" Flag Hill Sunol " accepted into Statewide Painting Exhibition and Competition at the Triton Museum of Art ,Santa Clara.

Flag Hill Sunol 14 x 21 Plein Air Watercolor

 "Flag Hill Sunol" has been accepted into the Triton Museum of Art Statewide Painting Exhibition and Competition.
There were over 900 entries and 80 paintings were selected for the exhibition.
Flag Hill Sunol was painted with the San Francisco Chapter of the California Art Club during the July 2011 Paintout.
It will be on exhibit December 10, 2011 to Feb. 12, 2012 and the reception is Friday, December 9, 2011 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. I am anxious to see this all media all subject exhibit. The Triton Museum of Art is a beautiful space to see art .It is especially satisfying with the convergence of two of my favorite California Art Institutions

Plein Air Watercolor "Golden Oak"

Golden Oak 14 x 14
You've probably noticed I am pulling back from my usual bright colors as I am learning about what makes a good tree portrait. The nature of depicting trees is that what you choose to paint and what you choose to leave in really makes or breaks a painting. The leaves make it very busy if you don't figure out how to simplify them.One idea that has helped me is to think of the trees in terms of the gesture they make with the trunks and branches. What is it doing? This was sort of implied in my last post where I titled the painting " Tree Pose".

This oak was leaning over the hill and I liked how the branches to the right were reaching down. This was also less than five miles from my house, I am painting very locally this fall.

Update :Katherine Tyrrell did a nice write up about this painting on her blog Art of the Landscape". She's writing a series on Autumn Paintings that is a great primer on how to paint trees. I've been following it and enjoying it very much. http://art-landscape.blogspot.com/2011/11/golden-oak-autumn-landscape-7.html

Plein Air Watercolor "Tree Pose"

Tree Pose 12 x 16
One of my goals is to get more skilled at painting oak trees both for my panoramic paintings and because this fall I have been studying the way the different oaks change in the fall. So I've started a series of tree portraits to get to know them.
There are valley oaks, coastal oaks, hillside oaks  golden oaks and blue oaks, I don't know much about botany, but this is how I think of them. This oak is isolated on a patch of ranchland near where I live and reminded me of the yoga pose because of it's balanced masses and outstretched branches.

Plein Air Watercolor, "October Light"

October Light  12 x 16 was painted along the back roads in the valley between Danville and just north of Livermore, I was supposed to go paint in the vineyards, but these backlit oaks were too exciting to pass by. A return to almost pure plein air, the early morning light made this a joy to paint in lavender and burnt orange.