"Summer Oak"

Summer Oak 10 x 12
Painted at high noon, on a hot day this summer, the overhead light created a shimmer of deep red orange against the dark greens. This is what I love about plein air, these are color choices I never would have made if I weren't outside. Usually midday light is harsh, but I like it here. Sold to an arborist, perfect!

Wild at Heart , A California Hill Painting

Wild At Heart, 14 x 14

I've been tweaking this in the studio after starting it in late spring on Mount Diablo.
It is a meadow from what I consider the heart of Mount Diablo.
Up past Curry Point and the outer ridges, there were some  rare and late wildflowers from this past spring with it's late and sparse rains. I like the soft purple brown colors on the oaks as they were leafing out and how that worked with the greens and oranges in the meadow.

"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

Spaces and Places Juried Exhibit in Danville Ca June 29th to August 10

Zuma Canyon 14 x 21 Plein Air Watercolor

This painting of a ridge in Malibu was selected by Juror Dewitt Cheng( he is a San Francisco-based artist, writer and curator) for the "Spaces and Places" exhibit at the town-sponsored art space right here is Danville.

The ridges in Southern California have less vegetation and their lovely fractured geometry makes the tectonic forces used in their creation almost completely visible.
This painting is getting quite the exhibition profile: It was selected by Michael Zakian ( Curator of the Wiesman) for the "On Location in Malibu" exhibit at the Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University and by Phillip Linares, Curator of the Oakland Museum of Art for the "Imagine California" Statewide Exhibit.

  Artwork that was considered for this exhibition depicted either a real, invented or a psychological space or place to fit within the theme, Spaces and Places. The juror for this exhibition, DeWitt Cheng, a San Francisco-based art critic and writer for various art publications and web media, selected 48
pieces of artwork from 41 artists.


Opening Reception

Friday, June 29 from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Village Theater Gallery, Front Street Danville

"Zuma Canyon" also appears in the June/ July Issue of Plein Air Magazine

June/July Plein Air Magazine Article: Use Inside Arrow for Preview

 I am thrilled with the article by
Steve Doherty. It's nice when the writer is a painter
 and can help you put your thoughts into  an organized
article. Here are thumbnail previews of the five pages:

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