"Across the Valley", Mount Diablo Plein Air Watercolor

Across the Valley 22 x 22

This was started last fall and finished after a long winter of work this spring.
It has been very difficult to get a good image because of the value shifts in transparent and opaque passages of color. The blue green in the top part and blue violets in the lower section are transparent and the deep crimsons and burnt oranges are relatively opaque. In person, this painting looks great ,but every time I take a photo the light bounces back through the paper and shifts  the value on the transparent passages. This was printed in Plein Air magazine and it is much truer to the painting in the magazine than it is here. I don't want  to change the painting for the sake of a photo. The cool and warm balance here works very well for me and it's always fun taking a red and green scene and making it not look like a Christmas Tree.

Plein Air Magazine thumbnail

California Vine and Hill Exhibit

Autumn Glow 9 x 12

Mount Diablo Northern View 14 x 14

Flag Hill, Sunol 14 x 21

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

Curve of the Earth- on the Cover of the November Issue of The Monthly

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Cover | Robin Purcell

The Curve of the Earth (watercolor painting, 2009). Robin Purcell, best known for her paintings of Mt. Diablo, created this watercolor in conjunction with the 2009 Mt. Diablo and Mt. Fuji Invitational Exhibit at the Hearst Gallery of St. Mary’s College in Moraga. “The open space of the parks in the East Bay is very important to my work,” says Purcell, who works exclusively in watercolor. “Mt. Diablo in particular is an island of peace in an otherwise crowded suburban setting.” A plein air artist “who goes outside to see colors and shapes from life and organize it into shimmering patches of color,” Purcell references the California impressionists as influences. Also, she jokes, she “was probably permanently warped by doing paint-by-numbers as a child.” Purcell holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Connecticut. To see more of her paintings online, visit robinpurcellpaints.blogspot.com.


The above is the nice write up they gave my work on the inside front cover.

Here is a link to the online version of The Monthly
http://www.themonthly.com/previous/2010/1011.html 
I was thrilled to be asked to contribute a cover image, last Month's cover was by Milton Glaser, a long time favorite of mine.

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Sacred Mountain: a Juried Exhibition at Saint Mary's Hearst Gallery

Mount Diablo Summer Sunset, 14 x 14 watercolor

Here is the information on the opening events this weekend:

Hearst Art Gallery, Saint Mary’s College, Moraga
SACRED MOUNTAIN: IMAGES OF MT. DIABLO AND MT. FUJI

May 2 - July 3, 2009
Featuring nearly 100 works of art, including paintings, woodblock prints, photographs, works on paper,textiles, and decorative objects, circa 1650 to 2009.

Opening Events -Sunday, May 3 ,2 – 3 pm Lectures

Preserving and Protecting Diablo: Ron Brown

Fuji and the Japanese People: Naoko Uehara

Soda Activity CenterEvent

Reception following -3:15 – 4:30 pm

Hearst Gallery & patio

It will be interesting to see this exhibit. I think of Japanese Art as being more on paper, such as woodcuts and watercolor ( or actually traditionally ink) paintings vs as using oil paints. When I delivered my painting, I was the only watercolor in the Diablo portion of the exhibit at the time. It will be interesting to see the different interpretations: we all have our own views of Diablo as our population is scattered around the entire base. I am somewhat focused on painting mountains and ridges and am interested in how Mt Fuji has inspired artists on the other side of the world. My painting Mt Diablo Summer Sunset was painted from the West Side of Danville.

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

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

Mt Diablo Northern View, plein air

Pure Joy to paint a completely different angle of my favorite subject matter, this is Mount Diablo as painted from Deer Hill Road in Lafayette. I love the swirling movement. The mountain is so gorgeous from this angle that I feel like a mere editor! Burn out was so early this year, that it looks like summer in April. 14 x 14 watercolor on 300 lb arches. Plein Air.

Art Reception this Saturday

I have been selected as a featured artist at the ADAS Pioneer Art Center ,Danville. I am in a two person exhibit "Close to Home and Far Away", The plein air paintings of Robin Purcell and works inspired by Diane Pruett's travels.

There is a reception this Saturday from 4 to 7 at the gallery , located at 524 Hartz Ave in Danville. The gallery is open 3 to 7 on Friday, 11 to 7 on Saturday and 1 to 5 on Sunday. The exhibit runs from Feb 1 to 12 .

I selected 15 paintings for this show, six of which are of Mount Diablo . Canyon Dance, pictured above is one of them. All are invited.

The installation looks good and I will try to post a photo here if the glare on the plexi isn't too bad.

In the Gallery: Selected Watercolor Paintings at the Garden Gallery

Bernardus View 14 x 14
This was painted plein air near Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley. It was late spring and the Santa Lucia Mountains were like an undulating piece of embroidery.

Ridge at the Mouth 12 x 16

Painted at the entrance to Carmel Valley, one of my first paintings I like painted under cloudy conditions. The paint takes longer to dry, so I work smaller and use a smaller brush that holds less water. Summit from SouthGate 21x 14
A beautiful day on Mount Diablo. This view shows the summit and a dramatic canyon at the same time, two of my favorite things to paint.

The Garden Gallery is located at 530 Main Street, Half Moon Bay. The web site is http://artonmain.com/. I am thrilled to be showing work there along with master painters like Kevin Courter and Brian Blood

In the Gallery: Selected Watercolor Paintings

Rare Sight 14 x 21
Painted plein air last winter when the snow was on Diablo at the same time the mustard was blooming. This was painted in a church parking lot on Old Blackhawk Road near my house. I loved doing it because it was a monday morning and Safeway and laundry piles were waiting. Instead I said to myself got to paint before it melts or the sky clouds over, it's rare that we have snow on Diablo AND can see it here in the valley.

Five O' Clock Shadow 14 x 14 image

This was painted in Carmel Valley at 5 O clock in the afternoon. It is near what was supposed to be an airport. There were very gusty winds so I had to hang onto the easel. I mixed the paint up in two batches and painted this in one 45 minute session, yellow first, into the car to dry ,then the blue, truely a la prima, with very little touching up after the fact. I love it when that happens!

Ridge at Sonoma 12 x 16 image
From the Sonoma Plein Air Event

Valona Paint Out

Atmosphere

Canyon at the Reservoir

Eucalyptus Hill

The paint out took place the first week of August in Crockett and was exhibited on Saturday and Sunday August 4 and 5 at the Epperson Gallery. There were so many artists, it was a good thing they asked us to paint small. I am still working on getting comfortable working in smaller sizes.

Atmosphere was 9 X 11. I just couldn't make myself do anything smaller. The other two are 10.5 X 13.5. I found a great place to paint about 2 miles out Carquinez Scenic at a reservoir . There was an egret I could watch while waiting for paint to dry. Atmosphere was done at the top of DUPERU . It was a challenge because the wind was strong , but it was fun to see Mt Diablo in the distance thru the coastal haze.

Many artists stayed in town and took advantage of the hills to paint rooftops, the bridge from below, nocturnes of the neon, and the old cars. And even though the show was only up a day or so, I sold Atmosphere and got some practice for the Sonoma Plein Air Event coming up in September. There were so many good paintings , it would be hard to pick favorites or even drop names. .....here is the web site for the paint out.

http://www.eppersongallery.com/paint_out.htm

Two National Exhibitions

I am pleased to announce acceptance into the California Watercolor Society's Annual National Exhibition and The National Watercolor Society Annual Exhibit. The paintings accepted are "Crimson Diablo" (above ) and Day of Emeralds,posted previously on May 25.

Day of Emeralds

This is my favorite painting from the spring. I want to crop it into a square and make it even more abstract as my demo for open studios. It is Mount Diablo from the neighborhood Magee Ranch. If the new version is a succes I will post it here.