Month: October 2021

Above Squaw

October 29, 2021 / By

From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“Above Squaw”, 24×30, oil on canvas

The breathtaking panorama is spectacular with views of Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe, and the high Sierra. The 10 minute gondola ride climbs 2,000 vertical feet out of Olympic Valley (e.g. Squaw Valley) and soars above a mountainscape of granite rock, waterfalls, and sheer cliffs. At the top of the Squaw Valley Aerial Tram [now called the Palisades Aerial Tram] is High Camp at 8200 ft and a mecca for sports enthusiasts. In the winter it is a ski resort with restaurants, shops, skating rinks, and other activities.

Showing in a gallery at Lake Tahoe, I rode the gondola many times during all seasons. From the “uus stuudiovangla”, this painting is one of the ridges the gondola glides by on the way up the mountain.

Leaving Milford

October 25, 2021 / By

From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“Leaving Milford Sound”, 24×12, oil on canvas

Breathtaking, the fiord’s cliffs rise vertically from the dark waters, mountain peaks scrape the sky and waterfalls cascade downwards from as high as 3000 feet as clouds swirl and dance playing peek-a-boo with the magnificent peaks. The remarkable glacial carved natural environment features spectacular tumbling waterfalls, glistening stunning fiords, ice-carved valleys with rivers, ancient rainforests, shimmering lakes, soaring walls of granite, and snow-capped peaks. 

Milford Sound, a fiord in Southwest New Zealand, has been called by some the eighth wonder of the World. I visited Milford Sound on a cruise ship in February 2013. For those who have visited Yosemite Valley, it was akin to sailing a cruise ship right into the valley. 

One of my favorite spots on a cruise ship is on the promenade deck right at the stern above the wake of the ship. Here you can hear the churning of the propellers in the water as it splashes and bubbles producing wonderful colors of aqua, greens, grays, and blues. I tried to capture a bit of this in the painting in Milford Sound.

For something totally different from the “nowe wi?zienie studyjne”, is another ‘vertical water’ painting. You can read more about it, including development of this painting here–
http://www.donaldneff.com/blog/leaving-milford-sound/

Open Studio Walkthrough

October 18, 2021 / By

The first weekend of my first Open Studio Event went quite well…until the very end. More about that later. Below is a short video walkthrough of my setup.

I put up a canopy to house my welcome table, displays, and other items. Many paintings were hung on the fence. As you walk past the canopy towards the back yard, is my studio with, of course many more paintings, etc.

Visitors came sporadically, most of them from Marina. Much of the Monterey County Studio tour centers in the towns of Monterey and Carmel. Being about ten miles north, I am a little off the beaten path.

It was occasionally a little windy, so I made sure all the hanging paintings were held down by stretching a rope across the front and used rocks to hold down brochures, etc.

A couple hours before closing time on Sunday, the wind started gusting. I was expecting some wind, as we usually get in Marina, but the canopy almost turned into a kite! Some of the tiedowns broke, and I was holding onto the flimsy structure to keep it from blowing away, with no one to help! I couldn’t run into the house to get my wife as it would have been blown into the next neighborhood by the time I came back out. I was thinking of trying to call her on the phone to come help, but just at that time, four friends walked through the gate, and we quickly got the canopy folded down. Thanks to Don, Angie, and friends!

The weekend far exceeded my expectations, selling a number of works, and a new commission, plus one spoken for on the easel to be completed. I will also be open next weekend, but it looks like rain, so am contemplating a different setup.

If you are in the area, be sure to stop by next weekend, Oct 23 & 24, 11am-5pm.

…Almost Go…

October 15, 2021 / By

The Open Studio event starting tomorrow will be primarily a covid friendly event outdoors. Come sit by the waterfall, watch the goldfish in the pond, see some great artwork, and how it is created.

BTW, the sign above the door is “Avon near the bay”. I named the new studio after my mother as she was always encouraging and thrilled at my drawings since I was an adolescent.

Ready! Set!! ….

October 11, 2021 / By

Getting ready for my open studio Oct 16,17,23,24, here is a dry run of some of my paintings. I will have most of my ‘Vertical Water” series on sale, and this is the first picture of all of them together…at least the ones I haven’t sold. Dozens more paintings on sale, some on deep discount, so stop by if you are in the Marina area!

My entry in the Monterey County Artists Studio Tour Catalog

The Tuolumne

October 5, 2021 / By

From April 2020, for a year, I posted on Facebook a painting each day as a brief diversion from the lockdowns and other bad news this year. Neglecting my weblog, I’ll post in the coming days some of my better posts. Some of these paintings are still available.

“The Tuolumne”, 24×12, oil on canvas 

A rolling, open meadow set in Yosemite’s high country, Tuolumne Meadows embodies the high-country of the Sierra Nevada. The largest subalpine meadow in the Sierra Nevada, it is surrounded by soaring granite domes set off by stands of Western White pine, Mountain hemlock, and Lodgepole pine.  

The Lyell Fork, and Dana Fork flow out of the surrounding peaks and merge in the colorful meadows forming the Tuolumne River. After the confluence of the forks in Tuolumne Meadows, the river meanders calmly for the first few miles, then quickly changes as the river leaves the meadows and drops over Tuolumne Falls and White Cascades. 

Visiting and camping in and near the wonderful meadow many times, it is one of my favorite places in the high Sierra. From the “nowe wi?zienie studyjne” is a painting in the fall of the mighty river during the low water season, another one of the ‘Vertical Water” series I add to from time to time.

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