Back from Pismo Workshop.... June 21, 22 & 23 2013

Shell Beach Icon Study, oil on linen, 8"x12"

Well I'm back from my Pismo/Shell Beach Workshop in the beautiful Central Coast. This was a very small and intimate group of painters but dedicated and hard working just the same. They produced some very good work. I'll will try and see if can talk them in to posting some of their paintings in my next blog. Here are five paintings I did while I was teaching and helping out my students.

If you've ever been in this area in the summer, you know the weather sometimes can be a little foggy/overcast. I sorta expected a day or maybe two days of iffy weather. It can also be fairly cool during the month of June. Even the wind on the central coast can sometime be a bit strong for painting outdoors. Much to my wonder and delight we had 70 degrees bright and sunny weather both Friday and Saturday!  I was so appreciative of our good luck. And Although Sunday morning started out a little overcast as luck would have it cleared up by 11a.m and we were happy painters once again. I hope you enjoy the work.

Sorry, some you folks missed a great time.

 Dinosaur Cave Park, oil on linen, 9"x12"

View from Shell Beach Cliffs, oil on linen, 14"x11"

Shell Beach Icons, oil on linen, 16"x 20"

 Painting from Avila Pier, oil on linen, 11"x14"

Figure Drawing, Pastel Painting and Pleinair work.

I attended a figure drawing class last night in San Pedro a wonderful little city just across the bridge from Long Beach. This class is composed of three hours of short and long poses. The model was really a joy to draw. She was imaginative and creative with each pose, especially the longer poses. Below is a pastel drawing I thought was worth posting. This drawing was one of the longer poses...a 20 minute pose. The size of this piece is 16" x12". Really liked this models attitude and of course the unusual props.

I also finished a pastel piece (9"x12") that I have been toying with for sometime. There were elements in this design I wasn't happy with so I decided to display this little fellow on my mantel in my living room. I do that sort of thing every now and again when I 'm not satisfied with a painting. I like to put the painting out somewhere in my line of sight so that I can revisit it. Of course this action also reminds me that I'm not done with the piece yet. Every once and a while I would stop by the fireplace and visit this landscape and ponder the possibilities of change. Then one day it hit me. What this piece needed was some scale. This painting needed something that would give a relationship and presence to the size of the trees and landscape.  So I put the figures in and added the fire and smoke as a secondary center of interest and compositional balance. OK. Now it works for me.

And finally I finish an oil painting I did while teaching my Friday landscape class. I say finish but quite honestly I may still go back with some last minute changes. My class and I have been painting in and around the Palisades Park in Santa Monica for a couple of weeks now. There is so much to paint here. We have the ocean and mountains, structures and trees not to mention all the people and dogs there are to paint. If there's a drawback I would say the price of parking but everything seems to have a price? I mean we are painting in Southern California? You can't have everything.

The image I'm posting today was painted very close to the large green pavilion in the park on Ocean and Idaho.

I teach a plein-air painting class every Friday for Kline Academy here in the Los Angles area. You can always check us out at http://www.klineacademy.com/ 

Let me know your thoughts, comments or questions. Cheers!