A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club at the California Historical Society, on Exhibit in San Francisco until October 15th

Twisting Mountain 14 x 21 watercolor on paper
Twisting Mountain is one of my favorite interpretations of Mt Diablo. It fits the theme of historical interpretation because I purposely left out the summit building and roads and painted as it appeared to the first settlers in the East Bay.

              
                  California Historical Society
                 678 Mission St San Francisco CA



Here is the write up reprinted with permission from the California Historical Society web site :

From July 14th through October 15th, the California Historical Society will host the California Art Club’s centennial exhibition, A Century of Landscapes: Selections from the California Art Club.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, California became home to a legion of artists who came to paint the state’s awe inspiring natural landscapes “en plein air,” an Impressionistic style in which painters worked outdoors in order to capture the ephemeral moment of natural lighting across a landscape.
The California Art Club was established in 1909, by artists, patrons, and visionaries for the sole purpose of capturing the beauty of California’s landscapes in their paintings.
The California Historical Society is the only Bay Area venue for this exhibition celebrating the one hundred year legacy of the California Art Club.
The juried exhibition of works from current members will be supplemented by historical materials from the California Art Club and pieces of art and other materials on the Club from the rich collections of the California Historical Society.

Here is link to the contemporary paintings in this exhibit:

http://www.californiaartclub.org/a-century-of-landscapes-2/

I am very happy to see there is a nice selection of landscape paintings in watercolor here.
Larry Cannon, Dick Cole, John Deckert,  Carolyn Lord and Robin Purcell(me) are all represented and illustrate my thesis that watercolor is so varied in technique , it allows you to create a distinctive style that is original and immediately recognizable, something I find very satisfying as an artist.

The exhibit is over now  and the painting "Twisting Mountain"  SOLD at the Fairmont Gallery in Sonoma.

Point Lobos Series

 Point Lobos Walk 14 x 14

 Pacific Passage 14 x 14( view from the path by China Cove)

Point Lobos Arche 14 x 18

Living in California, not as close to the coast as I would like, I've wanted to paint the Pacific Ocean for a while. The challenge of painting a new, moving subject  from life has proved to be too much. So I have been painting in my studio from photographs and memory..

The hardest thing for me in painting from photographs is to avoid rendering and to try to remember what the colors actually looked like, since the camera distorts them in ways I wouldn't.
The subject that works for me is to use wintertime scenes when there is so much foam in the water that the light value creates a contrast with the darker colors of the land.
They are posted in the order they were painted. ( And look a little dark on my computer)

In case you missed it:The Artists Magazine Online

The Artists Magazine June Issue was previewed online. It can still be ordered online.
 Here is a link to the extra paintings from the article on watermedia landscapes.



http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/acrylic/watermedia-landscapes-2011

Connecting artists with ideas, inspiration and instruction

Dramatic Watermedia Landscapes

To read more about these artists creating landscapes in watermedia, see the June 2011 issue of The Artist’s Magazine. Here is some art that didn’t appear in the issue.

Magee Ranch Morning (watercolor, 14x21) by Robin Purcell