Los Gatos continued

Oh boy, am I behind...so to bring the story up to the present. Los Gatos is such a beautiful town and in such a gorgeous area. Our 2nd day I think, we looked for architectural subjects and I found this lovely Victorian Home, of which there were dozens and dozens.

Also, I had no idea there were so many wineries there. The next couple of days we went exploring all the hills surrounding the town, and painted at 3 different wineries: Burrell School Vineyards; Mountain Winery which is really part of Saratoga Calif., next door to Los Gatos; and on our last day we painted at a wonderful winery that is also a horse stabling concern called the Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyards. The following paintings were done in that order.

This painting is the one that sold and which was also my own favorite.
I hadn't planned on painting the horse, I just liked the composition of the barn and trees.
But then the owner of the horse brought it  back from riding and I quickly added him in.
I think it makes what was an OK composition into a special one.

Next post I'll catch up to this last weekend and our Bi-Annual Back Bay Show.

From Carmel to Los Gatos

Ok, now where was I? Wrapping up in Carmel, and then moving on 3 weeks later to Los Gatos.
Here is a photo of my two paintings on display in Carmel. I was lucky enough to sell the coastal view the first evening.

After the show and a brief visit with friends who live near Watsonville, I headed back south for 3 weeks and a bit of a rest, (though I did turn out a couple of paintings for the July Back Bay Show). The second week of June I headed back north, this time to Los Gatos. I had never been there before, and found it to be a lovely, charming town, with lots of history, perched just to the north east of the Santa Cruz mountains of which there are many many beautiful views from in town. I partnered up with a fellow artist and we managed to paint between 2 and 3 paintings a day for 4 straight days! Up at 5am, coffee at 6, paint all day, dinner at 7:30, in bed by 9. Amazing!
Here is the first painting I did. Every morning I bought coffee at "The Boulanger" Bakery. That first morning, after getting my coffee at 6, I decided to sit down on a bench just outside the bakery and paint this building which is a famous landmark of Los Gatos.
(by the way, Los Gatos is THE most sitter friendly town I've ever been to. There are benches EVERYWHERE!) Anyway, here is my painting from morning #1:

The last post I made brought me to day 3 of my stay in Carmel. After the previous gloomy gray days, I was hoping so much for some sun, and sure enough it dawned bright and clear. I had visited Point Lobos early on my scouting day when it was sunny and decided to return there to Whalers Cove. After a trip to the Carmel Valley Coffee Roaster, I was off to Point Lobos and was first in line at the gate, which opens at 8:00am.
Whalers Cove is the first right off the main road entrance. It's a narrow road that leads down to a small parking lot where you have a perfect view of the whole cove. There are lots of seals basking on the bit of sand beneath the rocks at the southeast end of the cove, and that's the view I chose to paint. I couldn't include the seals, because they just look like a lot of big slugs, and on a small canvas, it's just too hard to paint big slugs so they look like anything.
Here is the morning view I painted:

and here is the painting I did, tho the colors are a bit off compared to the actual painting:

After doing this morning painting, I ate the lunch I brought, and then turned 45 degrees to the west and painted this scene:

and here is the painting I did:

As soon as I finished, I had to race home,
frame my two best paintings, and get them down to the park in the center of town where the bidding would start at 6 pm.
So, again, no pressure. Haha.