Hay Bales

Tonight is the big annual benefit auction for the Sebastopol Center for the Arts. It will be a fun party with many items to bid on…fine art, travel packages, wine, gift certificates for restaurants and shops, art classes and more. This is the painting that I am donating.   I hope it brings in a good price for SCA since they are a wonderful resource for the entire northern California arts scene. Here are the details

21st Annual Benefit Auction Friday September 1-  7-10pm

6780 Depot Street Sebastopol tickets $25 at the door  www.sebarts.org

Marin Hills in Summer

A couple more fast paintings from a lovely day out with my buddy Steve.  I know these hills have been painted ad nauseam but I haven’t done them much. I have to say these oils just painted themselves….if I haven’t said this before I will now…I honestly think oils are easier than acrylics for the experienced painter. Yes, they are luscious and fun too!

Red Barn Complex

Here is an oil done only with palette knife. Easy clean up and great texture can be had when painting this way. Because this painting uses mostly high key (light) values, it was a bit hard to capture the subtleties with the camera. But in person its kinda cool.

I have decided to open my studio in Bodega Bay to folks this Fall for just 3 days.  Since I left my gallery partnership in June, many people have written to ask where they can find my work…that is so gratifying and I thank you.  Because I live in a very quit place, I don’t want to open things up to the entire public so I have just sent an invitation to my mailing list.  So if you want to visit and did not get an email, please contact me. Dates are Saturday September 18th, Friday October 15th and Sunday November 14th. I figure this staggered schedule will accommodate almost everyone who has been writing to find out where to see my new work.  And I have lots of new work now that I finally have time to paint!

Lake Tahoe from Zephyr #3

The photo does not capture the color perfectly but I like this little 6″ x 6″ painting best of the group. It’s all done in oil with palette knife only and was the last of the 3 I did out side that day( see previous post for #1 and #2). I like it because it is very simplified and captures the intense stratification of the color of the water in the lake.

More to come.

I’m off to my yearly painting retreat in South Lake Tahoe with my painting buddies.  We get a lot of work done since we are housed and fed for 6 days while we concentrate on painting only. And there are no husbands to call you in from the studio…we can paint until the wee hours of the morning.

Here are a couple more paintings I’ve been working on. More oils. I am into this now. Not sure why I have left behind my love of acrylics for a moment.

Farm House

I like this piece a lot…its 24″ x 12″ oil on panel with a deep cradle.

And here is another plein air piece I did at the Marin French Cheese company a few weeks ago that I finished recently.

Marin French Cheese Company #2

Here are a couple of new oils from a fun morning spent in Freestone with HolLyn. We were right in front of the WildFlour Bakery and too bad they were closed. Apparently an article in Sunset Magazine had folks from all over coming to taste their famous bread…but alas they were closed since it was a Wednesday. H and I could have sold a lot of bread!

Freestone Barns and Silo #1

Freestone Barn and Silo #2

We returned from 10 days in Santa Fe, Taos and southwestern Colorado…Durango, Pagosa Springs. It was gorgeous and fun…also very high altitude and hot! But we had fun biking, white water kayaking, learning about America’s first people the puebloans from Mesa Verde and Taos and of course seeing great art and architecture.  Of course I love the colors of the pueblos and the colors they painted the doors… here is a photo I took at the Taos Pueblo.

Taos Pueblo

Of course it is always nice to be home, at sea level, in Bodega Bay.  I can’t wait to get back into the studio…I have images and colors in my head from our trip.  And I seriously need to replenish my work after Art at the Source which was amazingly successful.  So many nice people came by to see us, talk about art and buy pieces to bring home. Thank you everyone!  I really need to get to work and paint although there is so much going on this summer…lots of activity on the beach, in the garden and just a ton of social events! But the pull of the studio is strong.