painted this study in the afternoon, with overcast light. See the difference?

And finally, here’s the only painting I finished today, the “Old School” (now shops). I don’t think the light key is as accurate as I’d like, but it reads well, and that roof was a blast to paint!

Old Hanalei School (Kauai) - Oil on Linen - 10×12

Mike has a few weeks off between jobs, so we headed to Napa Valley for Valentine’s. We stayed a couple nights at Beazley House in Napa, a great B&B that accepts–no, loves–dogs! Gracie had a great time, running through vineyards and just hanging out with us. We spent a lot of money on wine, but hey, it lasts for years, so no big deal.

I painted this Friday morning. It’s a view from the backyard of Beazley House. I’d originally included a building to the left the obscured the lower half of the palm and other things that simply distracted from the center of interest, so today I repainted those areas. It really helped. Learning to simplify is so important, something I’m still working on.

Napa Valley Morning - Oil on Linen - 10×8″

Gracie wondering Rubicon, her favorite Napa Winery (owned by Francis Ford Coppella).

Fetch, Gracie!

Dusk is my favorite time to paint–I’d like early morning too, but I’m not a “morning person”. This was done from a photo I took during the Golden Hour in Telluride, Colorado.

Telluride at Dusk - Oil on Linen - 10×8

Yesterday was…conflicting. On the one hand, it was an extraordinarily beautiful day–one with the level of clarity you see after a couple of days of rain–and on the other, a very sad one.

I painted the view below of the Golden Gate Bridge from El Camino Del Mar, just past the Palace of Fine Arts. When I was done, I was approached by a stranger, Tod, who’d told me he’d lost his brother two days before in a car accident, 20 yards down from where I was sitting. Thirty minutes before I’d taken a break and walked down to see the flowers left at the tree where his brother’s car had struck, an old Monterey Cypress. Since we’d had our first big rain the day of the accident, and it’s a sharp turn on a steep hill, I can image the slick roads that day must have combined to create this tragedy.

This isn’t the first time a painting has had a special connection with someone. As artists, it’s something we seek, but of course can never plan for. A place remembered or one you’d like to visit is the norm. You’ll never know when that connection will be made. I’m grateful I was there at the moment Tod came back to visit that tree, and hope this painting brings him comfort, some day.

“Brothers” - Oil on Linen - 12×9

We had perfect weather for today’s Quickdraw event at San Luis Obispo Plein Air.  As happens in many events like these, there was a mix of adult part-time, learning artists and collectors.  I gave away lots of cards, advice to early artists and set up a snow scene near my easel so passerby would see my finished work at a larger scale.  You know how paintings go through an “ugly stage” at the beginning (not unlike newborn babies…parents excepted ….I didn’t want a collector to see that and walk on. I think it worked.  I got lots of praise for “Thanksgiving Day Snow”, which I painted plein air last November.  But alas, no buyers.

I struggled with my painting of the mission for a while, and about half way through the two hours thought that I may not be able to pull it off. Panic.  After scraping a section that wasn’t working (and simplifying…always think about simplifying areas that aren’t coming together), was able to finish something I was very happy with.

Luckily, a wedding was held in the mission church that day, so given I painted a view of the door and steps–complete with wedding garland–I had a nice little bidding war for the piece. I sold for a respectable price to a member of the wedding party.

No luck later that night, however, at the reception’s silent auction. I’ve doubled my prices from last year, but don’t think that was the problem as paintings next to mine at 1/4 the price didn’t sell either.  Sales were terrible.  Following the auction, which didn’t seem nearly as successful as last year, someone mentioned “we’re definitely in a recession”. I don’t know if “The Fed” would agree, but let’s face, art’s one of the first things to go when you’re thinking about your mortgage payment going up and whether your job will be there if a recession does hit.

Oh well. I’m just honored to be here and meet so many talented artists and truly wonderful, giving people.

We’ll see, maybe sales tomorrrow, the last day of the show. I’m painting Morro Bay in the morning for the joy of it.  No competition or sales worries, just painting.

Mission, at San Luis Obispo - Oil on Linen - 12×9″