"IMPRESSION" show at Abend Gallery in Denver

 "Twilight's Brief Moment" (18x18) oil on linen

I am thrilled to have this painting as part of the international group show, "IMPRESSION" opening at the Abend Gallery on March 11th. Please click on link below for digital catalog preview -- 

https://issuu.com/gallery1261/docs/impressionissuu

(detail)

Coors Western Art Exhibit

 "A Western Tradition" (12x16) oil on linen SOLD

I am very pleased to have these paintings (along with a couple of more landscapes) in the 2016 Coors Western Art Exhibit, opening January 5th in Denver. The main show will feature the painting at top (A Western Tradition) and the one at the bottom (Drifting) with set prices, and then 3 more (including "Sweetheart" below) will be up for bidding in the silent auction on opening night...

 "Sweetheart" (12x9) oil on panel SOLD

I have been wanting to do more western-themed work lately, and this venue is a great opportunity for that. I also stepped up on framing for a classy presentation... hoping these will find a new home come January!

"Drifting" (20x24) oil on canvas SOLD

"Tualatin Moon" (8x10) oil on linen SOLD

Back to Sonoma Plein Air!

Summer Dusk (6x8) oil on linen

Looking forward to participating in the Sonoma Plein Air festival again next month! The event runs September 14-19, and this will be my 6th year. I love the landscape there, connecting with my California roots and painting with friends to benefit art programs in the local schools!

Down Comes the Night (12x16) oil on linen

Thru rose-colored glasses...

"Rose Colored" (12x16) oil on linen

The smoke from recent fires in the Pacific Northwest drifted over our area creating a filter for a couple of days, colouring everything pink and orange. Anything in sunlight seemed more intensely warm, while the corresponding shadows were cooler and more colourful than usual. I noticed the effect on our (white) fence that morning as it had an amber tone to it and the shadows were a soft, warm pastel blue...it was a very unusual, but beautiful and eye-catching effect.  I never before said, "Hey, look at the colour on that fence!" or, "Wow, check out the shadow on that driveway!" Everyday objects suddenly had a superficial interest they never had before...

It was kind of like what I imagine a colour-blind person seeing full-spectrum colour for the first time would feel -- as if a new hue was suddenly added to the natural range we're used to; yet this wasn't a new hue, but one short range of hues (red to yellow) being turned up above the others... While the sunlight was more unifying, it was also weaker (or limiting) in it's range because of the filtering smoke; much like a photographic range is unified or limited by adding a filter to a camera lens...

I imagined a "colourist" like Henry Hensche (1899 - 1992) and his students appreciating such exaggerated hue, and went to a nearby park to paint the effect I was seeing. It was hard to not overstate the candy-coloured bubblegum effect and keep the intensity in check, but I did like the fact that the filter was making colour choices easier by limiting the range of both hue and value.  Local objects were tinted as well as middle-distance objects, while the furthest forms seemed to have a bit more colour than usual (or at least they appeared warmer than normal) and contrast was reduced as well... 

Interesting conditions,  but considering the cost of what caused it, I'd rather things go back to normal ASAP.  God bless those who have lost homes and land to the fires this year -- for them right now, life is certainly anything but "rose-colored"....

 Hot Potato Rock (10x12) o/l

 This January I had the opportunity to go painting with my friend, Saim Caglayan (pronounced, "Shallion") in the Anza Borrego desert. This desert in Southern California is the largest national park in the United States full of colourful mountain vistas, winding slot canyons and sun-bleached dunes. While I was fortunate to stay at a friends vacation home in Borrego Springs, the small local town there, Saim and another artist from Laguna, Terry Thornsly camped in Glorietta Canyon (the area pictured in the painting above). 

 Indian Head Sunrise (10x12) o/c

Although a little chilly at night, the weather was consistent in the low-to-mid 70's with clear sunshine every day -- a welcomed retreat from the cold grey northwest winter!

 Smoke Tree in Ella Wash (10x12) o/l

 I have always had an affinity for the desert ever since I was very young when my grand parents kept a trailer in Palm Springs where we used to go in the 1960's and early 70's. There's a mystery about Borrego, especially when the population is scarce (unlike Palm Springs) and if you love the sunshine and open spaces, it's the perfect place to escape during winter months. Hiking, exploring and just enjoying the sun on my face was a treat in between paintings...

 Above Rose Canyon (10x12) o/l

 Back in Orange County (near Laguna Beach) where I stayed with my brother and his family, I was blessed with good weather after rains just the week before; I painted in and around O'Neil Park in the foothills of Saddleback Mountain and on the cliffs in Laguna Beach where I met with local 418 Gallery owner, Vaness Rothe. She invited me to show there with her small group of west coast artists and Russian painters, and I left behind several unframed studies for sale as well as a framed piece for the current "Winter Collection" show she is curating...

 

 Split Rock, Laguna (8x10) o/c

 Laguna Beach is also a special place I have an affinity for -- our family visited there often thru the years, starting in the early 1960's where my mother's best friend who passed recently had settled to raise her family. For several years I lived right next door in Dana Point, renting studio space in North Laguna when I was a graphic artist in the 1980's. Although it has changed and grown over the years, Laguna Beach still has the beautiful charm and atmosphere that hosted artists such as Edgar Payne and William Wendt a hundred years ago...

  Shady Mountain Trail (8x10) o/c

 At the end of my stay, I was able to spend time with my artist friend, Tim Solliday and see his new studio in the tower of an historic church in downtown Pasadena where we also caught the LA Art Show...Tim is big in the western art scene and was instrumental in opening my eyes to outdoor painting in the late 1990's.  

All in all it was a very productive and encouraging trip,  and now I am back in my northwest studio, energized and happy to be with my loving family and back at the easel!

Pacific City and the Dorymen...

 Minus Tide (8x10)

We've been having a really nice summer here in the Pacific Northwest this year (doesn't always happen)...so we headed back to the beach and found some great weather there too (which is also "iffy" when it's warm inland). I spent several sessions painting at Pacific City's Cape Kiwanda where the famed Dorymen launch their boats...

 Dory Rocks (8x10)

For more than a hundred years in all kinds of conditions, dory boats have gone to sea from the shelter of Cape Kiwanda. There is no other harbor, port, or fishing fleet anywhere in the world exactly like this. 

The dory's origins come from the turn of the 20th century surf dories and Nestucca River gill net boats that sold their fish to the salmon cannery established in 1887 near the mouth of the river.

After 1927,  commercial fishing was only allowed in the open ocean. Since the Nestucca had a shallow, dangerous bar accessible only at flood tide, a new larger surf boat was needed to be launched in the lee of Cape Kiwanda.

 

Cape Kiwanda Morning (8x10)

 When ocean conditions allow, Pacific City dories fish the waters off of Cape Kiwanda, launching from, and sliding back up on the beach in the lee of the Cape.

The dory fleet is renowned for its incredible safety record. Dorymen are often the first responders to distress calls and other marine emergencies. In 100+ years only 6 known dorymen have lost their lives at sea, making the Pacific City dory and the men and women who sail them some of the safest mariners in the marine environment.

North Side Cape Kiwanda (8x10)

 In 1996, the Dorymen's Association was founded; a non-profit organization with the primary mission to preserve and protect the historic traditions given to us by the pioneers of this fleet. The Association supports Oregon's public beach laws and regulations and works with local, state, and federal agencies.

Asymmetry Rules!

 "Library Creek" (9x12)

Nature is chaotic, yet there is "design"...I know, it's an oxymoron of sorts; creation exists within certain laws and conditions, but there seems to be little oversight from an artists perspective...and I like that.  I like asymmetry too. I also like random patterns (another slight contradiction in terms) where your eye can wander throughout a scene of similar yet slightly different directional shapes, find interest and still have a way of escape...

"Oblique Floaters" (6x8)

A lot of times, painters are concerned with a focal point -- this is good, but it's not the entire goal of a good composition. The best landscapes have a focal point, or maybe even two or more that are arranged in a hierarchical manner with one being dominant. However, I have found it beneficial to also balance those areas with passages of respite along with an exit strategy. 

Troubling compositions are those whose focal point ends in a cul-de-sac, trapping the viewer.  Better compositions have a balance of action (or focus), tranquility and a clear exit (a lead-in/ lead-out pathway). This can often be accomplished with a large mass of little detail that borders one side the picture plane. Asymmetry (an unbalanced divide of proportions or information) can often create this as a bi-product via an interesting visual arrangement of shapes. 

As children, we often start out drawing pictures that are symmetrically balanced (for comfort and security I suppose) but shaking things up a bit by shoving everything to one side or the other can be a lot of fun too...

As Ed "Big Daddy" Roth once said, "Asymmetry Rules!"

A tree grows in...Oregon?

 Thumb nails from Sketchbook

Of all the various trees there are to paint, my favorite are the Eucalyptus and the Sycamore; unfortunately they don't do well up here in the Northwest climate so they're very scarce. Oak trees on the other had are everywhere and have a wonderful shape, especially in winter when they're bare-leaved. Pine trees I don't care to paint at all (which may seem ironic in logging country) but they're even more abundant than all the other species put together, so I tolerate them as supporting cast members at times...

 Narrowing it down...

This past January there were a number of cold, but clear days and I was able to get out and do some studies. These quick pencils from my sketchbook were done before starting the composition near the bottom, titled "Behind Winter's Veil".

 This one...

I shifted a few elements around until I came up with a composition that focused the light on one large shape with a second, larger shape in the foreground...

Monochrome study variation in chalk on Canson (5x7)

This drawing is from another location using the same 'dominant light combined with a large shape' idea...

Start on a burnt Sienna canvas

Initial block-in

I originally had some light and shadow lines breaking up the foreground... 

"Behind Winter's Veil" (20x24) o/c

Here is the finished painting; I decided to put the entire foreground in shadow at the last minute to concentrate all of the light on the background tree -- this proved to be more dramatically effective.

It's about the shape and colour in nature and their integral relationships... The old saying, "paint shapes, not things" is good to keep in mind, divesting yourself of preconceived ideas of everyday objects. Trees are noble with individual character, and should be observed that way by the painter, carefully and thoughtfully arranged into pleasing, if not ideal compositions...

Quick Sketch

"Sheridan Spring"

We had one nice break in the weather the other day, so I ventured out in the early evening into an area I had not visited before. I came across this configuration, and with a little artistic license (but not much) came home with the above quick sketch... 

Today, back to the rain...