Still Life In the Cape Cod Style

Elaine, a landscape student of mine actually inspire this painting last week. She is working very hard in my Friday landscape class trying to achieve a different painting style. She really loves color and is determined to get more color in her landscapes. She has been reading "Painting The Impressionist Landscape" by Lois Griffel which is all about using color to express light. The book promotes the principles and techniques that were developed by American impressionist Charles Hawthorne, founder of the Cape Cod School of Art. She gave me the book to read so that I could help her achieve her new goal. And I did read it here and there but decided if I was going to help her understand these principles maybe I should give it a try. So I created this 12" x 16" oil painting on a linen panel. Sad to report these peonies literally died in the sun for this painting. (Thanks Maylei). This style of painting was not as easy as it looks. It takes a lot of mental planning, underpainting and really being observant about cool and warm light... and yes still working with values. It was a challenge. I'll have to read more and try to do more.

Malibu Creek Reflections

This is the finish of a 12"x 16" oil painting I did as a demonstration for my Friday Landscape Class at Malibu Creek. The week before last we started with a sky that had some fairly big clouds which are my favorite. So alot of what I did in the painting that week I pretty much left it alone. The second week I mostly worked on the lower part of the painting cause the wind was blowing fairly hard. That of course meant that the reflections were extremely subtle. You had to be patience and wait for the calm in order to observe the reflections and then paint them in. Although I really like this composition I was really drawn to this location because of the reflections.

Evening in San Pedro, Memorial Day 2011

It's been a while since I just went out and painted for me. Most of my landscape classes I teach almost always involve trees and building which I enjoy but this subject matter is a little more challenging. So on Memorial Day I thought why not travel over to San Pedro to see what things I could find to paint. I started this painting around 5pm and the light was good. As time went on the light and the color really got exciting. My goal in painting is to have a focus and to try to balance the other areas that are not my focus as peripheral vision. I try to remember to let the viewer participate and not try to explain everything. This painting is a 11"x 14".