February 2007 – Just Stop and Paint It!

Demo at the Los Gatos Art Association Monthly Meeting

February 28, 2007 February 28, 2007 / By Donald Neff

I have just been invited to do a demonstration painting at the Los Gatos Art Association monthly meeting on March 10, 2007. The scheduled guest artist had a medical emergency, so they asked me to fill in. Prospective members and guests are welcome to this meeting which takes place from 1:00-3:00 pm. For more information click here.

I will probably demonstrate my ‘wet-into-wet’ oil painting technique I use while painting ‘en plein air’, and most of my studio work. Below is a sample seascape painted entirely on location using the technique.

San Juan Bautista Revisited

February 12, 2007 February 15, 2007 / By Donald Neff

I am writing this several days after the fact…something I will explain later.

The Los Gatos Plein Air was painting at Mission San Juan Bautista again, as it is becoming a favorite spot for many. Coming down from San Jose, the sky varied from clear, to cloudy, to heavy fog, so wasn’t sure what to expect. I arrived a little before 9:00am, and the entire town was enveloped in heavy fog. It was burning off quickly though, so we scouted around and started to paint.

I decided on an unusual angle lookup up from El Camino Real at the old mission. Below is the painting. I added a little pathway leading up from the foreground just to add some interest to the work. I also omitted a picket fence which ran right in front of the mission. I am not sure if I should put it in or not. It would add interest, but detract from the mission behind it. Anybody have an opinion about that?

Below are a few more picts of the group painting.

After finishing the first painting, I had about an hour before lunch, so did a little study of the clouds. The skies had broken into a beautiful cloudy day. I did the below painting in a little over 30 minutes. I like the quick roughness of it.

Around lunchtime the group retired to a local mexican restaurant. We had a great time talking about art and a lot of other subjects. On the way home, the lunch was feeling a little heavy on my stomach, but I didn’t think much about it. Around 6:00 that night, I started feeling ill, and had a few ‘dry heaves’. Now it is 3 days later, and I am finally feeling normal. Although my wife thinks it may have been the flu, I don’t think I will patronize that restaurant again!

Art School Confidential

February 11, 2007 February 11, 2007 / By Donald Neff

I had always wanted to see last year’s movie, Art School Confidential, so finally rented it this weekend. It was critically acclaimed (although somewhat mixed reception at the box office), so was looking forward to sitting down to a good flick. The movie is about a young, very talented artist who enters a prestigious art school only to have his hopes dashed with the manic antics of the students and professors.

I never attended art school, and I thought it was a funny tongue in cheek, offbeat parody until I viewed the “making of” extra where the screen writer said it fairly well portrayed his experience in four years of art school in the late seventies.

I would recommend the movie to artists, especially younger artists. Be forwarned, though that it is very crude, raunchy, and explicit in some portions, and very much deserves the R rating.

Another Day With LGAA at Santa Teresa Park

February 5, 2007 February 5, 2007 / By Donald Neff

Last January 15, I painted in Santa Teresa County Park with the Los Gatos Plein Air group. Since returning from Yosemite, I had not been out painting, and the LGAA was going to visit this park again, so I decided to join them.

It was a wonderful day, a little warmer, but not quite as clear as the last trip to Santa Teresa County Park. Since we were on a hill with valley’s on both sides, I decided to paint the Santa Teresa Valley side of the mountain which was the opposite side I painted last time. I did one 8×10 of the Santa Teresa neighborhood of San Jose, then a little 5×5 looking out the same way, but a little more southerly. Below are some photos of the day.