Afternoon Walk in Pacific Grove

Testing the finished painting in a hand carved gold frame

Finished painting still on the easel and wet

 My painting is finished, pending approval from my patron.  It now needs to rest and dry before varnishing it.

Testing another frame in the finished painting.

Side view of this frame

Afternoon Walk - day 2 progress

Day 2 work on the painting and I am about half way through.  

The weather was nice enough to get out to my studio and paint today.

Blocking in the green ice plant areas

Working on the path

Blocking in the cliff rocks

Refining rocks, blocking in the fence, figures,
refining grassy areas, water & distant hills, adding sail boat

Mixing palette

So the painting is coming along and about half way finished.

Afternoon Walk in Pacific Grove

Painting "en plein air" on location  - it was cold!

   

The original plein air painting created in PG

I am enjoying doing a commission painting working from a small plein air painting I painted along the Pacific Grove coast a few years ago.  These nice folks bought a note card of the painting at a bookstore that sells my art note cards.  They liked the painting on the card and asked me to do a larger painting for them.  The storms in California have made it difficult to get to my studio until today, but I finally got a start on the under painting.  I will post my progress as it goes.

Step 1 prep the canvas with red paint
and draw the composition

 

Blocking in some of the background color

DAY 1
I like working on a red background sometimes,
especially when there is a lot of green in the painting.
The red background will 
sparkle through in a few places, adding interest. 

Here I have started to block in the focal point tree shapes.  

             Hopefully, I will be able to work on the painting again tomorrow!

Painting from Inside My Car!

"Pacific Grove's Point Pinos Lighthouse"    4" x 6"  gouache

It can get pretty cold and foggy along the California coast at Pacific Grove.  When I had a chance to go there I naturally wanted to go painting.  This day was so cold and windy, setting up my easel was not a good idea.   So I tried an experiment ... paint from inside my car!  

Now painting with oils inside a car is not a good idea, but I came prepared!  I bought my gouache paint!  Gouache is opaque watercolor, so I figured if I got some on my car seats I could wash it off.  I was lucky none spilled.  Check out my setup!  I have one of those trays that you can put over your lap.  I have not seen those in the stores in a long time, but when I bought it I thought.... "Hey I can use that one day!"  So the day finally came.  It is great as it holds my water, brushes, paper towels, ceramic palette and a wet palette too.  I was able to straddle it over my console in my new Subaru Outback.  It fit perfectly!

my painting and value sketch on my steering wheel easel 

<  I made a gizmo to fit over my steering wheel and clipped my 4" x 6" piece of archival mat board to it.  It all worked out great!

Point Pinos Lighthouse from my car

My scene was of the old lighthouse in Pacific Grove called Point Pinos Lighthouse.  It is currently closed due to the virus, but a few years ago I toured through it.  It is a wonderful piece of history.  The light still works and it shown bright yellow in the tower.  You might be able to see it from my photo.  

The scene was pretty far away and there is an old wooden fence which I felt blocked the eye leading to the lighthouse.  So I eliminated the fence and added a path.  There are lots of native grasses and some off-white flowers blooming which I enjoyed putting into my scene.  Three hours later, I declared my painting finished!

This little painting is up for auction on Daily Paintworks.

Check it out on my gallery page at

www.RhettsStudio.com

PASTEL: Calla Lilies in Pacific Grove

Calla Lilies in Pacific Grove  pastels  22" x 26

Calla Lilies on the Coast  8" x 10"  oil 

My friend and I decided to paint along the coast in Pacific Grove, CA in Monterey County.  It was such a beautiful day and we were delighted to find a big stand of calla lilies which someone had planted near the water.  We set up our easels and painted. 

< Here is my plein air painting / study from that day.  The calla lilies were thick and in full bloom as was the purple Pride of Maderia.  The sea was brilliant blue and there were large black cormants sunning themselves on the rocks.

It was a lovely day and I never forgot those pretty white calla lilies on the coast.

So when a pastel show was announced at our Carnegie Arts Center, I thought I might try working from my plein air study and create a new painting from that day.  The finished painting is above and below you can see a few shots I took in progress as I worked on this pastel painting.

Study for the final painting

 

< Here is a small study I worked up to get ready for the larger pastel painting.   Now for sale on Daily Paintworks.  

 9" x 10"   Callas and Butterflies in Pacific Grove

Pacific Grove is famous for its Monarch Butterflies so I added butterfly stamps around the border and colored them with the Pan Pastels.  

I have been wanting to try out my new Pan Pastels so here was my chance!  I bought a large sheet of Uart sanded pastel paper and cut it to fit a frame I already
 had.  

My idea was to have a painting within a painting.  Like you might look out a window to the scene.  I wanted to try some mixed media techniques as well  using stamps and a Versa stamp pad with the pan pastels.  

I wanted the area around the central square to be soft and dreamy, mystical and magical surrounding the more in-focus center.  So I began by taping around the central square to form a frame.

<  This photo shows the beginning stages of working the outer frame with the soft pan pastels and the sofft sponges.  Sofft sponges are specially designed to use with the pan pastels.  They are in the shape of standard artist's paint brushes so are so nice to work with. 

< Here I am starting to work the central section.  I wanted some of the leaves and lilies to overlap into the border for added interest, so I needed to plan it out a bit.

Close up.  Working with large sofft sponges

Let me know how you like my pastel painting and wish me luck getting into the pastel show!

My painting was accepted to this National Juried Competition along with a 2nd pastel painting.

On display at the 
THE FINE ART OF PASTELS
March 28 - May 26, 2019
Carnegie Arts Center
250 N. Broadway, Turlock, CA  95380

Also accepted is my pastel
"Carmel Mission Sanctuary"
Which won an award in another
show (shown in photo)

New Coastal Paintings

A Beach For Seals
11" x 14"    oil on panel

I have been working on revising and up dating some older paintings.
I created this painting on location during the Big Blue Live TV show a few years ago.  It was painted at Hopkins Marine Station Beach near the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  I love this beach because it is fenced off and the seals have the beach all to themselves.  As I was painting from the pathway above and behind the fence, I had fun watching the seals resting and playing in the gentle surf.  Such a pretty place.

Send me an email via Daily Paintworks
 if you are interested in purchasing this painting.
You can see close ups of it on Daily Paintworks online gallery. 

$600 ~ does not include a frame.

Pacific Grove House Painting Finished

After a few more corrections, additions and changes, the painting of the Pacific Grove house is finally finished!  It was really fun to do this painting of this cute house in such a beautiful setting.  I hope the family is pleased with it.  The original painting goes to Oregon soon, but prints and other goodies can be purchased on Fine Art America.  

Pacific Grove House Painting progress

I have reworked the house color to a more muted color.  I still need to put the mobile hanging from the eaves.  Hope to get to that next week.  

We have been having a lot of wet weather lately and it has been making it difficult to get the painting to dry.  I am hoping the coming hot temperatures will help dry the oil paint.  It has to dry so I can give it a coat of varnish and ship it.  

It has been very busy here with my husband having cataract surgery and several shows I am trying to get paintings finished to enter.  Hope to get back to the Pacific Grove house next week.  

More Work on Pacific Grove House Painting

This is what the house looks like today.  My client's uncle lives in the house and he said the lavender had been removed so I don't know exactly where it had been.  The large, tall trees make a wonderful background to this house.

Using my practice painting (see previous blog post), and the many photos I took of the house, I was able to make a drawing in proportion to my 18" x 24" canvas panel and graph out the basic drawing.

These photos show my steps in working out the dark and light values in the foreground and trees.  In the bottom right photo I have added the house color, brick and refined the tree shapes & colors.

These photos show the steps working out the sky color, tree shapes, adding the lavender and shadow patterns on the house.  I also worked on the yard plants and added the fences.

More refinements to the trees, adding the small tree in the front yard, and more work on the lavender.

Here I have added the curb & street and added more plants to the front yard.  I felt the mail box was too big, so I made it smaller so as not to detract from the house.

At this point I feel that I am nearly finished with the painting, except for a few more refinements and pending input from my client.  When the painting is finished, it will need time to rest and dry before signing and adding a coat of varnish.  

Preparing for a New Commission Painting of a Pacific Grove Home

After taking many photos of the house,
I made some quick sketches.
Here is one of them.

 I have taken on a new commission.  A nice lady in Oregon remembers her good times at her grandmother's home in Pacific Grove, California.  She has asked me to paint her grandmother's house to add to a wall in her home.  She plans to surround the painting with photos of family and fun times.  

So I took on the project.  Here are photos showing my process working out the problems of the painting with sketches and a 9" x 12" practice painting.

She fondly remembers the lavender in the front yard, and although it is no longer there, I plan to add it to my painting.  

See the next blog to see how I progress on the 18" x 24" painting.

After making the drawing and graphing it out,
I re-drew the drawing on to a small canvas board and begin blocking in the dark values.
This practice painting was just to capture the color and value patterns. 

Here is the finished 9" x 12" practice study.  I may still make more
changes to this little painting later.

Art Show in Pacific Grove

 AUGUST 28 - OCTOBER 27 - 2017

They even installed new track lighting for me!

I have a display of a few of my small paintings at the Sally Griffin Active Living Center in Pacific Grove, 700 Jewel Ave.  The center is only a block from Lovers Point, so you can enjoy the beautiful coast before you drop by the show.   

RECEPTION - SEPT. 8th 5 - 7 pm
Please join me and the three other artists in this show, Harry Wareham, Laura Lockett, and Tamara Keiper, for our reception on Sept. 8th, 5 - 7 pm. 
Come and enjoy live music and refreshments. 

10% of all sales donated to the Sally Griffin Center to help Meals on Wheels. In conjunction with the Central Coast Art Association.

Three pastels.

A painted lady in Pacific Grove.
This pretty house is near the park in Pacific Grove.

ACEO BLACK & WHITE Drawings

DRAWING IN BLACK AND WHITE

Above Monterey Bay  SOLD

I have been exploring drawing with a variety of mixed media including white ink, white pastel and pencil, black and brown inks and other pens.  It is interesting to see what a colorful scene looks like using just these medias.  I am working for a good NOTAN design and practicing for a possible painting as well.  I have been influenced by Vincent Van Gogh's drawings after reading Irving Stone's book "Lust for Life".  Vincent was an amazing observer of nature and used his pens magnificently!  

The drawings are small ACEOs.  An ACEO stands for "Art Card Edition Original" and they must always be to the standard size 2.5" x 3.5" a little bigger than a business card. Collectors are putting these into binders as well as framing them.  

Collectors trade these ACEOs like trading cards.

My drawings are on a variety of papers,  usually grays and dark greens.  I have some of them in auctions on eBay and on Daily Paintworks.  Below are a few I have been working on lately.  
If you would like to buy one of these contact me.  

Each of these have been matted to fit an 8" x 10" frame. 

You can click on an image to view it bigger. 

Calla Lilies in Pacific Grove - ACEO  - SOLD

Splashing Swan  - ACEO

Sunset #1 - ACEO

By the Sea -  ACEO

Painting Great Old Cars

Painting Great Old Cars

 I have been having fun painting old cars, trucks and tractors when I can find them.  My friend and I were driving around Pacifc Grove (CA) looking for a restaurant for dinner when we turned down this road and discovered this great car!  It was about a week before the 4th of July so the car and house were all decorated up!  I took photos and eventually painted the first three paintings.  My friend went to the parade and took the photo of the car in the parade, thus the 4th painting.
Each painting took me 6 hours to paint, but it was fun to try and capture the flags, reflections and shadows.  I like them all and can't figure which I like best.  Let me know which one YOU like best!

Ready for the Parade 6" x 6"  oil on ampersand panel framed in 8" x 8" frame

American Pride  6" x 6"  oil on ampersand panel framed in 8" x 8" frame

Celebrate the 4th 6" x 6"  oil on ampersand panel framed in 8" x 8" frame

In the Parade 6" x 6"  oil on ampersand panel framed in 8" x 8" frame

See the originals on display at the                                                     

Monterey County Artists Open Studio Tour
Sept. 24th and 25th  - 2016    -  11 am - 5 pm
I will be at #15 on the map
Maps are available at www.bit.ly/mcoast.ArtsHabitat.org
and will be published in the Monterey Herald on Sept. 15th.
For more information go to   ArtsHabitat.org
 or call  (831)624-6111
also on Facebook

Monterey, California