View From Mission Ranch

Painting the view from Mission Ranch in Carmel, California 

My patron enjoys staying at Mission Ranch in Carmel.  She and her husband especially love looking at the view from their porch of the field of sheep and the ocean with Point Lobos in the distance. So she asked me to create a painting of that view. I have painted that scene a number of times at the ranch and my plein air painting was helpful to make that happen for her. 

 Here are some progress photos for her painting. 

Making sketches of the sheep at Mission Ranch

Toning the 11x14 linen canvas

   

Working from my original plein air painting

Sketching the composition

Blocking in some of the larger shapes

Adding more color areas

My mixing palette

Adding more details

Working on the grassy areas, sky, sheep and background

After more corrections, refining values, colors and some shapes,
I think I am at the finishing point.
"View From Mission Ranch"  oil  11" x 14"

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

Sloshing Around in an Almond Orchard

 What a fun day sloshing through the almond orchard!  When my friend's family irrigates their almond orchards I come running over with my paint box!  Sam had the sprinklers going and there were large puddles of water under the rows of the almond trees.  Luckily, I was able to set up my paint box on the driveway and saved my shoes from getting soaking wet.  I couldn't wait to get out my paints!  The reflections are wonderful... almost magical under those trees!  I can see so many colors in the water, soil and grasses on the ground alone!  The trees bend here and there in different directions and the soft green leaves on the branches hang down loaded with the almonds.  It is late July and soon the almonds will be harvested in the Central Valley of California where I live.

 Here you can see my paint box.  I started out in the shade, but soon the light dappled through the tree behind me and I had to put up my umbrella.  It is important to see the painting in even light as I am painting it. 

When I got home, worked on the painting a little more, refining some places, adding more color, etc. using my photo references and my memory.

Scroll down to see the finished painting in a frame.

Here are some of the photos I took that day to help me finish my painting. 

Look at those reflections!

"Time To Irrigate" - oil on linen panel - 9" x 12"

Here is what the painting might look like in a frame.

Available for purchase on my gallery page at

www.RhettsStudio.com

 

Exploring Gouache

Half Dome - almost finished - gouache - 3” x 4” - on gelli print

I have been having fun exploring with gouache.  Gouache is basically opaque water color.  Sometimes I add white gouache to water color to make it opaque.  Why do I like it?  It dries with a flat finish, can be painted on archival mat board or illustration board without putting a gesso coat first and is water soluble.  My brushes can be washed with water (I use distilled water).  One thing that is somewhat frustrating is that the colors do not dry the same as when they are put down on the paper.  Light colors dry darker and dark colors dry lighter.  It is more difficult to get darks, but I am learning. See the finished painting below.

Gelli plate printing is lots of fun so I was wondering if the two could be combined.  In this video you can see that I took a print and glued it to mat board.  Then using a photo I took in Yosemite, I began to paint on top of the gelli print.  I wanted the print background to show through here and there which you can see in the next video.

So this is a time-lapse video (my very first one) of my process.  I made a goal to complete this small painting in just 30 minutes, so it is a quick study.  That made it necessary to keep the brushwork loose and simple.

Finished painting

  Below is the photo reference I used.