Winter Sun

Winter Sun Ray and I are heading out of the super cold weather we've been having here in Taos and heading South and West on a trip to San Diego and Scottsdale.

I am looking forward to seeing the ocean, painting the coast line "en plein aire" and being out and about in t-shirt weather. So the house sitter is settled in, the Airstream is packed, the cat definitely knows something is up and it's time to go.  I will be posting on Facebook and Instagram if you would like to come along for the ride! In case you missed it, here is an article written about my "Airstream Style" that appeared recently in a magazine called Outside Interests.

MyAirstream Style

Thursday 11th December 2008 - Ray's

It's strange for me to not be painting, I'm so used to painting most days, but this bug knocked me out for a week. I went to the Saturday painting group but I'm not posting what I did that day, definitely one for the "paint over" pile.

Then on Thursday I went to Ray's group and painted this street scene from my California trip. Heidi and I were heading north out of San Francisco towards the Golden Gate Bridge and the morning sun was hitting the cars parked along the side of the road and I thought that that would make a great painting and took a photo.

I like paintings of city streets but I'd never attempted one before, maybe it's because I'm a city girl, all that time living in London, it's all this open countryside that is new for me. I feel quite inspired that the next time I'm back in London I'll be taking photographs with doing paintings in mind.

San Francisco Street - 8 x 10" - oil on canvas panel - $450

Thursday 4th December 2008 - Ray's Class

A bit of an off day for me, maybe I'm coming down with something, feeling tired and sneezing a lot. Ray said getting me through this painting was like pulling teeth. I did enjoy the colours, though.

Near Mendocino, California - oil on canvas panel - 12 x 16" - $750

Tuesday 18th November 2008 - California Beach Sunrise

This was painted from one of my favourite California Coastline photos, I was looking forward to painting it. Did the most part in the gallery on Tuesday and finished it off on Thursday.

California Beach Sunrise - 12 x 16" - oil on canvas - $750

Thursday 6th November 2008 - more California!

Another California beach painting. I'm really enjoying painting these beach and ocean views, particularly all the greens and blues in the ocean, makes a great change from mountains and sagebrush.

California Coastline - 12 x 16 - oil on canvas - $750

Tuesday 4th November 2008 - California

Election Day and the unseasonably warm and sunny weather came to an end and it looked grim and rainy on the Plaza as I was on duty at the gallery, the few visitors coming in to get out of the rain. I really enjoyed painting this sunny beach scene from my trip to California, especially the blues and greens in the sea.

California Coastline - 12 x 16" - oil on canvas - $750

Friday 31st October 2008 - Hallowe'en

I spent the day in the gallery and enjoyed doing this little painting from one of my photos of the California coastline from my recent trip. In the afternoon I got dressed up for Hallowe'en and had many many local children come trick or treating to the gallery, it was a lot of fun.

Big Sur Sunset - 8 x 10" - oil on canvas panel - $395

Thursday October 30th 2008 - Ray's

I brought one of my California photos to work from to today's group. This one is of a beach in Big Sur coming up to sunset.

Big Sur Sunset - 8 x 10" - oil on canvas panel - $295

Thursday 9th -23rd October - California!

After all the hard work of Fall Arts, when my good friend Heidi said she was taking a road trip out to California I asked if I could come too. She tied her sea kayak to the rood of the car and I brought my paints and my portfolio too on the off chance I found a gallery I liked out there.

In the end I only did this one painting and a few sketches, I found that without my usual routine of plenty of rest and good breakfast etc before I paint, I wasn't firing on all cylinders. Not to mention all the drinking we were doing down there at sea level!

The Beach at Carmel - 8 x 10" - oil on canvas panel - $395