Winter Storm Coming

Here is one of two new paintings I'll be dropping off at Crystal Cove in a few days. I do love painting in winter. The air is clearer, there are fewer people on the beach, (I still prefer painting the solitary visitor in a scene, to the hordes of summer), and there is always promise of spectacular clouds. This is my first attempt at a painting that is chiefly about clouds, and was really fun to experiment and try to catch that misty, moving, ephemeral liquid atmosphere that is a cloud.

Riding Out of the Shadows - Canyon de Chelly

Here is one of the larger pieces I started in Canyon de Chelly and finished up here at home. I painted this our first full day in the Canyon. We had scouted the place the previous day on our first afternoon in, after setting up our tents and having a bit of a rest after the 90 minute ride into the canyon. This place was about 20 minutes or so from camp and while a few of us painters stayed to paint, the rest of the group rode out to explore further, get some more riding in, and do some photography. After a couple of hours we broke for lunch. I wanted to try another one, but the wind came up and there was just too much blowing sand, although Brian, one of the other painters was a more stalwart soul than I, and I think he was able to finish a second!

I did do a small study our first evening, the one previous to this one here, and I'll post that one next. In the meantime, here is my first larger piece, which I have already been lucky enough to have sold, thanks to one of my patrons who is also a designer! I am so thrilled.

Bright Angel Trail Overlook

Here is the finished painting of the one I started our first afternoon at the Grand Canyon.
I started around 3 in the afternoon. Whenever I've seen paintings of the canyon I had assumed they were painted from special, hard to find spots, available only to those hardworking artists willing to hike out to that perfect spot. I was so surprised to recognize view after view from paintings I have been looking at right there in front of me, just over the railing! This is the only one I was able to do, because next morning we did the mule ride out to the Abyss Overlook and were too exhausted afterward to do much but check out touristy things. We did manage to see a Plein Air Exhibition at the Kolb Gallery which is in the historic Kolb house at Grand Canyon Village. Very inspiring and humbling!
So here is my offering:

If you would like to bid on this painting, please click here.

Past and Present

Here is the second painting I've done for the March Show at Crystal Cove. I've called it Past and Present, because even though the "Beaches" Cottage is renovated with a new, (not as charming as the old one), fence the moment I wanted to capture belongs to the past as well.

We can all remember moments on the beach when the sun is just minutes away from dropping below the horizon and we are trying to squeeze the last beautiful seconds of the long day down on the beach. 

'32 Coupe

Here is a painting I did for my sister and her husband of their award winning
1932 Ford 3 Window Coupe. It's really a gorgeous car with a beautiful custom upholstered interior. I loved getting to go for a ride in it, feeling quite the thing.

August Afternoon at the Back Bay

Here's the first of a whole new series of Newport Back Bay in preparation of next year's big exhibition to benefit the Newport Back Bay Conservancy. If I had to choose, I'd say this is my favorite place to paint. It's peaceful & quiet, with endless colors and shapes in the cliffs and lots of variations as the incoming and outgoing tides cut through the reeds.

CHM Sunset

Here is the last painting I did while staying at CHM. This was painted from around 8:00 to about 9:30 pm in the evening. The latitude where we were staying is very far north relative to us here in the U.S. It looks to be parallel with Nova Scotia or New Brunswick in Canada, hence the lovely long days with dusk lasting well into the late evening. The week we were there was blessed as well with warm days and only lightly cool evenings, so it was easy to stay out painting until it was almost too dark to see.
The next afternoon we were off, back to Bordeaux for the night, then up at 4 am in order to check in and catch the 8:30 flight to Paris, and from there back to the states.

Our stay in Montalivet was much too short...we hope to return, but who knows?

Late Afternoon at Avenue Californie

I love that the address of the cottage we stayed in was on Avenue Californie. I started this painting the same day I did the previous one. The light just kept getting better and better.

We came to CHM in Montalivet because my husband was participating in a photo workshop.  Every evening they headed down to the beach at 8:15 in the evening in order to shoot from 8:30 to 9:15, when the sun was just setting. So, while they were down at the beach, I did this painting, probably between about 7:00 and 9:00pm. When they came back we all would pile in to the car and go into Montalivet for pizza at 10! Amazing!

Blue Shutters in the Sun

I found so much inspiration in the path behind the cottage we were staying in, that I spent the next 3 days there painting. At one point, as I sat painting, dozens of runners in all states of dress and undress flew by me, running in a marathon. They each must have run passed me at least 5 or 6 times. Other times people would stroll by with their dogs or their kids or both. Many stopped to comment and chat, and I got plenty of practice with my German, and my execrable French. This painting and the next I gave as a thank you gift to our host, who was so generous in sharing his tiny cottage with us, and for going above and beyond in his role as host and workshop mentor by feeding us, and giving us incalculable help in a small emergency we had the second day we were there. We long so much to be back, although we heard that the rain has returned. It seems our week there was blessed indeed.

Another Tahoe Painting

Here is a photo of the first painting I did in Tahoe that a very nice couple bought from off the easel! I was so caught up in talking with them that I forgot to photograph it. Luckily my talented photographer sister-in-law Stacy remembered and took this photo of the painting.
We are back home now, but will be leaving in a day for one week in France! I'm going to try to post from over there using my phone like I did this time from Tahoe, so stay tuned.

Sun on Bell Canyon Creek

I hiked down to Bell Canyon Creek in Caspers Park a couple of weeks ago, looking for places to paint for our Paint the Parks Show this week-end. I was surprised to see there was still water flowing in the creek. This was a really difficult painting to photograph however. It sort of looks like this, but not so orange, or so bright in the cliff shadows. Anyway, it was a beautiful afternoon, and that location and creek are becoming my favorite subject to paint.

Laguna Rocks and Sea

Several of us from our Socalpapa group went to Heisler Park in Laguna Beach today, for another glorious morning. JoAnn, the chief organizer of our excursions, has a special deal with the gods I think. Every day we've painted together has been one of almost mythical perfection. Today I tackled rocks and sea, as I looked down from the walk at the edge of the cliffs.

Early Afternoon Shadows

Here is another view of the garages at Crystal Cove that I painted for the special show next week. It's sort of similar to the previous one, but at a different time of day, much earlier in the afternoon.

(Available for purchase at the Crystal Cove Gallery & Gift Shop.
Email me for details)

Bright November Day

Here is another painting of the Crystal Cove garages that I painted in the studio yesterday while the rain was pouring down outside. It may look familiar because I painted it using a small study that I did there in November and which I posted then here on the blog. This one is not quite finished, but I didn't want a day to go by without showing what I was up to.

This afternoon at 4pm is the Grand Opening of the New SOCALPAPA Art Gallery at the Fun Zone in Newport Beach, which we have in partnership with the Newport Nautical Museum. For those of you who bought raffle tickets, Thank You again so much for your support, and if you are lucky enough to win, I will probably be calling you this evening, and maybe even dropping off a prize. Who knows!

Winter Shadows

I have one word to leave here to describe the last 2 weeks: "Lumbago". A charming, antiquated word I came across while lying flat on my back for a week and reading a favorite Anthony Trollope novel. You know Trollope, a contemporary of Dickens, who wrote wonderful, chatty, wry novels though without Dickens' gloomy parables of social injustice. Anyway, I am back again, though chastened, in that I hesitate to make promises anymore. Suffice to say then that I'm back... for now.
Today's painting is one I painted at Crystal Cove yesterday in preparation for a quickly organized show by the Cove Alliance in order to commemorate for the last time the beautiful old garages there which are due for renovation in a couple of weeks. These are almost my favorite subject at Crystal Cove. The colors are rich and subtle, layered, and bleached yet vibrant too. And the poor ramshackle buildings, now collapsing on themselves are both a charm and a challenge. I will really miss painting them.

(Available for purchase at the Crystal Cove Gallery & Gift Shop.

Email me for details)