Gala and Sale Sonoma Plein Air Art Festival 2015

Sonoma Display from Saturday.
Tomales Drizzle and Hill at Spain Street sold on Saturday

Photo Courtesy Chuck Kovacic

Sonoma Valley Vertical 17 x 14 sold at the gala.




In it's thirteenth year ,the Sonoma Plein Air Foundation has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to art education. One of the highlights for me is the volunteers(frequently art teachers) on Saturday, who share the very real difference this event makes in the lives of their students.

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.

Two New Mount Diablo Paintings

Twisted Mountain(Mt Diablo) 14 x 21 watercolor Mount Diablo from Lafayette

Magee Ranch Tapestry(Mt Diablo) 14 x 21 watercolor Mount Diablo from the Magee Ranch Subdivision

This winter's drought yielded some paintings that look more like summer! These were painted in January before the rains. The cold air was clear, so the shapes on the mountain have a certain crispness I enjoy. Both were started outside and finished in the studio where I saturate the colors.

Twisted Mountain: SOLD Fairmont Gallery , Sonoma. Magee Ranch Tapestry:SOLD Portnoy Galleries, Carmel