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

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!

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.

Painting along the Big Sur Coast

Let's Take a Long Walk
9" x 12"   oil on panel

A few years ago I took a photo while on a casual trip down the California coast on my way to Big Sur.  The scene was so pretty.  Rolling hills, native grasses and a path going off into the distance.  I painted the painting later, but was never really happy with it. 

This week I revisited the painting to see what I could do with it.  Now I am happy!  I remembered that scene and loved the beautiful, colorful native grasses.  How I wanted to walk down that path!  But it was a long walk and as I do not walk well, I could only dream.  

It is now up on my Daily Paintworks online Gallery.
If you click on it you can see close ups.   

$450  without a frame
If you are interested in adding this painting to your own collection,
 please send me an email via Daily Paintworks.

"Sprinklers" Painting in Farm & Field show

"Sprinklers"    11" x 14"   oil

My painting "Sprinklers" has been juried into 

the Farm & Field show 

at the Carnegie Arts Center.   

The show runs through July 29th, 2018.  

The Carnegie Arts Center is located at 250 N. Broadway in Turlock, CA.  

This scene was painted from a photograph taken of a newly planted field near Snelling, CA.  
This area is beautiful with rolling hills and lots of fields.  

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.  

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.