Santa Rosa Plateau Art Show, July 8th - August 11th

The Santa Rosa Plateau is hosting the 15th Annual Art Show fundraiser. I will be there with my art. The plateau is one of my favorite places to paint plein air. Proceeds from the opening night and art sales will benefit children's education programs at the reserve.

The exhibit is free and runs from July 8th to August 11th, 2012.

The opening night art show reception includes wine and hors d'oeuvres and a concert with the Brewer Boys, "The ArtBeat of Bluegrass". Tickets are $30 and are available online or at the SRPER Visitor Center.

Click the image to enlarge.

Painting on the Santa Rosa Plateau

It was a great day painting on the Santa Rosa Plateau.  Because the majority of us managed to get lost, we did start later than hoped, so the sun was already high and the form a bit flat. There was so much light that the values were all high key.  However, we were there and I told everyone to go for the color spots and paint what they saw. Our biggest problem was umbrellas blowing over in the wind. 

Tim and June on the Plateau with proper art gear!

My painting mid-point; light changed; time to stop.

A Strange Light

I let the dogs out this morning around 7:00 a.m.  The sun was breaking through a thick haze and created a strang light. The sky was a deep gray at the horizon, almost stormy looking.  The haze was so thick you could not see the sun, even when looking directly at it.  But, it was there, burning behind the haze and turning the gray a brilliant yellow.  John Carlson says on an overcast day, the moisture in the air holds the light and keeps it from reaching the ground.  So, on an overcast day the the sky is brighter than the earth.  And it was. I could only glance at the yellow gray light and look away. Too bright.  But right next to this, the gray haze turned to blue sky and a white cloud.  Next to each other, at the same time.  The sun was rising quickly and before I could sketch or take notes, it was gone.

That's it. In a nutshell. All wrapped up. Nothing else to say. The frustration of wanting to paint the light.  The color of the light.  It is transitory and ephemeral.  I want to capture it and before I can even begin, it's gone.  

I looked down and Teddy was staring right into the light.  His eyes squinted down to knife-cut slits.  He was still.  Was he looking at the unusual sky or the bird on the fence.  Usually, he would bark.

Plein Air and Miscellaneous

I'm gearing up for a return to plein air.  I'll be out tomorrow, Sunday.  Get in touch if you want to know where.  It's supposed to be in the 80's, after a cold, blustery few weeks.  I'm planning a major painting assault on the wine country, as soon as the vines bud out.  Paint-outs and plein air classes.  Let me know if you want on the list for updates.  I don't post where we're going until after we've been.

I'm painting today on a 20 x 24" landscape of the Sedona red rock.  I started it awhile ago and ran into design problems. Yes, think twice, paint once. Looking at it yesterday, I saw a way out of the impasse.  We'll see.  Dogs walked, check.  Breakfast yogurt down, check.  Palette clean and ready, check. Go.

PS, I want to go back to Sedona. I'm adding it to the paint-bucket list.

The Plateau was beautiful, warm and balmy with a gentle breeze.  The small amount of green in the grass from recent rains made the color palette so different from December.  It was Sunday, so there were horses, dogs and mountain bikes everywhere.  Wonderful.


Wednesday looks like rain, so we may do a studio day or push the paint-out to Thursday or Friday.  Watch this post for details.

Claude Monet at Work

This is footage of Claude Monet painting his water lily pond at Giverny.  He is working on a very large canvas, but notice the two white umbrellas that diffuse the light on his canvas and palette.  The brim of his hat also helps him see color.

Notice how often he looks at the scene.  Each time he looks at the scene he makes only one or two brushstrokes and then looks again.  Observe, observe, observe!

Peter Wileman

I've discovered a new landscape artist, Peter Wileman.  The links below are to the video promos for his two videos.  They are short but he says some true things.  (Things I say!)

Wileman's book is "Painting Light in Oil". He works the design process and pays attention to the abstract composition behind the painting. The bold shapes are reminiscent of Colley Whisson and the subject matter and light are reminiscent of David Curtis. Curtis focuses more on the envelope of light, or atmosphere. The abstract focus of Wileman's paintings give them a very contemporary feel while still being representational. The pictures below click up to a larger size.

Plateau Reconnaissance

June, Vicki and I were at the Santa Rosa Plateau by 7:30 a.m. with cameras and sketchbooks.  My goal was to check out various vantage points at that time of day.  The sun was well up and the light was beautiful with lots of color.  The plateau needs that color because, at this time of year, the grass has weathered to browns and grays. 

We checked out four locations.  Stop One was the two trailheads from the main entrance at the Visitors Center.  The trails were too "in the trees" to offer a vantage point.  We could see only tree trunks, not entire trees.  Along the path the vegetation was waist high and prevented a view from any direction.  It has shade and possibilities for an intimate, close-up landscape.  (Visitor Center, henceforth.)

Stop Two was at the south Sylvan Meadows parking lot.  A half a mile hike, uphill, revealed a vista of large hills, dotted with California oaks and long views of the distant mountain ranges.  Great for the iconic California landscape.  The light, however, was either looking into the sun or with your back to the sun.  The scene was flat. This might be a good location in the late afternoon.  (Sylvan South)

 

The view from the south Sylvan Meadows lot, looking across the street to the north Sylvan Meadow parking lot was more interesting.  The shadows were falling from left to right across the scene.  No distant hills, though.  It is a mid-distance view of oak trees. This is a short, level hike from the parking lot.  (Sylvan North)

Stop Three was from the Vernal Pools parking lot, on the Los Santos trail.  A short, level hike of about a quarter of a mile ended in a close range view of very rolling hills, studded with oak trees in the close to mid distance.  The drama of the sweep of the hills would make a dynamic painting.  (Vernal/Los Santos)

Stop Four was at the end of Tenaja where June, Tim and I painted earlier in the year.  This is a view of a meadow and rock-studded hills in the foreground, with oaks in the middle distance and a far view of the San Jacinto mountains.  (Tenaja Meadow)

By 9:00 a.m. the shadows were shortening and the color from the light was almost gone.  When we finished at 10:30, the light was flat.  If we want the morning light, we need to be set-up by 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. and finished by 9:30 a.m.  June and I are going to return to all of these locations to assess them in the late afternoon light.

So, for morning color spots we will need to start early on the first day of the Plateau workshop. We will schedule a late afternoon color spot session, too.  I will be taking photos in both the morning and late afternoon, for you to work from in the studio part of the workshop.

I am going to create a Flickr account for plein air photos from our locations, so you can access them all.  I believe I can set up a group that will allow all of us to download photos, so we can share them. 

When we went on hiatus in June, all of you had reached the point where the next step was to work the process of making a painting.  We have the difficulty of being without a classroom, but the potential to move to the next level with the plein air and studio work is huge.  In the coming months, we will return to our several locations (MIssion, Plateau, Fallbrook, Temecula wine country) in the different seasons and build a body of work that really comes out of what you know.

The attached photos may not show the best light, but you can get a feel for each location.