Sonoma Plein Air Art Festival 2016 Day 2 Paintings

What I saw on Denmark Street 11 x 14

Afternoon Atmosphere 10 x 17

Hill At the Square 3 6 x 6 ,Tuesday night quick draw

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.

14th Sonoma Plein Air, September 5 to 10th

I am busy packing up for the 14th Annual Sonoma Plein Air Event.
 This is one of the two high points of my art year (the other being the California Art Club Gold Medal exhibit)
The foundation has donated OVER a million dollars for art education in Sonoma County schools, so it's a great cause in a beautiful location. I am always honored to be included.

The sale is one day, in the Sonoma Plaza, 10 to 4 Saturday September 10th
Here is a link to the web site for more details.
Sonoma Plein Air

Here are a few of my favorites from last year's event:

Burndale Morning, painted during the 13th Sonoma Plein Air
, sold at the 105th CAC Gold Medal Exhibit
I caught the transitory light and colors of fog burning off.

 

Tomales Drizzle ,sold at the 13th Sonoma Plein Air Event

The challenge of painting in the rain! I had to distill the scene down to it's essence, one of those paintings where every stroke contributed to the painting, not one extra thing included.

Central Coast Paintings from August

Near San Simeon 9 x 12 plein air watercolor

Montana de Oro 9 x 12 plein air watercolor

Hollister Peak August 14 x 14 plein air watercolor

Western Vista, Bayside Cafe 12 x 12

With the goal of learning more about painting at the coast I painted small so I could try different subjects. Where I live there is sunshine 300 days a year, so ways of working, seeing and thinking have to be adjusted.

I learned there has to be some break in the fog for me to see enough of the scene to paint it. If it's too dark I can't see the shapes and color patches I need.
I learned to paint the ocean first, since it is new to me and constantly changing. I stared at the changing shapes, memorized the ones I thought would work and painted from short term visual memory. In Near San Simeon, the contrast between the value of the ocean's surface and the dark rocks caught my attention. I paid careful attention to how light the ocean was, a silver, not a blue.

In Montana De Oro the composing challenge was how far I could push the cliff to the left so it was a supporting player to the Pacific. I almost treated the ocean like a sky in this one.

Inland,  I  had to stop and paint  Hollister Peak, I wanted to paint it in the morning light but the top stayed covered by fog in the mornings so this is the afternoon shadow side.

Just south of Moro Bay is the estuary, with a great restaurant, the Bayside Cafe, I painted there, then treated myself to their California Clam Chowder, clam chowder plus green chile soup Highly recommend!

Four studies in three days and I still had time to walk the beach, wade in the waves, see the elephant seals, zebras, otters and the night herons.

Winter's Light, La Jolla Shores is in "A Walk in the Park" Exhibit opening reception today

"Winter's Light La Jolla Shores" as it appears in the gallery. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek today. I hope to see you tonight.
The reception is 5 to 7 pm today at the Town of Danville Village Theater Art Gallery.

"Ojai Study"

"Ojai Study" was painted in the parking lot of a stable with a manure truck next to me!
Fortunately the wind was in my favor.
Watercolor, 9 x 12 one hour. Plein Air

The heat let me work very quickly as the paint dried almost immediately.