New Paintings from the Studio

The Ridge After Sunrise 14 x 21

Ridgeline Rhythmns 16 x 12


In winter, I tend to finish paintings in the studio. These are the two most recent. In the studio , I can use my outdoor starts as compositions where I play with color harmonies and really concentrate on what the painting needs.
In Ridgeline Rhythms, I pushed myself to abstract the ridge. I love the diagonals of the mountains.
In the Ridge After Sunrise, I explored the darks from early morning.
There was a piece in the New Yorker Magazine a while ago that described these hills as a lovely rumpled landscape, a phrase I love and plan on using as a painting title one of these days. The Ridge after Sunrise is more about the low light and colrs but has some of that rumpled feeling.

The Curve of the Earth.. My Process

First stage, completed outside
The Curve of the Earth, 21 x 14 watercolor on Arches

Recently, I 've been doing what I call hybrid paintings, that is, starting the painting outside and having it visualized completely ,but finishing in the studio from memory . Mostly because the light has changed in two hours and I would be painting from memory even if I were on site.
For instance, The Curve of the Earth was started last summer on the Summit of Mount Diablo, from about 8:30 am until 10:30 when the temperature hit above 90 and the lovely early morning light was gone.
The title is from an outing with the astronomical society years ago, the setting sun makes the mountain cast a shadow where you can clearly see the curvature. I felt as if the horizon was so distant that I could almost see around the planet.