More Winter on the California Coast

"Misty Christmas on the California Coast"
Andrew Molera State Park
15" x 18"

Continuing the theme of winter, here is another painting inspired by Christmases spent in the Big Sur area 0n the California Coast. That year we hiked in Andrew Molera State Park to the sea along Big Sur River. I loved this simple scene of evergreens backing dried grasses along the trail. You can see another view of the park that includes the river in an earlier post.

I started and completed this painting during my Thursday night art group. Our numbers were decimated by winter colds, so three of us joined together for a lovely evening of painting. I was hosting and searching at the last minute for art supplies and a subject. I grabbed a 300 pound Arches cold press paper, not my usual 140 pound paper, and a folder of photos of subject matter that emotionally connects with me. Thinking winter, I settled on this scene. I wet the entire sheet, did not sketch out the scene, and used a limited Stephen Quiller pallette, ala Tom Fong's Fast and Loose approach. For the trees, I used Ultramarine Blue, Permanent Orange, and Burnt Sienna. Latter I went back in and introduced a bit of green mixed from Thalo Blue and Cad Yellow Deep. I worked at adding variety in the values. The grasses are Permanent Orange, Cad Yellow Deep, Thalo Green, and Magenta. I scratched in some weeds and added Permanent Orange to some. I had fun doing some positive and negative painting. This morning at critique group, I got a thumbs up on this one without any suggestions for changes.

These California winter scenes are a marked contrast to ones I have painted of winters in North Danville, VT, where son Jeff's family has a small farm with horses. Recently I painted "Winter in the Garden" from a photo Jeff took a couple weeks ago. Having grown up in Vermont, I could feel the cold, crisp air and the bright sunshine in late afternoon. To give you another view of that garden, here is a photo Jeff sent a couple days ago of two of the three horses in the great snowstorm that covered a third of our nation.

"Photo by Jeff Paquet"

The horses' blankets are covered with the snow falling and the hillside behind the trees and garden is completely obscured. The water tub for the horses has a heater to keep it from freezing in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom where I have experienced -42 degrees.

Travel Sketches

"McReynold's Road"
Watercolor sketch
6" x 8"

"A Room with a View"
New York City
Watercolor sketch
6" x 8"

Very little time to do any painting the past few weeks as we traveled to Vermont, Maine, and New York City. McReynold's Road is one of 5 dirt roads radiating out from the main road through North Danville, Vermont where my son Jeff's family lives. Every morning I choose from one of the five to take a very early morning walk in place of my daily workout at the gym. Ala Stephen Quiller, I did a landscape using one note of pure color (yellow) against it's complement blue and the various mixtures in between. The quality isn't great -- I did this one using my Japanese water brush and the tiny Koi pan paint set I take on trips with little time for art. North Danville is perched in the hills rising above the Connecticut River. I could look across that unseen meandering state line to the President Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Early morning mists added quiet drama. I did this piece from memory after my walk the very first day while sitting on the tiny patio in the rare sunshine we experienced that first week.

"A Room with a View" was done our final morning in New York City after Bob's daughter graduated from Fordham Law School in a ceremony held at Madison Square Garden. We usually find reasonable rates (well, reasonable for New York City) at the Radisson Lexington and it's well situated to walk to the subways, Grand Central Station, and Broadway shows. I was fascinated by the structures on the rooftops that you get to see from the 22nd floor. The dark blob in the lower right is a water tower, required on all buildings over 6 stories. Water is pumped up to the water tower and held until needed. The small structure with the blue-green roof was a very pretty Asian patio. There were a couple other Asian patios on the building .

I am off to my monthly critique group. I promise all my blog friends that I will visit your blog very soon.

Silicon Valley Open Studios and the Quiller Workshop

"Sunset over Tuscany"
11" x 14"
Acrylic on paper

On Day 4 Stephen switched to acrylics. We could stay with watercolor and gouache or use acrylics and I wanted to learn the medium from the master. In the morning we used the paint transparently with watercolor without adding any white to it. I will show that painting when I finish it. In the afternoon he showed using a full range of transparent, translucent (with white added), and opaque paints. He began with a transparent under painting. In my case the transparent under painting is yellow orange and a touch of red at the top. I used white mixed with cerulean blue for the sky, white mixed with Ultramarine for the mountains; thus, they are translucent. The remainder of the painting is done opaquely. I see lots that needs improving, and that's all part of the learning experience.

This year's signature painting

"Me and Matisse" is featured in the catalogue and on the website. I was delighted when one enthusiast said he came specifically to see this painting. He has collected a number of works from Open Studios and favors figures. He was very impressed, but he did not buy the work, though he came back to it several times, perhaps put off by the price. I chose to raise my prices slightly this year. The good news is I sold three paintings:

• "California Poppies on the Fault Line"
• "Sunflower Fields at Petit Rousset"
• "Springtime in California"

One collector had missed out on a bid at a charitable auction for a piece I donated , so she bought two paintings. The other person won the bid at the auction for the piece that showed a scene in Italy with the wash hanging from the second story window of an ancient building in Florence. Her husband told her to buy another piece depicting Europe. I also sold a lot of greeting cards, which are always a fun item for folks to take home. The other two artists made sales as well. We were blessed with a perfect California day and had the doors open for people to circulate. Because we don't have flying bugs here, no need to close a screen door. Another sunny day has dawned as we look forward to the second and final day of the Open Studios.

Alison Turner is set up in the back garden and she also has a children's art area out there. One set of nine-year-old twin boys had a blast doing art and we admired their work. I am always amazed at what wonderful color choices they make. They are great at analogous and complementary colors.

Stephen Quiller Workshop - Day 3

"Jane's Flowers"
Partially completed floral - watercolor and gouache

Stephen Quiller's demo at the 80% stage

Stephen demoed using opaque and translucent passages with transparent watercolor using a triad. He paints in several mediums - watercolor, acrylic, casein, and gouache. He likes how the opaque really makes the transparent passages glow. Some of the blue-purple, the white, and the pale yellow are opaque in his piece done from life. Jane Kwant supplied a gorgeous bouquet from her garden that included my favorite California Poppies. Mine is half done. I will likely have to wait until next week to complete the work a we move on today to acrylics used in a similar fashion to watercolor. He allows the painters to keep working in watercolor if they prefer. I will use acrylics which I have been working with just a bit over the past year.

The color work we have done has been a fabulous experience. In the morning, we created a color wheel for a color family -- in my case based on Cad Yellow Light. We mixed all the intensity ranges of yellow with the other 11 colors on his 12-color palette. Then we did a couple studies using the palette. I have done paintings based on his color families, where all the colors contained the mother color, and they are very harmonious.

Stephen Quiller Workshop Day 2

Here is my afternoon painting -- we used analagous complements to create a piece. I did this from a photo taken in the fall of 2001 in my home state of Vermont. Off to another day of a wonderful workshop.

Stephen Quiller Workshop and Demo

"Utah Vista 1"
Study in Permanent Orange and Ultramarine Blue

"Utah Vista 2"
Study in Permanent Orange and Ultramarine Blue

San Juan Mountains, Colorado
Stephen Quiller demo on painting using 2 complements

Stephen Quiller explaining his 12 color system

The Santa Clara Valley Watercolor Society engages many well-known painters. This week I am taking a workshop from Stephen Quiller on watermedia and color. Stephen has written a half dozen books on this topic. One woman came all the way from Germany to take the workshop!

Yesterday the demo was standing room only, and Stephen gave a wonderful demo and slide show. Today he started with the basics, teaching us to use his 12 color system from which you can mix any combination of paints that you want. This morning we did the equivalent of musical scales (a color wheel with all the intermediate neutralized colors going from pure color to grey for each set of complements, a value scale and abstract study, and an intensity scale from white to black using 2 complements and an abstract study.

This afternoon Stephen demoed creating 2 landscape paintings of the same scene, using the same two colors -- permanent orange and ultramarine blue -- to create entirely different moods. The first painting we were told to use a pure hue of the orange and the blue, with varying color intensities (neutrals and semi-neutrals), and a full value range. The second piece we were told to use the same colors, but use all neutrals and semi-neutrals, and a full range of values. He emphasized how in the first painting the neutralized color makes the pure color sing, and in the second painting, the value contrast around the warmer semi-neutral color created a very luminous quality. I used one of my reference photos taken in Utah on my cross-country cycling trip.

I had a pleasant conversation with the artist over the lunches we brought along for the day in the gardens of the Rosicrucian Museum, a magnificent set of buildings with beautiful grounds located across from the workshop venue. I managed to get most of my preparation done for Silicon Valley Open Studios, so I can really enjoy this workshop.