Commission

Since my last post I have been working on a commission that I contracted for shortly after my event at Mimosa in late September. The client wanted two paintings and I have finished one. Here it is. It's called "Tanquil Afternoon" and it's 24 x 30.

A month goes by.

Gee, a month goes by so fast!! I have been painting a lot and I have a lot of new work. Here are a few things I have done recently. The teacups are entitled "Afternoon Tea", the floral still life is called "Tiger Lilly" and was painted over a two-day period while I was at an event at Mimosa. My experience at the Concourse d'Elegance was helpful in completing a complicated painting in front of an audience. It's a pretty good size painting at 28 x 22. The truck is titled "Early Autumn" and is a return to one of my favorite motifs.

Rancho San Carlos/ Santa Lucia preserve

The last four days I painted at the Rancho San Carlos/Santa Lucia preserve in Carmel Valley. It was a wonderful experience full of beautiful motifs, welcoming staff and residents, and sunny skies. Many thanks to all of the folks at the Preserve and the Carmel Art Association. I have posted some of the paintings I did there.

Back to Elkhorn

(Incoming fog, 10 x 30) This painting was started several months ago and put aside because the weather wouldn't cooperate (summer fog). I went back out to the slough this last week as we are finally starting to get a little more sun. Soon it will be sunny and warm all afternoon, but for now, just a few hours around mid day. I Included the incoming fog bank that is peeking over the hill that separates the slough from the coast.

Concours d'Elegance weekend

I spent the last four days painting the new Hyundai Genesis at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. What a huge event!! Every city around the Monterey Peninsula had some classic car event going on simultaneously. There were literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of classic cars in the area. The monstrous auto transport trucks were everywhere and celebrities abounded.
The whole experience was a lot of fun and I want to thank the folks at Hyundai and Jack Morton Worldwide event promotion company who gave me the opportunity. Here are the paintings I did there. The larger one of the yellow coup is 22 x 28 And the smaller one of the sedan is 16 x 20.

Bumbling along

I have been scuffling a little bit lately. I came off a period in Pendleton and shortly after when every start seemed to result in a finished painting. In the last couple of weeks I started several paintings that I wound up scraping down or just tossing. Here are a couple that worked out. The teacups are a theme that I return to whenever I'm feeling stuck and the figure study is one that I started in a life painting group a few months ago and put aside. I picked it up and finished it as a "warm-up" to another painting, which failed.

I have the Concours d'Elegance event coming up next week, so I hope to have my chops together by then.

Down River Road again (15 x 30)

Here is a version of one of my favorite motifs. I started it last week and completed it today. It's a view looking south down River Road south of Salinas. (it still has some dirt in the left corner of the sky)

Back Home

We are finally back in Monterey County. The difference between the limpid misty coastal air and the dry Eastern Oregon air is remarkable. I can't wait to get painting again. Today is July 18th and the opening reception for the latest MBPAPA show is this evening. I have the two accompanying paintings ("Bottom Lands" and "Tor House Garden") in the show.

Leaving Pendleton

We are leaving Pendleton on Sunday July 13th. It's been a great 4 weeks here, but it's time to get back to the Monterey Bay. Here are a couple more things that I've done recently.

Pendleton, Oregon

I have been in Pendleton Oregon for the last three weeks. Pendleton is typical small-town America with lots of early 20th century bungalows, old cars and trucks on the streets, roses in every garden, and doors that aren't locked at night. While I'm here I have been painting a lot. I had a small opening and demo at Incidentals, a shop that shows my work. Here are some of the things that I had in it.

Some more new things

I have been painting a lot recently, both in the field, in the studio, and at events. Saturday I painted at Mimosa in the Carmel Crossroads Center (a still life of coffee cups and roses) and Sunday I was at Robinson Jeffers' "Tor House" in Carmel. The Mimosa event was a lot of fun and I met some new folks plus a lot of people who have collected my work in the past. The Tor House painting was a little tougher. It was a cold and windy day and I didn't seem to have my painting chops going like I would have liked. I had never been to the Tor House before, and there was a crowd of about 200 people there for the annual Garden Tour. It was a little unnerving. After one false start I manged to do a decent painting of some wicker furniture on the lawn. I will post pictures of both these paintings soon. In the meantime here are a couple of my other new works. The stacked teacups is a 10 ' by 10' painting called Red Table (such a creative title), and the other is and 11 x 14 still life entitled "Spring Arrangement".

A few new paintings

Here are a few new paintings. I have been painting a lot lately in preparation for all the upcoming shows.

New work

It's been about 6 weeks since I last added a post to this blog. I know that some people look at it, so it would help me if you make a comment or two when you do. I recently attended a workshop with Santa Barbara artist Marcia Burtt on plein air landscape painting with acrylics. It was a good workshop and Marcia is a good instructor. I don't think I'm going to switch to acrylics but I have included them in my tool kit. I will post a few of the images that I have been working on lately.
The still life painting is an 8 x 10 oil , one of a series of 4 that I did last weekend . The landscape painting is 18 x 36, and was painted en plein air in acrylic, then re-painted in oil.

Dude! Where ARE you? 30 x 30

This is one of the new surfing paintings., I have been wanting to give these paintings more narrative content, so I included the impatient surfer with his cell phone.

Surfer Cutout

This is a fairly large (1/2 life size) cutout on 3/16 " steel. I did this in 2004 but I'm including it now because I am doing a series of paintings that are inspired by surfing. They need a special outlet and none of my present galleries is right for them. I will have to market them to more contemporary galleries.

Before the Storm, 24 x 30

This is a painting that was done in mid January just before a storm came in to the Salinas Valley. It was painted from one of my favorite spots on River Road.