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.

Two Small Works, California Eucalyptus 6 x 6

 The Elder 6 x 6

Golden Afternoon 6 x 6

Eucalyptus trees have so much color  especially the  blues, teals and purples in the shadows and golds in the highlights, I like to see how little green I can use and still have them read as trees.

Randy Higbee Gallery ,Three 6 x 6 "s Accepted

                                                      Windbreak at Dusk 6 x 6

                                                            Above the Bay 6 x 6

                                                               October Hill 6 x 6

Trying my hand at some smaller pieces again. I find that very simple two or three value compositions simplify things for me when working  this small. My favorite is Windbreak at Dusk because of the way the silhouettes of the trees work and the limited color palette for the late day light. 

These three were all accepted by the Randy Higbee Gallery 6x 6 Exhibit and will be on display  December3rd to December 22nd with a reception on December 3rd From 5:00 to 9:00pm

The Randy Higbee Gallery is in Costa Mesa . Here is a link to the gallery for details. Randy Higbee Gallery Web Site

http://www.onlinejuriedshows.com/ClosedShowThumbs.aspx?OJSID=56&#11786

Close to Home: Plein Air Painting "Gold Field"

                                           Gold Field 14 x 21

 Painted Plein Air about five miles from where I live. The view is from Old School Road off of Finley Rd.
 I am lucky to be able to get out to open space so near to where I live.
Finley Rd is the entrance to Morgan Territory Open Space, an East Bay park that is a wonderful area to hike in. . There were some hawks hunting over the field as this was painted.
Ideal painting conditions with summer color and cooler temperatures.