Sal Pizarro, wrote a short blurb in his column in todays Mercury News.
In the bustle of Silicon Valley, it’s easy to succumb to the notion that the beauty of the Santa Clara Valley has been displaced by industrial parks, strip malls and the always-dreaded sprawl. ….
You can read the rest here.
I was invited to a press preview of the upcoming Breath of Plein Air show starting this weekend in San Jose Historic Park. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality and variety of the plein air work in the show. It is amazing the interpretation of subject matter and colors you can find just around this urban area.
A number of artists in the show came, and Sal Pizarro, a columnist in the local San Jose Mercury News was also there. I mainly talked shop with the other artists & enjoyed the wonderful snack buffet.
A public reception is on schedule for this Sunday. Hopefully you will come out and see the show! Below are a few shots of the preview.
The show is in an old historic home in the park…
Several of the artists, left to right, Andy Ballantine, Rebecca Osgood, and Jill Arnone (PR person for the exhibit).
From left to right, Sarah Puckitt (curator), Sal Pizarro (columnist), and myself in front of one of my paintings.
A Breath of Plein Air Press Preview Read More »
Just received word, I am juried into this plein air show sponsored by the History San Jose association. The paintings must be plein air works of San Jose, Santa Clara, or Silicon Valley and runs from May 4 – September 21, 2008.
I don’t do too many paintings of the immediate area, so several weeks ago, I did a painting from Quimby Road in anticipation of entering this show. Up to three paintings can be submitted, so I found a few of my favorites over the last year or so I did with the Los Gatos Plein Air group. All three paintings made it into the show, shown below.
Along Quimby Road * 12×16
New Almaden * 8×10
Eastridge * 10×8
“A Breath of Plein Air” Read More »
I visited Cantor Arts Center on the Stanford University campus today. They had a special exhibit called “Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape”. Quite a mouthful, but the emphasis was how artists in the 1800’s were instrumental in opening up the American west to tourism.
I met my good friend, Scott Loftesness for lunch at the museum cafe. Before retiring from the computer software industry, I worked both for and with Scott in various capacities. Towards the end, he was on the board of directors of a company I started and eventually sold. He now runs a successful consulting company concentrating on the electronic payments industry, and also an avid photographer.
After lunch, we hurried to catch a docent tour of the exhibit. Most of the works were preliminary field sketches by the three artists. Although maybe not as dramatic as finished paintings, it was interesting to see the development and methodology they used. Most were oils on paper, and to my eye could possibly represent finished paintings!
As the docent explained how the artists did their sketches and later translated them into larger paintings, I felt like I was on familiar territory. Much of the terminology and methodology hasn’t really changed much in 150 years, at least for us traditional painters.
Although we have much better and more stable materials than they had back then, the motives and goals remain the same. Artists still want to grab the viewers eyes, pull them in, and move them around the painting in a predetermined but pleasing manner. We still want to capture a sense of place and time.
In the final of three galleries, was a wall size painting of Church’s famous painting of Niagara Falls, shown above. Unfortunately, it was not the original, but an enlarged print probably 15 feet tall and 30 feet wide! It was still quite impressive as it certainly made you feel like you were standing on the precipice of Niagara! The only thing missing was the roar!
Homer, Church, and Moran Read More »
I received an email last night from my gallery in Carmel, Sandy-by-the-Sea, that I had been accepted into the Carmel Art Festival. again this year. I have not received official word yet, but their website had me listed for the show. This will be my third year in the event.
Below is a painting from last year’s show–
Carmel Art Festival Read More »
I received a pleasant surprise in the mail today. I have been honored to participate in the 2008 Nomadas del Arte plein air show this coming year. This recently inaugurated plein air show is somewhat unique as the artists have the entire year of 2008 to come up with two plein air paintings. From their web site:
It is the goal of NÏŒmadas del Arte to bring together two hundred of the best nomad artists working en plein air today to exhibit in one show. Nomadas Del Arte is unique in that artists may complete their paintings at any time during the paint out year in six southwestern states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas or Utah. Four hundred paintings created for NÏŒmadas del Arte will be exhibited for sale in the spring of the next year at a different gallery each year.
The exhibit for the show will be at the Southwest Gallery in Dallas, Texas in April of 2009. Nothing like planning ahead!
The year long ‘paint-out’ really takes the pressure off of doing a good painting in a short period of time which is what most plein air shows require, however, I sometimes work best under pressure! Of course, since I live in California, I will have to travel to complete the paintings. I have immediate family in both Colorado and Texas, plus Nevada is not too far away, so I don’t think that will be much of a chore! I think the trick here will be avoiding procrastinating and waiting until the last minute to do the paintings!
I always like to put some kind of image in each of my blog posts, so below is a painting from the last plein air event I was in, The Seasons of Martis, which won the “Peoples Choice Award”.
This might be a long story, and somewhat personal, but here goes….
I just returned from a week long trip visiting my parents in Big Sandy, Texas. I previously had lived there 15 years from the time I was thirteen years of age, and left in 1978. Big Sandy has been of note lately primarily because Lovie Smith, head coach of the Chicago Bears grew up there…and no, to all you Bears fans, I didn’t know him as we went to different schools and were not quite contemporary.
My father, a minister, college professor, executive director of an international charity organization, among many other things, also lived there off and on over the years. When he retired, or at least semi-retired from the ministry, my parents eventually returned and settled there close to where my sister lives. For them, it is a relatively inexpensive place to live and many friends are still in the area.
We visited them last August to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary. I decided to go back solo this time just to spend some time with them and chew up some frequent flyer miles.
Several months ago, the church my father attends, and occasionally speaks, approached me about donating a painting to hang in the church building which was currently under construction. All the church officials and many of the congregation are long time friends of mine.
I don’t readily advertise it, but I am regularly asked to donate paintings for charity and non-profit fund raising, and I generally oblige to those I am acquainted. Usually it is a small painting they can auction off to raise money for some good cause. In the case of this donation, after some exchanging of emails, they wanted a large painting in the entry way. It wasn’t too hard for me to agree and I sent them photos of 3 or 4 paintings which I thought might work. Out of the lot, they readily chose my first recommendation, which turned out to be a 40×30 canvas of Cascade Canyon in Teton National Park.
This little story finally gets to the point of this post. The church sponsored an informal reception in my honor in the new church building to unveil the painting. The event was last Tuesday, and to my surprise probably 50 people attended, many of them long time friends, and some I had not seen in years. Among the attendees was Wiley Black, my high school English teacher, but also an artist. He encouraged my artistic endeavors at a young age and I attribute much of my early interest in art to him. Below are some pictures of the reception.
I gave a little talk before the unveiling.
My parents did the actual unveiling of the painting.
My parents and me.
Wiley Black, my high school English teacher and art mentor.
I could not have imagined a better home for “Cascade Canyon” and hope the congregation enjoys it for years to come.
Big Sandy, Texas, Long Time Friends and a Painting Read More »
The Plein Air Painters of America is one of the preimminent plein air art associations in the U.S. They were holding their annual show in Stockton this year. Although they have events occurring all weekend, I wanted to go today while they were having a paint-out in a local winery. Some of the top plein air painters and landscape artists would be there.
Below are some photos of the event.
Plein Air Painters of America Read More »
Today we had to turn in our paintings by 1:30, and then the reception/sale was being held at NorthStar Village between 4-7 pm. I originally was undecided on whether to go out and do another quick painting in the morning, as I had enough time to do one, or just touch up what I had. Well, when I awoke, my bad back made the decision, and I decided to stay close to the room, and touch up the 4 paintings I had done, frame them, and not rush the morning.
I delivered my works around 12:30, and the show looked great. From what I saw, there were some excellent paintings in the exhibit.
I had a few hours to kill so drove around Lake Tahoe for awhile to gather some photo studies. I do quite a few paintings of Lake Tahoe, and am always trying to come up with new ideas. After cleaning up for the reception back at the motel room, it was back to NorthStar.
The Seasons of Martis exhibition was in a special tent at NorthStar. I have included a few pictures below.
Frankly, I didn’t expect a big turnout as it was a late Sunday afternoon when all the weekenders had gone, plus it was the off season for the area and not too many people around to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few people attending. I met some old artist friends, plus a number of artists I hadn’t met, but had been communicating with as we show in the same gallery, plus others. It is always great to run into fellow artists, and I think events like this help us constructively compare and keep our craft up. After I put my paintings up, and observed others, I immediately fought the urge to pick up my brush and change just something….maybe talk about this for a later blog.
I don’t have inside information, but it seems sales were a little slow in starting, but in the end they picked up, and I think the show did fairly well with brisk sales. I think slowing art sales may be a little indicative of the slowing economy. Ed Terpening who just participated at the San Lus Obispo show reported pretty much the same. I usually sell out at plein air events, but nothing this time. The one and only juried award, best of show, went to Paul Kratter, probably one of the more well known artists exhibiting.
We artists had to stay around until 7:00 to pick up the paintings if they hadn’t sold. About a quarter to seven, one of the artists told me about a closer place I could park my car to load paintings. Well…might as well kill time and move my car closer to make loading easier. So off I went, to move my car. By the time I got back to the exhibit area, many artists were picking up their paintings. What??? There was a ribbon on one of my paintings! They had just counted the tally and I received the “People’s Choice” award. What a surprise!! Below is a bad shot of the painting–
Seasons of Martis Final Day Read More »
Today was a continuation of the Seasons of Martis plein air show. As the weather man predicted, the snow moved out and I awoke to a clear sky. After yesterday, however, I knew I would have to pace myself in order not to strain my bad back. I spent part of the morning touching up the paintings I had done so far.
The good weather was beckoning, though, so I took off for the Truckee River. This time, however, I went to the canyon where the Truckee flows out of Martis Valley towards Reno. I ended up by a bridge near the town of Hirschdale. It was a beautiful day, and place to paint. The aspen were just on fire in a grove over the river. I decided to make this painting more impressionistic, and allowed an hour to finish it.
Seasons of Martis Day 3 Read More »
