So excited to be awarded an Honorable Mention “Back Bay Blues” in the top 60 Artists show and sale at the Muth Center- Back Bay. Hosted by Southern California Plein Air Painters Association! Come on out to Muth Center to see a fabulous show July 17 - 25!

Painted this from a photo reference from Greg LaRock, nocturne workshop. This was an optional homework item from his nocturne workshop that I had taken. I wasn’t thrilled with painting this but I forced myself, something magical happened during the process and the painting just sucked me in! It was an amazing journey, I am so glad I was along for the ride!

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day”

Vincent Van Gogh

I spent the first couple of decades of my life in the Midwest. We lived in the country on the outskirts of a fairly large city. We played in the corn fields, built forts picked blackberries from wild bushes growing everywhere. I thought I was totally bored.

Fast forward to 2018, I love living in southern California but the congestion, traffic, summer crowds and fast paced life has me longing for the simpler life of my youth. I no longer believe it was boring, it was in fact somewhat idyllic. This barn painting  has the patina of a dream, my dream of home. I hope you enjoy it!

When I am out Plein Air painting deciding what to paint can sometimes be elusive, and and uninspiring. At other times I know immediately what to paint. But most often I will come across a view or scene of something so totally captivating and stirring I know it will be a painting. This usually occurs when I don’t have my painting gear with me. Luckily I usually have my camera phone!

There is a restaurant in Kernville, Ca. that sits high above the Kern River. We were on the balcony one summer evening watching the sunset when I snapped the photo which inspired this painting. The last light was just skimming the tops of the trees in the foreground, the distant hills were glowing as the river was shimmering. It grabbed my soul and inner artistic eye so completely I knew I would be painting this scene later.

There is an art contest I have been faithfully entering every month for about 2 years. The last several months I have not been consistently entering. I had kind of given up, there are so many well known and talented artists that enter, and even though I am entering the lower level, emerging artist, I felt I really had no shot. In October, 2017, I thought I would, for the heck of it, enter a recent work “Aged Oak Glory”. I promptly forgot that I had entered. Then this just happened... “Congratulations on being selected as a finalist in the Emerging Artist” category!. Lots of sayings, homilies, quotes can apply to this situation. I will just end this with the title of this blog - Just when you stop trying so hard....

It had been a while since my Agave series and being in California a cactus series was at the top of the list. This is the first in a planned series of at least three paintings. Selected as FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the September 2015 BoldBrush Painting competition!

Accepted in Laguna Plein Air Painters Association 2016 Art And Nature juried show at Forest And Ocean Gallery, Laguna Beach, California.

 

Selected as a judges pick in the Daily Paintworks November monthly contest 2016. Accepted for juried 6" Squared show at Randy Higbee Gallery, Costa Mesa California, 2016.