February 2010

I certainly have been remiss in posting to this weblog. I have had many painting trips all over California since my last post here. Many of you know I have a fan page on Facebook which you can find here. It is much easier to post pictures and text on Facebook, but I have to remind myself to not be too lazy and take the effort to post here.

The California landscape just begs to be painted after a winter storm as the skies are filled with lots of puffy cumulus clouds, have changed from gray to a brilliant blue, and of course the air is fresh! We have had a series of rainstorms the last few weeks, sometimes raining for days at a time. Another weather front went through last night, and it was clearing off today, so I drove up into the foothills behind my house and did a quick painting. I have painted this spot before overlooking San Jose, but after the recent rains, a small pond was more pronounced and the grass a most emerald green. The field in front of me had a herd of sheep, and the occasional bleeping and cowbells, or rather sheep-bells, just added to the atmosphere.

I set up right by the road and finished an 8×10 in a little over an hour. Below are a few shots from the trip.

And below is a quick snapshot of the painting.