On the Mist Trail

Up the Trail, to the Falls, 30 x 40 inches, oil.

This painting is from a photo taken in early spring when the falls in Yosemite Valley are charging down the mountain. The technique in this painting is something I have recently come up with--it involves smooshing paint into paint to get washy gradations with a palette knife. It makes for long painting hours because the technique does not work at all once the paint is dry.

self-portrait on a hot day...unfinished

The bay area is hot this week, and I have took a break from worky- work to do a quick self-portrait. For this painting I reverted to a former style of brushwork rather than palette knife. I also adhered to the lighting and color truly found in my studio, rather than pushing and pulling at the color harmonies, for once.

Here is a link to something totally different, original and lovely: http://www.lightmark.de/index.html

Chocolate

Chocolate!, 10 x 10 inches, oil.

Today is a painting day, and here is a portrait of afternoon snack, now consumed...

Evening in the Garden

Evening in the Garden, 18 x 24 inches, oil.

I reworked the painting below into the one above, I must say that I liked the result. I just put a new layer of palette knife oil paint over the old painting-- a fresh look really helped the painting. The figure in the painting was not touched at all, but now he looks as if he fits in.

Here is the original, now underpainting...

Reflection

Reflection, 6 x 6 inches, oil.

Dawn Sketch

Dawn Sketch, 6 x 6 inches, oil.

Morning Sun, 18 x 24 inches, pastel.

This studio painting is done from a photo taken on a trip to Sonoma. The morning fog was clinging to the ground and creating an ethereal light effect that the painting celebrates.

Cherries in a Plastic Bag, 11 x 14 inches, oil.

Kim Fancher Lordier came over to my studio today, and we worked in tandem on paintings of this still-life. Painting with direct observation--what someone referred to as "the razor sharp eye" always rewards me with a fun painting. I find the process of true observation very relaxing and rejuvenating.

Napa Trees, 16 x 18 inches, pastel.

With high summer here, it seems a good time to post this painting that I completed by mining a field sketch. I wrecked the original paintings by fixing it with matte fixative, but I enjoyed the motif. I redid the painting by distilling the motif to the elements that I enjoyed the most. As always, the color harmonies interest me as a pastelist. Pastels lend themselves very well to this sort of experimentation. Here is the original, just for comparison:

As you can see, I zoomed way in, and fiddled the color!

Mill in Buren

The Mill at Buren

Here is a watercolor of the the flour mill in Buren, the small village in the Netherlands where I just spent a few lovely days eating crisp apples and cherries, riding bikes and visiting family. Summer there is sweet and gentle with warm breezes and soft showers. I took only watercolors on this trip and enjoyed playing with them for the first time in years very much. As you can see I juxtapose a waterproof black drafting pen over the watercolor, after doing a pencil sketch. This painting still needs a hint of sky painted in. I did not do it on site for fear of running the wet paint of the foreground into the sky. I will sit down this afternoon and finish up.