Weekly Painting #2 - Pretty Face

Well, I cheated. I started this painting sometime during last spring. Didn't like the background and put it aside. I took it out this weekend to finish up the background and touch up the pansy. I love looking at pansy face - sometimes they look sad and happy, sometimes they look mad and grumpy.Such pretty faced flowers...



8 X 8 canvas, Acrylic painting

Weekly Painting #1 - Dos Daffodils

My resolution comes two months late. I got tired of seeing so many inspirations around me and not being able to find the time to paint. While I dream of painting daily, I am going for a more realistic goal - one painting every week starting from this month. I want to be able to start and finish my painting in one session. So, I will be painting small, no more than 11X14 and take no more than two hours. Very excited to experiment different artistic styles and develop my own :).

To kick start the weekly painting session, I grabbed the daffodils from my garden and put them in a pretty cobalt blue cup. Placed it on a white dry erase board next to my window. I loved looking at the shadow cast by the blue glass. So much that I tossed my original intention of painting lose and got sucked in to doing a realism with the shadows. Here is my painting with the subject.

And the painting. 8 X 8 canvas with acrylic, done under 2 hours.

Backyard Blooms - Plein air Gouache sketch

We have recently moved to a house with a real backyard and I find myself spending more time gardening than painting these days. Two weeks ago while the east coast was buried in snow, the almond tree in our backyard was in full bloom. The flowers don't last long, one strong wind/rain they carpet the ground. Started as a plein air sketch and finished up inside. Here are some pictures of the tree and my sketch :).

And here is a close up. Done on a 8X10 watercolor sketch pad with Gouache paint.

Pigeon Point Light house- Plein Air Painting

Hello.. Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a busy summer. So many unfinished paintings and so little time. Determined to get some plein-air painting done, I packed up my gear and went to Pigeon Point with a small workshop group. It was supposed to be a sunny day with upper 60s. But meteorologists were wrong again. It turned out to be a foggy, windy and a cold day.

There are many interesting views to paint here along the cliffs but we set up closer to the hostel area to escape the wind. It turned out to be a fun painting experience until my canvas panel was swept away by the wind and rolled in the sand. It was quite an ordeal to rescue before it became a sand painting. Wet canvas carrier goes on the wish list now :).

My setup and work in progress below,

And here is my finished painting

Hope you like it. Next up is the pumpkins from Half Moon bay :)

A tree from Vasona Park - Plein Air Painting

Things have been crazy lately but I did manage to squeeze in some time for a Plein Air workshop today with Kristen Olsen at Vasona Park, Los Gatos. It was an interesting expereience for me, trying to let go of my studio painting habits and focus on values, composition. Here is a collage with pics that I took to document my progress.

Here is the finished painting.

It took about 3 hours to get to this stage. I had to make a hard stop to avoid overworking. Looking forward to more painting in the open soon :)

Summer Flame

 

Acrylic painting of Orange Dahlias from Mendocino Botanical Garden. I have been fortunate to visit this garden in all seasons. They have something pretty every season and those summer Dahlia's are such an eye candy. This is from my to be painted clicks two years ago, finally getting around to it.
Hope you like it..

Tetons and the Moulton Barn

Trying to finish up some of the unfinished paintings here. I have always enjoyed looking at the rustic barns in CA. But this is painting of the most photographed barn in the US - Moulton Barn from Grand Teton National Park based on a photo from our road trip there last summer.

I did some sketchings during our stay in the park but not on this location. During our early morning visit we encountered so many bisons around the barn. Some were cute little calfs..

And others were ready to fight..

The whole place was pretty much flooded with bisons, it was an amazing experience.

This particular painting is done impasto style completely with knife and with water soluble oil. Hope you like it.