Majestic Afternoon in Canyon de Chelly

Here is the latest painting from our Canyon de Chelly trip. The wind started up so ferociously about an hour after I started, that this one had to be finished at home. It is the same area that the famous "White House" ruin is located. It's just behind me down a path relative to this view.

Limestone Sinks

A few weeks ago, as part of a program to open up previously closed wilderness areas in Orange County, I traveled with about 10 other artists in a big truck with all our gear to an area in the Limestone Canyon Regional Park called the Limestone Sinks, named for a geologic event hundreds of years ago which resulted in a landscape some have called a Mini-Grand Canyon. The view was truly spectacular, and so far off the normal routes as to be almost pristine. It was beautifully quiet, the hawks flying overhead seeming somehow more wild than when we see them swooping over the freeway on the lookout for unsuspecting prey.

I didn't finish my painting there, having chosen too large a canvas, but I got a good start on something and I was able to finish it in the studio.
I'll be showing this painting, (and a bunch more that I'll be posting in the next few days), at our upcoming Paint the Parks Show and Sale on May 20-22 in Irvine.

Bell Canyon Creek

Last Friday I went to Caspers Regional Park in search of more subjects to paint for the upcoming "Paint the Parks" show in May and found this beautiful spot. The creeks this year are all full and flowing owing to all the rain we had in December and January; and I've begun to see a theme for my paintings for this show, which for me should be titled, "Paint the Creeks". Anyway, here is Bell Canyon Creek painted as it comes through the canyon on its way to join San Juan Creek, which I painted yesterday and will post tomorrow.

View From Peter's Canyon Rd.

This is the third painting I've been working on for the "Paint the Parks" Show we will be having in May. This view was painted at the eastern most point in Irvine Regional Park looking west after the big storms we had a few weeks ago, and shows how full the usually dry creek still was more than a week after the storm.

Storm Clouds Over Fremont Canyon

Here is a view of Fremont Canyon, about a mile east I think from Irvine Park, and one of the areas newly opened to the public. The morning we went to paint it was sunny, but within the first hour dark storm clouds moved in and it began to sprinkle a bit. I had to stop painting the sunny scene I began with, and ended up with this view of the sun breaking through the clouds to illuminate the far end of this little valley. What a wonderful experience to see this land, largely unspoiled. One can't help imagining how it must have been and looked for so many years and realize that the rest of our Orange County must have been as pristine and beautiful as this.

Baker Staging Area - Santiago Canyon

In May, our group will be having a show and sale in partnership with the Orange County Parks and with the Tustin School District. All the paintings for the show will be of the parks in our area, and some newly opened wilderness areas. I've spent the last couple of weeks out painting and working on the next few paintings. This one is of an area adjacent to Black Star Canyon, for you locals. It was early morning.

Baker Staging Area - Santiago Canyon

Our painting group has been granted some exclusive trips into areas previously off-limits to the public. But now the Irvine Co. has ceded these wilderness areas to the Orange County Parks. They are offering us these trips because next May, we'll have a large Juried Art Show and Sale to benefit the parks, so this is a fantastic opportunity for us. Today we had access to a small area just off of Black Star Canyon, for those locals who are reading this. Here is the painting I did today, fresh off the easel, no touch ups yet...so a little rough, but it has a feel for what it was like at 7:30 this morning, just as the sun was breaking through the sycamore and eucalyptus. A beautiful morning to be out...

Back Bay Mustard

Here is a scene that I painted last week, or was it two weeks ago at the Back Bay. Anyway, it was the same day I painted the cliffs. I just turned my chair and painted in the other direction, looking at the bike/walking path that goes up the East side of the Back Bay.

The mustard that was covering the hillside was amazing!

Morning Walk on the Grand Canal

I've been working on a couple of larger paintings, getting ready for the summer shows coming up. This one is for my second submission to our "Islands" show, (along with the Fish Market painting), coming up in June for the Socalpapa Gallery. I'll post the details of that show very soon.

This is a scene of the walk surrounding that little part of Balboa Island that is separated from the main island by a canal. In fact the sidewalk is called the Grand Canal I think. Anyway, the shadows in the morning are beautiful as they rake across the walkway, while the canal glistens in the sun.

Punta Banda Avenue-(Private Collection)

Here is a second painting I did in Baja. It's a larger one than I normally post here, 11x14 inches. I painted all of these with the idea that I wanted to give them to my hosts for the week in thanks for all their hospitality, and they did ask to keep this one. The weather was crazy this day too. It dawned sunny and cool, a perfect day to paint. We drove all around the small little village of ex-pat cottages but came back to this view of a long gravel street which is just outside the house I was staying in. So, we started off painting a bright sunny street with lengthening shadows and puffy white clouds in the sky. Then came very dark clouds from the south, like a big dark blue blanket which ultimately covered the whole sky, blotting out the sun, eliminating the wonderful bright colors and the shadows. So, I finally gave up and began to turn the painting I started into one that would be more subdued and subtle. No shadows, no bright colors, but a rich dark blue sky with forbidding clouds. But no, just when I've changed everything, the clouds disperse, (this takes almost an hour), and we are back to bright sunny day, beautiful cast shadows and puffy white clouds. This is a typical occurrence for a plein air painter, but one we sort of just take in stride, because it's so wonderful to be there watching it all happen.

Oaks on the Santa Rosa Plateau

Today, I am going out to the Santa Rosa Plateau, an ecological reserve in Riverside County.
It's located at the southern end of the Santa Ana Mountains and consists of 8,300 acres of Oak woodlands, wetlands, coastal sage and chaparral. It is a wonderful place to to hike. Easy trails, and the oaks really are so beautiful to see spread out over the rolling grassland.
I am going with some friends from my painting group to pick up some unsold paintings from a small show we participated in there. Since I won't be back in time to post the little painting I'm hoping to do out there, I will include a photo of the larger piece I was exhibiting that didn't sell. Hope you all like it.

Crystal Cove Garages

I spent the day finishing this painting of the Crystal Cove garages because I'll need it to submit to the  Gift Shop there for consideration to show there next year. Wish me luck. This one won't be for sale right now so that I can save it for the gift shop.