Falta School

Acrylic on Canvas Panel - 10 x 12 inches -   SOLD

The last of my on-site sketches from Sonoma, this is an old schoolhouse that apparently isn't used for much of anything anymore. I kinda ran out of time on this one, but then lunch waits for no man.

O.J.

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches   SOLD

I took a photo of this truck from the neighborhood a while ago and have been itching to paint it. It's amusing to me how many old faded trucks are in the neighborhood, because it's a subject I usually find in paintings from Sonoma. Go figure.

I'm not updating auctions this week, because I have a joint show with my father this weekend.
Posting and shopping will resume next week.

Copper Wave

Acrylic on Cardstock - 6 x 4 inches

Just a quick sketch while cleaning up. 

Beach Set

Acrylic on Panel - 8 x 10 inches  Ω

Did I mention how much I prefer painting clothing than nude figures. I thought I'd take some of my new knowledge about road surfaces to try and paint a beach scene. Since I was actually at the beach the other evening, I thought a backlit figure might be nice and took a few snaps. What I liked about this one was the dark figure on a barely there simmering beach with just a hint of the sun on the very top edges of the body.

I could see it so clearly in my head. A simple plain, a dark shape and a sliver of bright white between then. Oh, how deceptively simple. I had the figure near dark walnut and that seemed wrong because then there was not enough differentiation between the back and the hair. Then I made her lighter, but then there wasn't enough contrast between the figure and the highlight or the beach. I'm not kidding, but I think I went back and forth a dozen times. And it's still not right, but I got tired of struggling.

A few things I started to notice, as with the road surfaces the other day, was the subtle colors within what I thought was one color. The blues in the flesh turned furthest away from the sun, the red reflected up from the towel. Yet every time I put a hint of that in, it looked like way too much. It really helped in rounding the figure but I just couldn't abide such shocking color. Why is that?

Sixteenth Street

Acrylic on Panel - 11 x 14 inches -   SOLD

Back to new paintings...

This is from a reference photo I took while going down one of the many hills on 16th Street, heading back from Portrero hill.

I've been having a color problem with street surfaces lately, and this is a good example. Streets are paved with a material that is mostly gray, so streets are grey. However they are lit by the sun for they should be warm. So, they're tan. Except in the shadows, where they're blue. Argh.

I stood on the hill for a while and started seeing all sorts of colors up and down the hills in SF (which as you may know are often not parallel to the horizon). As clouds came and went and the sun darted in and out, I saw all sorts of colors. It almost looked funny. I mean, to have a long held belief that asphalt and concrete are grey, and then to be presented with such a range was kinda mind melting.

I think I managed to incorporate some of that here. The photo's not the best capture of the painting, and it looks completely different on three different monitors here. (Fully saturated colors are pretty easy to calibrate on screen, but these subtle shades are much harder and look very different when the shift by a few degrees).

Out Barn version

updated version

Acrylic on Panel - 7 x 11 inches  Ω

Another before/after. Not so wildly different this time, but I did want to try and warm things up. I thought I'd exaggerated it quite well, but now looking at the photo, it still looks kinda wintery. Hmmmm.

Kyoto Tea Garden

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches -   SOLD

In Northern California the things that change color from season to season do so in a different way, and it's different every year. I couldn't find any inspiration in my neighborhood, but I did dig up this pic from my last trip to Japan. They really enjoy orchestrating their tea gardens to showcase the seasons wonderfully.

Moore's Barn Revisited

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches - (destroyed)

I did this in the field while I was at a workshop with Tim Horn last year. I had forgotten to bring any real warm colors and though all the oil painters generously offered tubes, I just had to muddle on as best I could.

Today, I came across this in the back hallway and thought I'd try adding the warmth of a hot day in Sonoma, from memory! Well part memory, part theory and part fantasy. I don't think it's as strong a rendering in some ways, but it definitely reflects the feeling of warmth and atmosphere.

While I'm on a roll I may try a few more of these "updates".

Page House Blues

Acrylic on Canvas - 18 x 24 inches -   SOLD

Found the original postcard I did for this piece and found I liked it better. Maybe it's the tone. That darkness that gives it a real mood. (enter "page house" in the search to find previous versions).

In any case I decided to try again, painting right on top of the old one. I also took out the second car. It just seemed unnecessary and constricting.

Winery Truck

Acrylic on Panel - 9 x 12 inches -   SOLD

Last night I had a dream where a voice was telling me to use just the big brushes. Was it my subconscious? A muse? Who can say, but the message stuck with me today, on the last day of my trip.

I picked this scene at Lambert Bridge because it had a little bit of everything, and because I could set up in the shade. I sketched in the composition quickly, and then mixed up some puddles and just started slapping it on with the No. 10 brush (almost an inch wide). This way it really came together quickly and when I want to change something, I could do such just a quickly.

I'd already learned this before, usually toward the end of a good solid patch of painting, and yet I keep forgetting it. After a long break from painting, I come back with some odd obsession with little brushes and detail. Not sure why that happens, but I'll have to keep my eye on that.

Tool Tip: I was looking at iPhone apps the other day and found one called Digital ViewCatcher. I haven't explored all the features yet, but I did use it for the sketch on this piece. It let me set the canvas at 9 x 12 and then drag around to crop it just they way I liked. Then I allowed me to impose a grid overlay, which really made transferring this as my initial sketch really easy. Perhaps too easy. Hmm...