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15th Annual Signature Watermedia International Exhibit Fallbrook Art Center

The 15th Annual Signature Watermedia International Exhibition opens this weekend (Mar 16-Apr.14) at THE Fallbrook Art Center. This prestigio...

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Plein Air from April in Carmel

I got to take a last minute overnight to Carmel in April and was in such a rush to repack up for the Carmel Plein Air Event,  my two paintings from April were overlooked. Luck was with me,each was painted in an hour in between the rain. I am going back to my tree painting theme here. And painting in foggy cold weather. "Point Lobos April' is finished ,but I may do some more work on 'Eucalyptus at Ocean." Whales swam by as I painted on Point Lobos. They were very close to shore and I went up to whalers cove to see if they were hiding there.


Point Lobos April 9 x 12





Eucalyptus at Ocean 9 x 12

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

19th Carmel Art Festival Narrative

The festival began on Wednesday night with check in and paper stamping at the Carmel Art Association. When they check you in the paper gets a Carmel Art Festival Stamp and date. I have to be careful not to get the fresh ink on the front of the paper.
This year a reception for the artists was added on Wednesday night. I was too anxious to get started, so I left the coast about 5:30 and drove out to Carmel Valley where it remained sunny until 7:15pm.
I painted "Carmel Valley Shadows"  Wednesday night.
 Thursday I started painting at 8:30 am on a ridge top in Carmel Valley. It takes until then for the wind and morning fog to die down. I painted " Valley Vertigo" in the morning, stopped for a quick lunch, then drove inland further and found some shade near a ranch in the Upper Valley. At about the 17 to 19 mile markers the Valley opens up into lovely rolling hills and Valley Oaks.  You can tell I painted "Upper Valley View" in the midday light. It had that mid day effect of the sky value being darker than than the hills.
 I  then drove all the way into the junction of Carmel Valley Rd and Tassajara Rd. I took Tassajara Rd down to Jamesburg which was in a ravine and pretty creepy feeling, but was my adventure for the week. 
There was a hill I have been searching for for three years that I finally saw on the right while driving back at about the 25 mile marker.( It was a painting by Arthur Hill Gilbert that I saw years ago at the Rieser Gallery that has stayed with me as a beautiful hill image). I need to get back to paint it .
 I had had enough of the inland by then ,so I went to the Coast next. Just across from Garrapata State Park there were lovely hills covered with coastal chaparral. Since this is my preferred subject on Mt Diablo I thought it would be fun to try it in the cool coastal light."Coastal Hills " was my final painting for the event.

We had until 8 pm on Friday to enter two paintings in the competition. It is very hard to choose which ones .I probably should have entered "Valley Vertigo" and "Carmel Valley Shadows" but was worried they were too similar. No award this time but two sales (Valley Vertigo and  Carmel Valley Shadows) were reward enough.

We got to replace sold paintings on Sunday and I hung all three remaining paintings, watched the quick draw auction and rewarded myself with 2 hours of driving and walking along the coast from Garrapata to almost Rocky Point.
While I was there, the volunteers sold the second painting for me. The weather cooperated, making this one of the most beautiful settings for a plein air event. The quality of the paintings was very high and I am always in awe of what the other artists paint. There were a lot of new faces this year and some artists from all across the country.

Next year will be the 20th year of the festival and I hope to participate.
 The paintings mentioned in this post are in the next post down.
 Here are the various configurations of my display at the festival:

 Friday night and Saturday


 Sunday Morning


Sunday late afternoon

Monday, May 21, 2012

19th Carmel Art Festival 2012 Paintings

I just got back last night from a great experience at the Carmel Art Festival. The weather was sunny, not too warm, no wind,( and no rain!) so it was like painting in my home location of Mount Diablo.























Valley Vertigo 14 x 11 sold




Carmel Valley Shadows 12 x 12 sold




Upper Valley View 11 x 14


Coastal Hills 12 x 12 ( with a shadow from the easel in the sky) Available Fairmont Gallery Sonoma

I'll give more details on the festival events on Saturday and Sunday, but wanted to share what I painted during the festival for now.

Friday, May 11, 2012

"Hill at Thomas Home Ranch" Save Mount Diablo Donation Painting for Celebration and Art Sale




"Hill at Thomas Home Ranch" watercolor 11 x 16 . My donation to the Save Mount Diablo Celebration and Fund Raiser for the newly acquired Thomas Home Ranch Parcel, on the east side of Mount Diablo where I hardly ever paint. There was a lovely hill next to the ranch and it was one of those days when you could see the hills colors changing from spring to summer as you painted. Here is a link to the web site for more information:
http://www.savemountdiablo.org/downloads/ThomasCelebration.pdf

Update 6/2 SOLD at the Celebration