Tracy Art Walk - 10 June 2016

The City of Tracy, CA is hosting an Art Walk for artists and I will be displaying & selling my Daily Paintings.  I built a display using recycled wood bed slats which were given to me.  It was quite an adventure building this "A" Frame display, since I have little carpentry experience.  It am amazed that it holds over 25 small paintings! It is light enough for me to carry and will fit in the back of my Subaru Outback. 

  Here are some photos of my dry run setup.  I don't want any surprises at the Art Walk!

There is more room on one side, so I may add a few more paintings.  Still working on the arrangement.  
 
I hope to take this display to other events!

I will be at 53 W. 10th Street in Tracy from 6 - 8 pm.  Drop by and see me! 

Kitty Portraits

Painting one of my favorite animals -  CATS

 

Orange Kitten   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

  
 I have always had cats in my life as long as I can remember.  They are the best friends in the world!  They cuddle with you and love you as long as you are good to them.  So I decided it was time to do some kitty portraits.  I have been working from a calendar given to me from Friends of Turlock Animal Shelter.  This is a great group that helps find homes for cats and dogs.  

Here are my first 6 portraits.  You might notice that I enjoy painting orange kitties!  Carrying on my exploration of ORANGE.

 

Orange Kitty with Blue Eyes   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Paintings are $125 framed and $95 without a frame.   $40 from the sale of each painting will be donated to this dedicated group.


Send me a really good, close-up photo of your cat and I will consider doing a portrait of YOUR loving kitty.   

 

Little Cutie   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Lucinda   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Susie   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Blue-eyed Beauty   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

What a sweetheart!



















"Lucinda" seemed like a good name for this pretty cat with green eyes. 
SOLD!  THIS PAINTING SOLD AT THE MONTEREY COUNTY ARTISTS OPEN STUDIO TOUR!  GONE TO A GOOD HOME!















And this little sweetie looked like a "Susie" to me! 

















This handsome cat looks a lot like my own cat  Lacy.  I have yet to paint Lacy, but that is on my list of things to do... soon!














Check out my website at: www.RhettsStudio.com

Time for Eggs

Egg Challenge

Duck Visits Egg   6" x 6"   oil on gessoboard

 I have seen paintings by other artists of a broken egg on a plate and thought that might be a good challenge.
Capturing that "wet" look is interesting, but the most difficult part was the egg shell.  I added one of my nasturtium flowers and leaf to give a spark of color.  The blueberries are freshly picked from my blueberry bush outside my studio door!  They are really good and make interesting shapes.  
Daily Painting #42

Egg and Blueberries   6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

 Here is another attempt at painting an egg.
Daily Painting #43

Let Me Hold Your Tea Bag     6" x 6"  oil on gessoboard

Here is my 3rd Daily Painting Still life with an egg.  I added the white tea cup, ceramic tea bag holder and flowers.  A fun collection of shapes, colors and textures!
Daily Painting #45














Paintings are $125 each framed.
Check out my website at:  www.RhettsStudio.com

Thank you for looking at my blog.

 

Painting Red Apples

Red Apples

Two and Half Apples  6x6 oil

 Ok, so I digress from my orange.  Just had to try my hand at some red apples I bought.  Discovered that Rose Madder and Pyrrol Red make just the color I needed!  I love the turquoise and the wall paper.
DAILY PAINTING #39

Apples and a Duck   6x6 oil

 So I had to try it again. This time my little glass duck had to get into the act. I think it is from the 40s.  Cute little guy.

Apples and Blueberries    6x6   oil

 DAILY PAINTING #40















My beautiful blueberries are getting ripe  so I was out picking them.  They cried out to be included in the next painting!  So here they are.   Ooooo they are good!  The blue cobalt bottle is old.
 DAILY PAINTING #41

Please Don't Eat the Blueberries    6x6   oil

I bought this little chick at the Dollar Store at Easter.  It is fluffy and bobs up and down as it quacks!  I hope it doesn't eat my blueberries!

The blue cup was left over from a trip from my Aussie daughter. 
DAILY PAINTING #42












All these paintings are $95 unframed  $125 framed. 

Painting at Tor House in Carmel 2016

Plein Air Painting at the 2016 Tor House Garden Party
    May 1st, 2016

 Robinson Jeffers house in Carmel is a fascinating place to visit and I highly recommend it!  You can see more photos of the house and grounds here:  http://www.torhouse.org/

Take the tour if you can.
This was my second opportunity painting on these lovely grounds during their annual Garden Party.

 The weather was nice, except for the wind!  And it was blustery!  The only place I was able to set up was near the gate and luckily, it had a nice view.  The roses by the gate were magnificent!  

Visitors were so nice and came up behind me to watch me paint. This year they have note cards of my last painting in the gift shop.  These delightful ladies kept asking me to sign my note card!  They said they collect anything having to do with Robinson Jeffers!  So sweet!

I had not painted in plein air for a long time, and I sure was rusty!  I forgot my paint in the car, left out some important colors, and my water bottle leaked!  Yikes!  Then I decided to paint on a 12" x 9" panel.  And after the painting was done, I realized I had forgotten to bring a wet painting carrier for that size!  How do you get a very wet oil painting to your car in the wind?  I am most grateful to two other artists who helped me out!   

When I got home, I realized my painting was really bad!  So after re-working it in the studio, I feel a little better about it.  I will post it when I get a chance to photograph it.  

Another day in the life of a plein air painter!  

So here is my final version of my painting at Tor House during the 2016 Garden Party.
I call it:
"By the Garden Gate at Tor House"

Those roses were really magnificent with brilliant yellow, orange, red and magenta!  Wow were they beautiful!  And the white calla lilies were a lovely contrast. 

Here is the painting I did the first time I painted at Tor House in 2010.  I had set up an hour early on the lawn next to the Hawk Tower and proceeded to paint the stone house.  I was working toward painting the garden, when they opened the gate and about a hundred people flooded into the small garden!  I could no longer even see the beautiful gardens!  So I had to make it up from what I had remembered.  Then I noticed all these folks resting on the bench and I thought "Why not add them to the painting!"  So I did.  This note card is available in the Tor House Gift Shop and I have the original hanging in my living room!  It was a lovely day and hard to believe it was 6 years ago! 

Open Studio 2016

Wonderful turn-out for my Open Studio April 23 & 24, 2016

 Greg Frazier and I pose in front of my Daily Paintings display.  The pegboard panels worked very well for displaying the 6"x 6" paintings.

 Here is part of our set-up.  We were resting and waiting for the crowd to show up.  Our weather was good which was a nice change from the last few years with wind and rain.

Greg had some wonderful wood pieces: puzzle boxes, wooden pens, puzzles and other items of fun.  He does such nice work.  I especially like his burl bowls with the abalone inlays.  So pretty!

 Visitors had the opportunity to choose from boxes of unframed paintings and try them out in frames.  I also had matted original work, matted reproductions, paper cranes, and note cards from which to choose.

 Here is one of my visitors choosing a matted original.  She also chose one of my Daily Paintings!


I want to thank all those who helped set up and take down, and store away all my stuff!

Still Exploring the Color ORANGE

SPRING POPPIES  6x6  oils

APRIL 11th  Monday
Last week we took a 3 day trip to Monterey, CA and the coast.  I was amazed to see all the California poppies in bloom on the hill sides and even in downtown Carmel and Monterey!  Well naturally, I had to take photos! After all, they are ORANGE!  I was so surprised how difficult poppies are to paint and they are made up of such a variation of oranges and yellows.  Capturing the various shadows and changes in color was a challenge.  

< Here is my first effort.  I worked in water mixable oils on an ampersand gesso panel.  DAILY PAINTING # 29

SPREAD A LITTLE SUNSHINE

< Here is my 2nd effort.   I am worried that my paintings will not be dry in time for my Open Studio April 23 & 24th, so I thought I would try acrylics this time.  Wow!  What a difference!  I have not worked in acrylics in a number of years and found it quite a challenge.  The colors change as they dry, blending is more difficult and making puddles of color doesn't work because they dry so quickly.  But I worked on.
DAILY PAINTING #30    6x6 acrylics on ampersand gesso panel

CALIFORNIA GOLD   6x6 acrylics

< Second try at acrylics. I am slowly learning to manage acrylics and remembering from my work with them years ago.  I realize that I could use some new brushes,  I don't want to use my oil brushes and the ones I have are just too soft.  And I am struggling with the transparency of acrylics too.  But I do think this one is a little better.  
DAILY PAINTING #31

CARMEL POPPIES  4X6 acrylics

< So now I am getting a little more confident in acrylics.... well just a little.  This time I tried a smaller painting... just 4" x 6" on gessoed watercolor paper.  I found these poppies growing near the Carmel River in front of a house.  So cheerful to see them!
DAILY PAINTING #32





I can't believe I have painted 32 paintings now!  Great practice!
These little guys will be available for sale at my Open Studio.  
6x6s are $100 without a frame / $125 with a floater frame.  
4x6s are matted to fit an 8" x 10" frame and are $45 each.  
Believe me, they look better in person!  Come on by and check them out!

I am often asked "How long did it take you to paint that?"
My answer is simple: 
"After 50 years of practice, it took me 3 hours to paint this small painting."