Plein Air Painting Demonstration / San Vincente Canyon , Davenport

San Vincente Canyon, Davenport 14 x 14 watercolor on arches

I often get asked how I paint all those shapes. I usually use a high horizon as a starting point. With atmospheric perspective, the distant hills usually (but not always) have the lightest values. Because I paint standing up with a vertical board, painting from top to bottom also helps as a practical matter to allow me to correct the occasional drip. Above are three stages of a painting I just finished painted near Davenport just north of Santa Cruz.

Artists Days at Tao House

California Barn 12 x16
Eucalyptus Dance 21 x14
Mt Diablo Morning A full Sheet! 22 x 28

Well ,the good thing is I have been too busy painting to keep the blog up to date! Way back in May, I spent two lovely days painting at Tao House, the name of the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site. This event was sponsored by the Eugene O'Neill Foundation and the National Park Service. It was a good warm up for the Carmel Plein Air Event. I painted the full sheet of Mt Diablo on the first day and the two experiments on the second day. The second day was way too hazey to do a a panorama so I decided to try my hand at close ups of the barn and a eucalyptus tree. The Foundation's web site is http://eugeneoneill.org/events_artists08.html

Local Voice Exhibit Acceptance of two Paintings Update;Award

Top : After the Rains, Bottom: Canyon Dance(Award Winner)
Every three years the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek CA mounts an exhibit of the art being created in Contra Costa County by highlighting a small cross section of the artists working here. I was accepted into the inaugural exhibit in 2005 and am gratified to have been accepted again with two paintings, "Canyon Dance" and "After the Rains" .
Local Voice 2008 June 29 - August 31, 2008

They received 661 entries of artwork from the local community, and the juror Phillip Linares, Chief Curator, Oakland Museum of California, selected 186 artworks for the exhibition.
More information at:
http://www.bedfordgallery.org/current.htm

UPDATE: Award: I just found out Canyon Dance won an Award in this Exhibit. I was able to get to the reception briefly and saw the landscape painting section near my paintings. Three of my favorite landscape painters also won, Geri Keary, Paul Kratter and Thomas Tanneyhill.

Award at Statewide Contemporary Landscape Painters Exhibit from Juror Jean Stern

My painting "Old Blackhawk View" was awarded the 3rd place Watercolor at the 78th Annual Statewide Exhibit of Contemporary Landscape Painters at the Santa Cruz Art league. The exhibt is titled "Poems Without Words" and was jurored by Jean Stern, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum and a noted Art Historian. The exhibit runs through June 29th and is well worth seeing.. More information is at http://scal.org/. I got to visit the exhibit last week and was very impressed. I particularly liked the paintings by Julia Seelos (first prize oil) and Mark Farina (third place oil)

Terrain, Group Exhibit at Studio Gallery SF

5 O 'Clock Shadow, 14 x 14 Plein Air Watercolor

I have been invited to show for the first time at a group exhibit in San Francisco at the Studio Gallery SF. This gallery hosted a wonderful show earlier this year of the plein air painting group the early bird painters(http://earlybirdpainters.blogspot.com/) which is how I found out about it.

Here is the information from the web site:

"Terrain" Views of California

June 18th - July 13th, 2008

Opening reception Saturday, June 21st, 4pm-8pm

Summer is the perfect time to contemplate the great out-of-doors and consider the natural beauty of our Golden State. Lucky for us, we have work from two dozen artists who've gone out and captured that beauty for year-round enjoyment. This year's show includes work from Rab Terry, Tae Park, Brandon Smith, Proehl Studios, Jeremy Mann, Greg Gandy, Scott Grabowski, Laura Williams, Sookyi Lee, Chris Grassano, Chris Leib, Paul Ferney, Barbara Wyeth, Carol Bigot, Lucinda Kasser, Phyllis Rockne, Jennifer Wasson, Susan Landor Keegin, Megan Wolfe, Jesse Mangerson, and Michele Feder. We're especially happy to welcome Jim Heron and Robin Purcell, who are showing with us for the first time "

The web site for the show is at: http://studiogallerysf.com/Terrain.php and there is a preview of the paintings as well as gallery information(directions, hours, etc).

I won't be able to attend the opening(June Wedding), but will go to see the show another time as it looks like there are some very exciting paintings on display.

Open Studios June 7 and 8

My Studio in Danville will be open from 10 to 5 this coming Saturday and Sunday. You can email me at robin.purcell@gmail.com for directions. It is a part of a town- wide event that raises money for art education in the SRVUSD. I have been neglecting both blog and easel bringing some sense of order and an aesthetic other than clutter to the house and studio. In the meantime here are two newly finished pieces of work I am showing:

"View to Pleasanton Ridge" was one of those paintings that fell off of the brush. It was painted plein air at Curry Point on Mt Diablo looking down and across the valley instead of up at the Summit. It is a view I have glanced to the side at while painting all the Summit paintings. 12 x16

"Colossus" stayed in the studio a very long time. I was hoping to use it to help complete a series of eucaylptus paintings, but it seems this tree was uniquely inspiring. It reminds me of yoga tree pose. 17 x 13