exhibits

Los Gatos Art Festival 2013

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Last week I participated in the Los Gatos Art Festival as an ‘invited artist’. I always enjoy this show as it is close, don’t have to travel, and familiar with the area. But mainly, the sponsors always treat us artists well!

I won’t go into many details of each day, but just a few notes and pictures on the activities…

Tuesday
We stamped our canvases in the morning, and I took off for Stevens Creek Park, and did a painting of the stream, mainly for a ‘warmup’. There was a mandatory artists reception/meeting that evening, so I didn’t want to stray far. I forgot to take a picture of the painting in progress, but a few scenes below for the day. (Click on any photo to see a larger version).

First scene I painted at Stevens Creek. I forgot to take a picture of the painting on the easel!
We had an artists reception and meeting Tuesday night.

Wednesday
This was my big ‘travel day’. I literally painted from the mountains behind my house, to the ocean. In the morning I went up Quimby Road behind the house and did a morning view of the Santa Clara Valley and downtown San Jose. Early afternoon I was in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park painting the redwoods and late afternoon at Sharktooth Beach near Davenport painting the ocean.

Painting by Quimby Road. My home is at the bottom of this hill, and it is a very steep and windy road! That is Silicon Valley in the distance
Painting in Henry Cowell State Park.
North of Santa Cruz and just south of Davenport. There were a number of paintings of this cove in the show this year.

Thursday
An artists luncheon was scheduled in Los Gatos, so I stayed around the San Jose area, McKean Road to be exact, and did a painting of a red barn right by the road. Little did I know, but the day before, a group of artists in the show painted the same red barn. I think there were about 8 paintings of that barn on exhibit!

The luncheon was at a Los Gatos residence, catered by Togo’s Sandwiches. After eating, I headed for the bathroom, and found a painting I sold last year at this event hanging on the living room wall!

My afternoon painting was a quiet spot on Coyote Creek right by Metcalf and Monterey Roads.

The red barn when I first arrived early morning.
My easel out painting along McKean Road
From last year.
Coyote Creek at the corner of Metcalf Road and Monterey Highway.

Friday
I went out early on San Felipe Road close to my house and did a painting of a Eucalyptus. The afternoon was spent in touch-up and framing.

That evening was a gala at a mansion in Los Gatos. It was a wonderful setting, and quite a crowd. The pictures below are before the crowds showed up.

Friday night Gala
Friday night Gala
Friday night Gala

Saturday
I delivered and hung all my paintings for the show…

My paintings at the Saturday exhibit and silent auction.
Another shot of the exhibits at the Los Gatos Art Festival

Below are the paintings in the show (I didn’t show the first painting from Steven Creek, as I feel it still needs more work)…

Downtown 16×20 Oil
Pathway in the Redwoods 8×16 Oil
Sharktooth Beach 8×10 Oil
The Red Barn 12×24 Oil
Coyote Creek 10×8 Oil
Eucalyptus Study 11×14 Oil

It was a good show with many strong works, however sales were quite disappointing, at least for me. It’s always fun, though, to paint, meet old friends and other artists!

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2013 Carmel Art Festival

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I was honored for the eighth time to participate in the Carmel Art Festival. The show works like this: the artists have two days to paint at least two paintings to offer up for auction. You must have the back of your canvas (or whatever you are painting on) certified before the contest. They usually stamp it with a date, and put a little sticker on it. This is to ensure no one walks in with a painting they didn’t really paint on location during the time allotted.

Although Carmel is only about 90 minutes from my home, I always stay somewhere in the Carmel area to avoid spending 3 hours on the road each day, rather devoting all my focus to the work at hand. Early mornings and late afternoons are the best time to paint, which makes all the more reason to stay in town.

Wednesday
I drove down to Carmel around noon Wednesday, meandering a little bit in the area to look for new places to paint. After checking into my motel, I headed over to the reception area to get my canvases stamped, then out to a place on Scenic Drive overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Carmel River State Beach to start painting. A lot of the artists head to this area first as it is fairly close and there are only a few hours after the canvas stamping to paint until dark. For this reason, I had avoided it in past years, but decided to try it this year.

I spent several hours painting, waiting until almost sundown to finish the sky. In this instance, you can paint much of the scene in shadow as it will not change much. However, when the sunset lights up the sky, I quickly tried to catch the colors. I stayed until it was almost too dark to see. Below is the scene, and my painting on the easel. You can click on any picture to see a larger version.

Along Scenic Road
My easel painting along Scenic Road

The painting wasn’t quite finished, but some of the details could be done the next evening.

Thursday
In the morning, I drove up to Elkhorn Slough to do another painting. I had been painting this area the last couple shows, and enjoy the vistas. Parking along Elkhorn Road, with a great view of the slough, I opened the rear of SUV up and turned on the car radio to keep me company, as I frequently do. After painting several hours, the radio suddenly went off. Upon checking the ignition, the battery was almost dead and then I realized I had also left my headlights on! I raised the hood, as the universal sign of distress, but no one seemed to want to stop, so it was time to call AAA, the American Automobile Association. An AAA truck was not too far away, so he stopped by and gave me a jump start. It was time for a lunch break, so I drove into Moss Landing and had Sand Dabs at Phils Fish Market. (Actually half the reason I like to paint the slough is it is close to this great restaurant! The restaurant was just listed as the #1 world’s best beach restaurant by the BBC.)

I wanted to work on the painting another hour or two, so drove back to the spot and finished the painting.

Painting Elkhorn Slough

About mid afternoon, it was time to head back to Scenic Drive and finish the prior evenings piece. By now I had two good pieces for the show, so the pressure was lessened from now on.

Friday
Point Lobos State Preserve was my destination Friday, which is a favorite of about everyone in the show. I first stopped and painted Whaler’s Cove.

Whalers Cove, Point Lobos
Whalers Cove, Point Lobos

The afternoon I painted a quiet little spot in the preserve called Hidden Beach.

Hidden Beach

After framing the two pieces for the auction, I drove back into Carmel and dropped them off. Below are the four pieces I did, the first two were entered in the auction. The second two, I want to touch up a little bit before they were displayed anywhere. Click on any picture to see the entire painting.

Last Five Minutes of Glory
Elkhorn Vista
Whalers Cove
Hidden Beach

Saturday
After a leisurely morning, I headed over to the show. The show was quite strong. We had artists from all over the United States, plus Australia and the Netherlands. You can see all the paintings on their website here. Below are a few pictures of me and the show.

Yours truly at the Carmel Art Show
Wider view of the paintings pavilion.

Sunday
Sunday was somewhat of a repeat of Saturday. After a leisurely morning, I checked out of the motel, grabbed a deli sandwich and headed down the coast. I found a spot along Garrapata State Park for lunch and enjoyed the view…

Upon returning to the show, I met the lady who purchased my first painting, “The Last Five Minutes of Glory“. She was born and raised in Carmel (lucky lady!), had seen that scene countless times, and it reminded her of the Carmel of her youth. She purchased the piece as a wedding present for her daughter. It’s always nice to meet a collector who falls in love with your work! It’s a big moral booster!

Later that afternoon it was time to head home and start thinking about next month’s plein air festival in Los Gatos!

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2nd Annual Plein Air Convention

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The 2nd Annual Plein Air Convention was held in Monterey, CA this year. I missed the first convention last year in Las Vegas, but since Monterey is only 90 minutes from my home, certainly couldn’t miss this one!

I registered for the convention quite awhile ago, but then a month ago they added me to the ‘faculty’ to do an acrylic painting demonstration on the Expo Hall Demo Stage. Although I do most of my finished paintings in oil, I do take acrylics on travel trips, especially international excursions. Plein Air magazine had published an article about it last year, so I decided to just expand on the concept. At any rate, it was quite an honor to be in the same venue with some of the top plein air and traditional artists in the country.

Arriving Wednesday, the convention got off to a great start that afternoon, and didn’t slow down the entire time. It was non-stop lectures, demos, eating, meeting, vendors, and just fun. I won’t go into all the events and demos, as you can find them here, but every demo and lecture was top notch.

There seemed to be so many things going on, it was difficult to pick and choose which to attend. A few that stood out in my mind was James Gurney’s (Dinotopia author) totally entertaining lecture on opening night, where he gave about a semesters’s worth of art lessons in an hour. Also, demos by Gil Dellinger, CS Mundy, were a hoot. Brian Blood gave away his secrets on painting fog, and Ken Auster did a 52×52 inch painting in 90 minutes. The portraits painted by Michelle Dunaway and Jeremy Lipking were amazing.

My demo time slot on Saturday morning was only 45 minutes, but the prior special event went 15 minutes over, so I only had about 35 total minutes. I didn’t get far in the actual demo, but mainly answered lots of questions from the audience. I did finish the painting later in the Expo Hall, so those interested could watch and then see the finished product.

Here are a few pictures during the demo. You can click on any picture to see a larger version (Thanks, Sam for providing the photos!)–

Demoing at the convention
Demoing at the convention
Demoing at the convention
I finished the demo painting in the vendor hall.

Below is the finished painting–

Akaroa Lighthouse 12x16 Acrylic
Akaroa Lighthouse 12×16 Acrylic

That afternoon, the entire group went to Asilomar for lunch then painted in the area, mostly on Asilomar Beach. It was quite a ‘trippy’ experience to see hundreds of artists painting together on the same beach! If there were a Guiness World Record category for this, we certainly would hold the record!

A few shots of the crowd–

Hundreds of artists painting at the beach.
A Guinness World Record!

I was a little tired from standing, painting, and answering dozens of questions most of the morning, so took my chair, semi-relaxed, and did a small 8×10 oil of the beach. It was quite windy, which put a chill in the area, but everyone toughed it out like good plein air artists–

Asilomar Beach 8x10 Oil
Asilomar Beach 8×10 Oil

The next day, Sunday morning, many also met along the wharf in Monterey, where in places they stood shoulder to shoulder painting. Here are a few shots of the crowd. The first picture shows James Gurney, author of the Dinotopia books sitting and sketching–

Sitting in the middle is James Gurney, the author of the Dinotopia books.
Painting shoulder to shoulder along Monterey Wharf
Painting shoulder to shoulder along Monterey Wharf

I did another painting of the Monterey Wharf area. Here is me by the easel–

Yours truly out painting with the group
Yours truly out painting with the group

And the painting–

Monterey Wharf 12x24 Oil
Monterey Wharf 12×24 Oil

I soon had to head home. April 15 was the next day, and time to finish up the tax returns!

The producer of the show, Eric Rhoads (publisher, Plein Air Magazine) mentioned afterwards they are still looking for a venue next year. I’d recommend going for anyone interested in Plein Air painting. It was absolutely wonderful to meet and talk with some of my art ‘heros’, all of whom were very generous with their time and advice. Hope to see everyone there next year!

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Los Gatos Art Festival

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Once again, I participated in the Los Gatos Art Festival this year. It was five days of non-stop activity! Below is a summary of each day.

TUESDAY
Tuesday morning was time to stamp the back of the canvas to ensure all paintings were done during the festival. I arrived at about noon, got my canvas stamped, and then headed to Stevens Canyon Road to paint along Stevens Creek. It was also very shady, which was nice as the week was forecast to be very hot. I ended up doing one painting, using a little artistic license for the lighting as the canyon area was quite dark.

I then went several miles away to another part of the creek and started another painting of a pool with a family looking for tadpoles and fish..

I only got it about half done before having to leave for an artists reception and meeting back in Los Gatos. Below are a couple shots of the artists meeting–

There were plenty of hors d’oeuvres, wine and beer. The Rotary Club of Los Gatos, who put on the event, really treat the artists very well!!

WEDNESDAY
The forecast was to be clear all day, so I departed at 5:30am to try and catch the morning light in the New Almaden and Hicks Road area in the southern part of Los Gatos and San Jose. It was foggy! I proceeded up around Almaden Reservoir, and found a great spot at the end of the lake with a lot of vegetation and color. It was also looking towards the sun peeking through the fog. Around 9 the sky had mostly cleared.

You can see my easel set up right behind my car. Its kinda nice painting right by the car as I can listen to the radio, and not have to hike and carry my painting setup very far!

After painting for about three hours, I drove on up Hicks Rd to the Mt Umunhum Road, and up it. Lo and behold were several artists painting the view! Carole Gray-Weihman was teaching a student apprentice the ins-and-outs of plain air painting!

Below is a view of downtown San Jose from Mt. Umunhum road.

Late morning I proceeded into New Almaden, and found the Carson House, built in 1854. I liked the way the light was illuminating the large cactus and the plants along the fence. I pencil sketched in the painting, then went off to have lunch with my motorcycle riding buddy, Pete Kemling.

After lunch, it was back to Carson House to continue work on that painting.

The light was a little different, but I painted the way I saw it before noon.

Later in the afternoon, it was time to head back up Hicks Road to find a late afternoon scene. It wasn’t very far, when I decided to paint the same cove in Almaden Reservoir from a different direction–

I was able to paint right out the back of my SUV, which also kept me and the painting in the shade and out of the late afternoon sun–

The lighting just kept on getting more dramatic–

I got the piece only about half done before it was getting too dark, so headed home.

THURSDAY
Woke up early, but wasn’t planning to go out until the fog had cleared, and what do you know, a clear morning! It was around morning rush hour and I wanted to go back to the New Almaden area, so took the back roads, Hwy 101 down to Bailey, and up over a small ridge to McKean Road. It was foggy again in the area! As soon as I cleared the ridge, though, the fog was lifting and Mt Unumhum was lit up by the rising sun. A great view I had to paint. As soon as I pulled off the road, a local park ranger came by and said I could not park along the road and had to wait until 8a when the Calero Reservoir parking was open. So, I killed some time getting coffee, and came back to Calero and spent most of the morning doing the painting.

By the time I was done, the fog had completely disappeared…

Lunch was put on by the Rotary again, at a home in Los Gatos. Again, great food and drinks!

I went back in the afternoon, finished both the Carson House painting, and then the Almaden Reservoir painting…kind of a repeat of the afternoon before.

FRIDAY
I had 5 good paintings for the show, and was pretty tired, so spent Friday around the studio doing touch ups, framing, and other preps for the show.

That evening was a ticketed gala at the California Cafe. The entire restaurant was reserved for the event, and it was packed! Once again, great food. Just a couple pictures of the event–

SATURDAY
Today was the main show, which took place outside in the central Los Gatos Park. Below are a few pictures of the event, followed by my paintings in the show. It was a very hot day, reaching over 100, but that didn’t seem to stop the crowds from coming! Two of mine sold, Unumhum View, and Almaden Afternoon.

Me by my panel. By the time I got this picture taken, one painting was already gone, being sold at the “Buy it Now” price–

We had live music all day–

Below are the paintings I exhibited in the order I started them. You can click on each to get a slightly larger view of the piece.

Stevens Creek 16×12 Oil–

Almaden Morning 12×24 Oil–

Carson House 11×14 Oil–

Almaden Afternoon 16×20 Oil–

Umunhum View 12×24 Oil —

For artists wanting to enter plein air shows, I would highly recommend entering this one. The Rotary treats their artists the best of about any plein air competition I have participated in!

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Galerie Julianne and Big Sur

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Several weeks ago I received an email from a new opening gallery in Carmel, CA, wanting to show my work. I had been showing in Carmel up until a year or so ago, but that gallery became a victim of the poor economy. To make a long story short, I drove the 90 minutes to Carmel today and dropped off about a dozen paintings. The new gallery, Galerie Julianne, is still in the process of ramping up, but they are open & the gallery looks like a wonderful space in an ideal location. Carmel does not have street addresses, so, you can find them on Dolores Street between 6th and Ocean.

After finalizing everything with the gallery, I took off down the coast to paint and enjoy Big Sur. Below are a few shots from the day.

I stopped to do a painting at the below spot. I have been fighting a cold and congestion, so I tried to stay out of the brisk wind, but only lasted about 45 minutes painting, getting about half done…

I decided to just drive, hike, explore, snooze, and generally hang out until sunset. It was worth the wait.


There are a few more photos on flickr, which you can find here.

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Pixar: 25 Years of Animation

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As an artist, I have long loved animation films of all kinds, and of course, Pixar rates among the top. Ever since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I have realized the artists who make these films are some of the best in the world.

The Oakland Museum is hosting a retrospective showcasing the creative work behind Pixar’s wildly successful computer-animated films. The Pixar exhibit’s return home to Oakland came after a worldwide tour that began at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005 and then went around the world to museums in Europe, South America, and Japan.

My son and I went today. The exhibit was more than 600 works by artists, displaying a plethora of drawings, paintings, and sculptures that highlight the Emeryville-based company’s wildly successful computer-animated films. You can see how variations of many of the characters developed during the creative process. I was surprised that three fourths of the entire time in producing one of their movies is in character development, script and story. That means only one fourth of the time is actually spent in generating the computerized characters!

Also interesting was the history of the company on how it started at Lucas Films, and was brought out and bought by Steve Jobs, the Apple CEO.

The only thing I wish it would have had was more about how the actual computer animation is done. As a retired computer guy, that would have been especially interesting to me.

Here is a short video about the exhibit–

No pictures were allowed inside the Pixar exhibit, but I did take a few shots of the art collection, which contained a few of my favorite artists of early California. The first is a Thomas Hill and the second an Albert Bierstadt–

And of course any art exhibit would not be complete without the “Art of the Motorcycle”. Arlen Ness, the godfather of choppers built this bike on exhibit:

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Painting in the Gallery

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James Harold Gallery in Tahoe City, CA, invited me to paint in their gallery this weekend and to show new paintings. They have been carrying my work for many years and I usually do some kind of summer show. I decided to go up to Lake Tahoe on the prior Thursday, drop of some paintings, then paint in the area on Friday. My wife wanted to go and when I checked motels, found out Reno (about an hour away) was at least half the cost of staying at Lake Tahoe. My wife’s brother was planning on going to Reno that weekend, so we all booked rooms at the El Dorado. Roger, a family friend decided to join us.

After dropping several new paintings at the gallery, we all met in Reno. That evening we had a great birthday dinner for my sister-in-law at Roxy’s right in the hotel.

Friday, I drove to Virginia City which is only about a 45 minute drive from our hotel. I had painted here last year, but didn’t finish it. Virginia City is the site of the famous Comstock Lode, at one time, one of the richest mines in the world. For a time, it was also the home to Mark Twain who worked for the local newspaper. If you are ever in the area, it is a wonderful place to visit as the historic old buildings have been restored.

I don’t paint architecture much, but needed to practice. After driving around town for awhile, I found some old un-restored buildings downhill from the main drag. Below is my easel and the scene–

virginia city

It was so dry and hot, the oil paints, which usually stay wet for days, were drying right on my palette! The painting didn’t turn out great, but I am learning.

Saturday, I painted in the gallery all afternoon. Rather than paint something from scratch, I brought a larger studio painting I was almost done with and finished it. The painting actually started out as an acrylic painting from years ago and was only half complete. After sanding it down and re-prepping it, I recently painted completely over the acrylic in oils, and then finished the rest in the gallery.

The scene is from a hike I did years ago down Four Mile Trail in Yosemite Park. The trail starts at Glacier Point and steeply winds down into Yosemite Valley. The views all the way down are spectacular, and is a ‘must do’ if you ever get the chance.

yosemite painting

yosemite painting

Here’s a picture of Your’s Truly with some of my work on display.

donald neff gallery

That evening, we enjoyed the “Le Grand Cirque” show at the El Dorado.

Sunday, I headed back to the gallery, and painted an 11×14 from scratch. Since fall was coming, I did a fall color scene from the Eastern Sierras, around the Virginia Lake area. My iPad came in handy as I could flip through hundreds of photo studies until I found one both me and the gallery owners liked.

painting in the gallery

fall aspense

After the demo, it was a long drive home, arriving late Sunday night.

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American Art Collector Ad

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I don’t do much advertising in art magazines, but decided to put one in the American Art Collector magazine in conjunction with the Nomadas del Arte show I will be showing in Dallas beginning early April —

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James Harold Gallery Show

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Just returned from 4 days at Lake Tahoe. James Harold Gallery kicked off a solo show which will last most of the summer. The theme for this show is gallery wrap paintings. Gallery wrap means the canvas wraps around the support frame and has a 1 inch side. This side is painted so a frame is not required. I did a number of miniatures, diptychs, and one large painting for the show.

I won’t go into a blow by blow of my trip, but will include just a few snapshots below. The best news is as I arrived Sunday, a collector was already purchasing one of my paintings!

Sunday afternoon was a reception, and I painted in the gallery. Below is me with some of the new paintings. This was actually taken today just before I left and I had on my painting garb–

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It was sunny and warm the entire time. Monday, I hung around the east shore doing a little painting, but mostly just taking snapshots for future painting studies. Although a bit windy, Lake Tahoe colors were in their splendor–

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Tuesday, I drove to Virginia City for possibly a change of scenery to paint. Virginia City is the site of the famous Comstock Lode, at one time, one of the richest mines in the world. For a time, it was also the home to Mark Twain who worked for the local newspaper. If you are ever in the area, it is a wonderful place to visit as the historic old buildings have been restored–

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Here is the scene I decided to paint looking down on part of Virginia City–

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The sun was so bright, I had to huddle in the shade behind my car rear door in order to judge colors correctly–

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After an easy morning & one last visit to the gallery, I headed home this afternoon.

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Los Gatos Plein Air Event, Part II

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Today was the main event for the Los Gatos Plein Air Event. I submitted three paintings the evening before to be auctioned off today. Below are quick snapshots of the three works I completed in the last couple days–

redwoods
“Just a Trickle” * 16×12 * Oil

Los Gatos Creek
“Los Gatos Creek” * 12×16 * Oil

Los Gatos California
“Hicks and Shannon” * 8×16 * Oil

After arriving at the event, I realized I had left my camera battery in the charger at home, so had to take pictures with my cellphone. Below are a few shots—

My three paintings hanging in the show–

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Timothy Lundell, the emcee for the event handing out awardds–

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All three paintings sold at silent auction.

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