Looking Back at 2016

My  goodness time sure flies and here we are just at the door of 2017. I have been busy painting but posting only when I feel something is ready. I really like my slow approach. I have been painting a lot behind the scenes but slowing down my posting, it makes sense for me because I want to focus more on the art. Bear with the length of the images, I have been having a difficult time with uploading photos and having my page get stuck many times. This is the easiest way to put together this post. I will do a post in the next few days of my favorite photos of 2016 as I am getting impatient with how long this is taking. It has been a fantastic year and I am looking forward to what 2017 will hold for me and my art endeavors.

Here are my favorite paintings of the year, first the pastels:

 

 

My intuitive painting

 

Now for the watercolors that I liked the best:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

My most favorite watercolor painting

 

another all time favorite!

*A word about photos. The photos on my blog are mine, taken by me and copying them would be stealing from me. If you find a photo that you would like to copy or use, I request that you ask me for permission and I expect you to give me full credit for my own photo. Thank you so very much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dawn of a New Day

^{Psalm 65:8} They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

 

My reference photo

I decided to not go as dark as the reference photo this time around, I might try it out again later but for now I wanted to focus on the light.

As I have taken time off to contemplate where and what and why of my painting, I have learned quite a few things about myself and of my approach to my particular style of painting. I don’t plan on making my posts as long as I have in the past, but rather a thought or two or something that really stands out within me. Who knows I might talk your ear off!

This particular painting has been a work in progress for several weeks and I struggled with getting it right. I have found that “getting it right” sometimes is merely allowing myself to be pulled along in the creative process. It is not making it like any other artists’ work or the work that I admire. It is ultimately about me, my style and what I want to say.

I truly believe that painting is not to be rushed, especially studio work. Even with the plein air work, I am hoping to slow down to capture what I see. I had a few scrapes trying to get this painting to say what I wanted and the more I pushed it, the more frustrated I got. Then today it was a matter of trusting the process and being carried along creatively. The scripture in Psalm 65 speaking of dawn and sunset came to mind. All things have its’ cycles and place in time and I think that includes being creative.

 

Snowy North Yuba River

 

View of the Sierra Buttes from Hwy 49

I wanted to get out to paint en plein air before the next coming storm. When people think of California they think of beaches and the lack of snow. Ha! well, I live in an area that snow is readily available if it isn’t snowing at my house, it is snowing somewhere close by. This location is about 35 miles from my house and the road leading up to the Sierra Buttes is routinely shut down for the winter and opened to snowmobilers and snow sports enthusiasts. It is a personal pet peeve of mine that people have this conception that California is always sunny and short sleeved weather even in winter. With that complaint off from my shoulders, let’s proceed to my painting.

 

My scene along the river

After this painting experience I am convinced that I don’t like trudging through deep snow with my heavy pastel equipment. Either I have to make it lighter and more compact, or find a scene to paint from the road. I didn’t even bother with setting up my easel and painted holding my board. Not the best decision for me especially when I have trouble with my hands.

 

My painting – soft pastel on PastelMat

I had completed my painting to about 75% and finished it up in the studio.

Along the North Yuba Trail

I decided to take a hike on one of my favorite trails and reflect on painting and my experience today. I felt very much dissatisfied that I came away with only one painting but I decided to shake it off because I was able to paint regardless of how many or the quality. I also came away with over 300 photos to work from. All in all, it was a good day in Northern California.

*A word about photos. The photos on my blog are mine, taken by me and copying them would be stealing from me. If you find a photo that you would like to copy or use, I request that you ask me for permission and I expect you to give me full credit for my own photo. Thank you so very much.

 

 

I’m Back!

 

Foggy November Morning

After taking an entire month off from blogging, I am ready to come back, slowly that is. I found that I enjoyed having some time away from the pressure of blogging. I think that I have a sensible plan on how to proceed in my coming months of blogging. First of all I am thinking that sometimes I push paintings  to a finish in order to post them. I will not be doing that, so you’ll see that I’ll post not as often. December will be an easy going month in regards to my getting back to blogging, in other words, I am treating the month as a semi retreat.

These are some of the paintings that I worked on this past month. Some of either close to finishing or needing more work. I really have learned that I am not going to push paintings to a finish as I have in the past. I can’t entirely blame this bad habit on blogging but my insistence that I have to have an end product…now!

 

I enjoyed working on these in the studio I had a few problems here and there but isn’t that pretty normal?

 

Semi-abstract of oak trees along the North Yuba Trail

 

Reflection at Little Bear Lake 

I have quite a bit of work yet to do with this one, a wip and that’s alright.

 

 

Trees on the Bear Lakes Trail

 

wip semi-abstract of mossy trees

 

wip of the North Yuba

 

wip of mossy trees on the Bear Lakes loop trail

The above painting is about 30% washed out, the colors are far more vivid than they appear in this photo

Now for some abstracts! Below:

 

Abstract #1

 

abstract #2

I had a bit of trouble trying to get this post put together, I was hoping to number the paintings but WP is acting a little odd and as I tried to number them, it was really messing up my layout. I will upload this before I lose it!