Thank you to SDvoyager.com for the feature article

What a great introduction to the creative community in and around San Diego.
San Diego Voyager covers creative people happenings and places in the San Diego Area.
They found me from an instagram post of a recent painting.

Read the article here and get a sneak peek of some new paintings I haven't shown anywhere else
http://sdvoyager.com/interview/meet-robin-purcell/

Sonoma Plein Air Art Festival 2016 Day 1 Paintings

Mount Tam Morning 11 x 14

Old Lakeville Barn 12 x 12

Petaluma Afternoon 9 x 12

I'll post all the paintings, then do a write up on this event later.

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.

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.

New Paintings from the Studio

The Ridge After Sunrise 14 x 21

Ridgeline Rhythmns 16 x 12


In winter, I tend to finish paintings in the studio. These are the two most recent. In the studio , I can use my outdoor starts as compositions where I play with color harmonies and really concentrate on what the painting needs.
In Ridgeline Rhythms, I pushed myself to abstract the ridge. I love the diagonals of the mountains.
In the Ridge After Sunrise, I explored the darks from early morning.
There was a piece in the New Yorker Magazine a while ago that described these hills as a lovely rumpled landscape, a phrase I love and plan on using as a painting title one of these days. The Ridge after Sunrise is more about the low light and colrs but has some of that rumpled feeling.

Valona Paint Out

The first week of November there was a paint out in Crockett sponsored by the Epperson Gallery. It was a good thing we had a whole week because the weather switched from warm and sunny to cold and rainy a couple of times. I got to paint three of the days. I did two paintings I am happy with and one flipper. Here are the two keepers:
McEwen's Jewels 14 x 14 
Painted on McEwen Rd on the way to Port Costa on a sunny day. I presume the ranch there is McEwen's Ranch and the black cows were persistent in trying to get me to give them food. I suppose my white SUV looked like a rancher's truck. It was interesting that when I brought this painting to the gallery, I realized my interpretation of eucalyptus trees owes much to those mop- headed trees in the Dr Suess books.
Crockett Roller Coaster 11 x 8
As an experiment, I decided to try something very different, a Wayne Thiebaud inspired scene looking up at the steepest hill in town. Sort of the opposite of Valley Vertigo, looking up instead of down. It was fun to try to get the atmosphere of the light reflecting on the pavement and to push the colors but not too far. From a design standpoint I wanted to see how large the road could be and how little of the stuff around it I could include and have it still read road. It reminds me of taking the girls into San Francisco and taking them up and down the hills for thrills when they were MUCH younger.
This sold one during the reception. The exhibit lasted only two days, but there was some really fine work by Leslie Wilson ( First Prize) Tim Horn (Artists' Choice) Linda Sutton (Honorable Mention) Mamie Walters (Second Prize- I think ) Mary Lou Correia and Tara Keefe.The Epperson Gallery is done with a major remodel and looks good. It is located at 1400 Pomona Street in Crockett and the web site is http://eppersongallery.com/

Two Plein Air California Hill Paintings

Poppy Hill,14 x 14, watercolor en plein air

Spring Hill 14 x 14, watercolor en plein air

We have had a lot of wind and the driest April in years, so these may be the only green ones for this month. The Poppy Hill was painted near Morgan Territory. Spring Hill on Mount Diablo on SouthGate Rd less than 1 mile up. It is now that stage where half the hills are brown and half are gold. And of course ,the poppies are gone.

Sonoma Plein Air 2007 Part 2

Descending Oaks 14 x 14
Hill at Kunde 12 x 16
Ridge at Sonoma 12 x 16


On Monday morning we signed in, had our paper stamped and went out to paint. I was on my way to Jack London State park, when the road to Valley of the Moon Winery caught my eye. So I painted in the shade of a tree in the driveway of the tasting room . Went to my hosts, unpacked and started out to the State park again, but on a whim decided to go up to the top of Moon Mountain Rd to see what was there. The light on the Valley was incredible , so I painted there starting at 3 :30.
On Tuesday, we were invited to paint at the Bouverie nature preserve, in Kenwood, I think. I painted Ridge at the Preserve on Tuesday morning there, then drove down the road and painted Hill at Kunde Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday I tried to paint in Petaluma but it was cloudy and it was an unfinished painting. In the afternoon I went far down HWY 121, and painted Descending Oaks in partly sunny, windy conditions. I saw my first clydesdale while painting (I keep track of wildlife I see while painting but this was a first!) That evening I went into town and painted behind Sebastiani. It is also an unfinished painting.
Thursday morning I stared at my paintings and made adjustments to finish them. Thursday afternoon, I was feeling good about my progess and I drove back to Kunde where Early Autumn Colors Sonoma just about painted itself. It was my personal favorite of the week and I brought it to the gala friday night where it got bid up above retail for the foundation. The purpose behind the event is Art education funding in Sonoma County, a very worthy cause and one that inspires me.

Sonoma Plein Air 2007 part 1

Early Autumn Colors Sonoma 11 X 14

At the Top of Moon Mountain 11 x 14

At the Valley of the Moon 14 X14

I just got back from the Sonoma Plein Air Paint Out on Saturday night! It was a wonderful experience to spend 4 1/2 days doing nothing but paint in a beautiful setting. I met some wonderful people, the artists, volunteers, my hosts, and the art collectors were all great.

I had a personal step forward, in my quest to get more versatile, I have been trying to get more comfortable with smaller sizes. I love to work in half sheets and have been getting slightly smaller. At this event I was very comfortable working in smaller sizes and happy with how they turned out.

I painted 9 paintings, 6 that were finished, 2 that have issues I am still working on. And only one that is not worth trying to finish. So I am pretty happy. And I sold 2, in a venue where I am new to collectors. More paintings from Sonoma next post. The web site is http://www.sonomapleinair.com