Study: "Mount Myoko"

8x10, oil on canvas board

We just got back from vacation here. I swear, this mountain has been painted by millions of people through the years because she's just so photogenic. For me, it was a beautiful day, but also painting her was sort of Manifest Destiny, since my Mom had painted her many years ago. Very satisfying. I also took pictures and might try to turn this into a larger work.

First plein air and I forgot my red paint

6x8, oil on canvas board

I recently found a plein air painting group to hang out with, and this was my first work in a long time. Heck, I think I can count my plein air paintings on two hands. But I'm not displeased, especially since I forgot my red paint. I guess if you're going to paint outside and you need to forget one color, red ain't bad. It's better than blue or yellow/ochre, which you need for sky and plants, which features are very common outdoors.

I did this piece at the Baylands, a protected marshland in Palo Alto. It's a wonderful preserve where critters who frequent brackish water have a safe haven. The white structure in the distance is the Sea Scout Building, built in 1941 in the streamline moderne style (not that I know what this is) and it has a colorful history. The day was, as you can see, cloudy overhead, with puffy clouds over the mountains. I don't know that I nailed the scene (I'm not happy that the composition is split in half so evenly), but there is goodness in it.

"Kapiolani Beach 1," 8x10, oil on canvas board

Sold.

I'm still thinking about this one. It doesn't speak to me, but my husband thinks I underrate myself.

I noticed something that would be a good exercise if taken further. I was looking through some painting books that I've grazed and added sticky tags to in the past. The exercise is to notice what kind of art attracts you. Mostly, for me, I find it's the bold, bright art. I guess I really like the impressionists and colorists.

But... Then I turn and do something like my fig painting from a couple of months ago. Very dark. Very sedate. But it has those greens and purples coexisting against a really rich background. Or the Study in White Fuzz I did awhile ago. But I like it for the dandelion head and the rough edges.

I guess you can like lots of stuff. But the point is to figure it out so that when you paint, you're in synch with yourself. That's when painting feels best.

"Glowing Hillside II," 9x12, oil on gesso board

In June I did a a 5x7 version of this picture. For some reason, that image cried out to be bigger (not that you can tell on a monitor). It also seemed like a great time to play with painting knives, which I used for the middle and far ground of this painting. For the foreground I used brushes to get that velvety look