Corona Road in Petaluma

Well I'm having a blast with the small canvases! This was a shot I took towards the end of the day on my commute home. I pass by this serpentine road everyday on my way to and from work and I've always wanted to stop and take some pictures. Well I finally did and I think I'll be going back there again because the place is full of some great views. I'll have to thank Terry Miura for the inspiration on this one. His small road paintings really captured my interest. I think I'm finally getting a handle on values and painting intentionally. I limited my palette and that has made all the difference. Two palettes diverged in a wood and I choose the one with less color and that has made all the difference.

Morning light -Petaluma Farm

 

This one is 5x7... small. I had a blast working on this one. Funny how working smaller really loosens up my brush work and creativity. I have a bunch of linen boards coming in that are 5x7 and 8x10 and I can't wait to start painting more scenes.

Lillies from the Big Island

This is a new small canvas of a lily pond in Hawaii. It was on the other side of a black sand beach and really caught my eye. I plan to do a couple more paintings from that photo.

Figure Sketch

A quick painting sketch I did this weekend. I limited my palette to:

• White
• Cadium red medium
• Yellow ocre
• black
• Ultramarine

It was a good excercise and I think I'll start using a more limited palette for awhile so I can get a handle on mixing colors, etc. Fun stuff.

Bolinas Surfers

 

Here's a painting that I've been working on for 3 weeks now. The two surfers in the painting are me :-) only dude willing to pose! Shot the reference poses in the back yard on an overcast day and then used more reference shots for the boards an atmospheric conditions. I wanted to capture the raw beauty of surfing our coast and the particular beauty of Surfing Bolinas in the winter. I'm challenged by the fog effects along with the capturing the water just right. Also the flesh tones are still giving me trouble. Thought I'd take a break and get a photo of it. Funny how the photo helps you see perspective and proportion errors... very similar to looking at your work in the mirror or upside down.  Back to the easel.......

Hurley!

Here's quick sketch of my sons dog Hurley. I finally broke down and purchase some drawing supplies a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe it's been close to 19 years since I purchased any charcoal, paper, or pencils. Wow.

In the works...

New painting in the works. A view from the parking lot at work.