Cold Studio, Warm Memories

Started another painting! I'm loving being in my studio day after day. I'm a happy lady.

So thankful for these full days to paint AND for my oil filled space heater! These mornings have been absolutely frigid! (I'm in California so that means it's probably 40°!) 

John Day Fossil Beds has 3 distinct and official sections to the park:
Painted Hills
Sheep Rock
Clarno Unit

Painted Hills. First, amazing. You most likely have never seen anything like it. Ever. It also happens to be the "easiest" or "closest" to visit. Quotes "" meaning 2+ hours from Bend rather than 3+ hours to get to Sheep Rock ;) Regardless, a lot of people go there. They may not make it all the way to Sheep Rock and Blue Basin, which is a real shame, but happily, that section does get a lot of visitors.

Truly, it's like another planet. Nothing to see but colored striations of reds and golds, some blue and purples, and a lot of orange red. Color. It's everywhere. And not just color.... Folds. Fingers. Jutts. Burps. All kinds of crazy formations, it's fantastic.

Sketching the scene. Pastel on Trekell wood panel. 18x24 

Roughing in shadows and color blocks.

Big House, Little Painting

The LGAA, Los Gatos Art Association, Plein Air painters group meet on Monday mornings. We have a pretty consistent group showing up - whether we meet in town or down the coast in Monterey or up at Davenport. A good solid 11-15 painters I think. Unless it is the Monday of the year when we meet at a spectacular home of one of our members. 

The home belongs to David. I'll leave it at that. It's amazing, a stunning hacienda on many acres with a pond, many fountains, a carriage house, an adorable shed, plants and flowering trees... the works. It's like a trip to Tuscany. So, it's no surprise that on this particular Monday.... we had over 25 artists.

I love when OTHER painters paint street scenes and corner stores, storybook cottages and barns. I love it and I struggle to do it. Architecture is not my thing. I have painted David's home before and although I like that painting, it shows more of a slowly sinking, aged and wobbly adobe cottage in my rendering ;)

This time I really spent a lot of time on the drawing. Getting the angles, the windows right, the roof top... I think it paid off. I am much happier with this painting and can see a lot of areas where I improved in the paint application as well. Having the 'good bones' of a good drawing underneath the paint worked out very well. There's hope for me!

Plein Satisfaction

Today's outing to Plein air paint with my Los Gatos Art Association group was just what I needed. 

I'd had such a shift and growth in my work from the week painting in the Escalante Canyons Art Festival which was followed a few weeks later by a no good painting attempt back home. Very frustrating but it happens. 

I was even a bit anxious for my outing today... Would I be able to keep all the good changes I've made in my landscape paintings??? 

Yes. I'm happy to say, yes.

I painted a cluster of trees along a walking trail and that's a subject matter I've not tackled before, but I loved the rhythm and light on the trees and I think I captured what attracted me to the scene.

Aspens above Boulder

I'm loving Boulder! The combination of red rocks, yellow rocks, juniper, mountains, views and ASPEN!

Tried my first aspen painting this afternoon, fun! The really do shake- quake... Rustle! Noise makers!

I kept turning my head to see if someone was behind me. Took a dirt road with a sign "deer lake road " I was rewarded!

San Juan Bautista

Another great painting location, thank you LGAA!

A bit of a ways south, but just the drive puts you into a new, relaxed mindset and for me... one ready to paint.

Well... HOT at home turned out to be OMG freezing in San Juan Bautista. Thank god for the pile of fleece that seems to make itself at home in the back of my car.

Wind and cold and wind and wind and tree blossoms falling into the paint, onto the painting... I ended up switching to the palette knife because it was easier to pick out the debris ;)

Heat Relief

It's been HOT. Dry and HOT for months. It was a great relief to be at the coast to paint this week. I feel like I was absorbing all the fog and desperately trying to bring it home!
A little painting, it was going really well, fresh and loose and then... I worked into it and lost some of that specialness. Still, pretty happy with it. But, an undue or rewind would be excellent!

Overworked I think. Wet sand is perplexing too and don't get me going on white water froth! So much to learn!

California Art Club - paint out!

Every now and again the NorCal/San Francisco chapter of the California Art Club plans a paint-out for its members. I love running into painting friends, past teachers and artists who I admire... and we all meet up for a painting day. This time, there was a promise of wine tasting too ;)  Yes please.

The location was up north in the wine country, in Kenwood, at Chateau St. Jean Winery. Beautiful! it was challenging, I don't often paint buildings and then of course there were the rows and rows and rows of vineyard.

I opted for the "Chateau" because it was very special with little orb lanterns strewn across the main lawn. Lovely...

There was however, no wine. It was madness there, lots of people picnic-ing and stopping by to wine taste. I never found the CAC wine tasting area and when I went into the actual tasting room... I felt like the step-sister in my grubby painting clothes with all the fancy wine enthusiasts.

I'll just open a bottle at home, thanks.

Morgan Hill Morning

One of the great things about being a part of a painting group is that you learn about new painting spots! and someone else is planning the day!

Plein Air Mondays with the LGAA (Los Gatos Art Association) met in Morgan Hill, down a side street at the end of dead end road... yes, exactly the kind of place you would not find on your own ;)

"Paint Burlingame"

My first plein air 'event!'

"Paint Burlingame" is a one day plein air painting event. Artists find their own location within a given radius and spend the day painting. I loved it! I went up to the town a few days before hand to 'scout' locations. I fell in love with an original old Library, a tiny little arts and craft style adobe with huge eucalyptus trees all around it.

I set up on a corner and between the neighbors stopping by to check out the progress or the falling of branches and leaves that were keeping me on alert... plus the wonderful smell of the eucalyptus - well, I had fun ;)

At the end of the day we were to submit our finished painting, in a frame and ready to hang... for the Auction!

A nice family that lives near the library and visit often with their young son purchased the painting too, so that was the perfect ending to a great day.

Goddess Auction

My newest painting went up for auction this weekend. I'm super happy with this painting and she's already making quite a good impression at her debut!

Day 2, Monterey Plein Air

Most beautiful day! A choir of barking seals, abundant sunshine and envious views. Lucky me, I'm here painting!

"Miss Infinite Hat"

Has it really been since December since I posted anything?

Well, I have been busy - so that is a good thing ;)

A client who commissioned a painting from me a few years back wrote me an email asking about another piece. Yeah!

I have a series of little paintings, all 6x6 and acrylic, that I made in 2008.  I was about to do my first Art Fair and wanted some new work that was all the same size and hopefully easy purchases ;)  I sold a handful that day and was pretty happy. Little did I know that one of those paintings, "Miss Infinite Hat" would be seen on my website and someone would ask me to paint it for them... larger.

So, back in October I was commissioned to recreate that painting 16x16".

Work in Progress, new piece and the original

I've been juggling my days between painting in the studio on the commission, creating icons for web and mobile for various clients, and getting outdoors to do plein air painting. In other words, I've been having a wonderful time!


And now she's finished! Always a mix of emotions at this point.  Happy with the painting, thrilled to meet my deadline, relieved the varnishing went on flawlessly, sad I don't get more time with the piece, hopeful I took at least a few great shots of her with my various cameras, anxious that FedEx will deliver her on-time and un-damaged and of course wondering if the client will love it. What a soup of emotions!

Off she goes to NY, NY!!

Finished! 'Infinite Hat' ©sara mordecai