South Crescent Bay

Rocks at South Crescent Bay, 6x8", oil on linen on board

Last Thursday I spent a wonderful day in Laguna Beach with Kim VanDerHoek and our March plein air class. We were on a spectacular small beach with many painting opportunities. My goal was to choose a simple, strong composition, and not get caught up in the overall view and distractions.

These rocks are looking south, and I eliminated almost all of the bluff. I originally had some sand at the bottom, but it did not really add to the composition and I like it much better without it. As usual, the sun, fog, clouds, tide, shadows and general scene changed every few minutes, and the gorgeous weather and spring break brought in quite a few kids and families. It's very challenging to focus on the painting when there is so much going on (and I'm easily distracted anyway). 

About 10:00 am, a marine mammal rescue center released four rehabilitated seals right in front of us. That was a fun distraction, and it was great to see them dive right into the waves. You really never know what you're going to get when you go outside to paint!

Late morning, after the fog and seals, before many people showed up

Dancing in the Light

Dancing in the Light, 5x5", oil on board

Today I decided to paint more tulips, before they fade away. I spent a few good hours doing a larger painting of the tulips on my kitchen counter in the light from the window. When I finished, I realized I wasn't finished. I grabbed a small panel, and painted the one above. I think I like it better. The light coming through the window turned the tops of the petals a pale pink, such a contrast to the deep red.

Red X Four

Red X Four, 6x6", oil on panel, available here

The tulips are elegant and elusive; they dance and change under the light. I have to paint fast, for they move between strokes. They literally change position as they react to the warmth from the lamp. They don't last very long, but are so fun to paint.

I am so enjoying the quadrant paintings; four tiny paintings in one! I may do a series; oops, I already have. I forgot to post this one I did the other day.

Sunshine on Grey, 6x6", oil on panel, available here

Personal Space

A Sense of Personal Space, 6x6", oil on board, NFS

Well, a week ago I wrote about how it had been hard to find painting time. This week, it was even harder. I began this painting as a way to paint something, even on a 3x3" division of a panel. After one daisy looked sadly at me all week, I decided to finish it. 

This is for Hilary, who loves daisies and purple, and was thoughtful enough to tell me she wanted it. She writes most of the posts on our family food blog, GreeneFood, and is starting to share some of her own writing and art at Kingsley + Kay. As a fellow introvert, I understand how hard that can be!

Missing Painting / Found Painting

White Anemones, 6x6", oil on board, click here to bid©2013 Cindy Greene

First, missing painting. I've had barely any time to paint since last Thursday morning, and I've really missed it. As a friend says, life happens, and that's the truth. It's been good stuff mostly, but it hasn't let me paint. Today, I finally divided a 6x6 panel into four sections and spent 30 minutes painting one section. Better than nothing.

Second, found painting. While checking a couple of sold paintings that need varnishing, I found White Anemones, above. What? Evidently I never put this on the blog. Fortunately, I had photographed and catalogued it when I painted it in February. So it was never really lost, but I had forgotten about it. I do love white flowers, and this was painted from a couple of reference photos I took last month at Roger's Gardens.

We're heading into a warm week, and I am really looking forward to a couple of painting days!

Rain's Coming — Upper Newport Back Bay

Rain's Coming, 10"x8", oil on archival panel, click here to bid
©2013 Cindy Greene

Today was a gorgeous day to paint outside. The early morning rain cleared the air, there were brief moments of sun, and then the coming storm brought more clouds in from the north. So beautiful to watch the clouds moving in and building up through the morning.

Uplift in Praise

Uplift in Praise, 5"x5", oil on panel, SOLD
 ©2013 Cindy Greene

“Daisies infinite 

Uplift in praise their little growing hands, 

 O'er every hill that under heaven expands.” 

 — Ebenezer Elliott

 More cheerful, happy daisies, bringing thoughts of spring! It's chilly and promising rain later this week, but little vases and bottles of white daisies around the house are definitely making me think about working in the garden. I pruned back the last (forgotten) rose this morning, and planted a few white impatiens that had been sitting around for a while. 

It's been great having painting time in the studio this week, and I'm heading to the Back Bay tomorrow for a Plein Air class with Kim VanDerHoek. I'm really concentrating on painting from life, either plein air or from set-ups in the studio. I have several paintings in mind from reference photographs, but I'm putting them aside for a bit.

Simplicity

Simplicity, 5"x5", oil on panel, SOLD©2013 Cindy Greene

“The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air.” — Robert Burns



 I enjoyed the daisies so much, I decided to do another one, and maybe a series this week. The whites can be challenging, but I'm enjoying the light and shadows. This little green bottle is one of my favorites — I've used it for many years to hold a rosebud or sprig of daisies.

Our warm winter weather has disappeared, and today was overcast and grey. It was a great day to stay in the studio and paint.

Under the Lights

Under the Lights, 5"x5", oil on archival board, SOLD©2013 Cindy Greene

We went to a new farmer's market on Sunday, and I came home with a huge bunch of daisies. Well, they are actually chrysanthemums, but shh. I now have three vases around the house and am enjoying them immensely. I set up this little vase with a spotlight and a background of some of the new scrapbook paper I recently bought. I'm enjoying the colors.

I wanted to try a looser version than usual of these, so I gave myself a time limit of "finish this before making dinner." I think it worked. We did eat a bit late, though.

San Elijo Lagoon, and North County fun

San Elijo Morning, 6"x8", oil on linen,
©2013 Cindy Greene

We had a quick fun trip this week, to the North San Diego County area. Our eldest daughter's friends arranged a birthday dinner for her (her husband was out of town and she was a bit down), and we were the surprise guests! How cool is it that your adult children are thrilled when you show up unexpectedly? I am very grateful for that. We had a fabulous time at PrepKitchen in Del Mar. I delivered a sold painting at the same time — I highly recommend delivering work at fabulous restaurants. Here's Emily with her parents, photo taken by daughter Hilary, who was also a surprise guest. (Sorry, Mel, we wish you could have been there!)

Thursday morning we made a quick trip to the San Elijo Lagoon Reserve, just a mile or two down the road from our hotel. I set up my painting gear and enjoyed a wonderful hour of sunshine and paint. The painting at the top is the result. This was my first experience painting on a linen Raymar panel — oh my, I loved it. I don't usually like canvas, but this was a wonderful experience, and I plan to order more of them.

We ended our short trip with a very quick visit to see some friends and their three-month-old darling little boy. Cuddling with little Ellis was a highlight of the trip. Time with your kids, plein air painting, and cuddling a baby — what a great couple of days!

Still Painting...

Mum on Green, 2.5"x3.5", oil on Arches oil paper;
©2013 Cindy Greene

A friend asked me yesterday if I had taken the week off from painting, as she hadn't seen any blog posts. Bless her, she looks for them! I haven't taken time off from painting, but it hasn't been a week of post-able paintings. I did this little ACEO-size mum last weekend, playing with the new Arches oil paper and a package of colored scrapbooking paper that I recently bought. It was fun setting up glass on the paper and playing with the lighting. I'm happy with this one. The Arches paper is fun to use, but pretty thirsty. I had to use quite a bit of medium to get a good flow. 

On Tuesday, I painted a 6x12" panel of sunflowers. Wednesday morning, I wiped it off. Some paintings just aren't meant to be, and this was one of them. Liz asked me to post the wiped panel, so here it is.

It's about to get a couple of coats of gesso, on its way to a happier place. This is a Dick Blick "Artists' Board" – not sure I like the surface.


There was more painting, some travel and a family celebration, but that post will wait until tomorrow.

Lovin' the Anemones

 

Anemones in Glass, 6"x6", oil on panel,
©2013 Cindy Greene

 Click here to purchase

I took the reference photo for this a few weeks ago — a florist shop, with glass vases of anemones on a glass tabletop. Brilliant, literally. I've been quite taken with anemones lately. 

Other than the green stems, everything in the painting is grey. My monitor is showing the background more blue than it is. Oh, the flowers have a few bright white areas, and the glass of course has highlights, but the rest is just grey. I had quite a good time mixing all those greys out of yellow, red and blue. Oh and sometimes white. 

Why Hello, Pacific Ocean!

Hello, Pacific Ocean! 6"x6", oil on panel, Sold©2013 Cindy Greene

My daughter's friend Jacq posted a gorgeous photo of one of her friends and her baby enjoying the warm weather last week at Torrey Pines Beach. Jacq captured the moment perfectly, and I borrowed her photo. Thankfully, she didn't mind.

Evergreen Pear Blossoms

Pear Blossoms, 6"x6", oil on panel, SOLD
©2013 Cindy Greene

This week Southern California is dotted with gorgeous Evergreen Pear trees, Pyrus kawakamii, covered with white blossoms. The blooming period is short, because we get either a winter Pacific storm or a warm Santa Ana wind that blows all the blossoms away. When our girls were small, they loved to pretend it was snowing while they danced around under our trees.

I brought a sprig of blossoms in the other day to paint. They last better inside than out!

Plein Air in Laguna Beach, and other frogs

Laguna Morning, 5"x7", oil on panel,
©2013 Cindy Greene

  Click here to purchase through PayPal.

First off,  I am very happy with this painting. There, I said it.

My husband and I have a saying, "If you have to eat frogs, eat the biggest one first." This has morphed into "Anything I don't want to do, or am procrastinating, or am even nervous about, is a frog. Okay, I'll eat it first." This has been a week of frog-eating. 

Thursday morning was my last scheduled plein air class with Kim VanDerHoek. We were going to Heisler Park in Laguna Beach, and the day was promising. But painting at Heisler Park is a sort of mecca to plein air painters, the ultimate gorgeous seaside spot. What if I really made a mess of it? Therefore, it became a frog.

I'm happy to say that the fog lifted, I had a great time, I'm happy with the painting, and all is well. 

Ribbetttt!!

My Heart Like the Ivy Twineth

My Heart Like the Ivy Twineth, 6"x6", oil on panel, SOLD
©2013 Cindy Greene

I love old postcards, and always dig through them in antique stores when I get a chance. I especially like holiday cards. The Valentine's Day card below is one of my favorites.

When I saw the ivy heart topiary last week at Roger's Gardens, this phrase kept running through my mind. This was really fun to paint — and had a title before I even started! I tried to find where the phrase originated, but evidently "the ivy twineth" is in the Christmas carol The Holly and the Ivy, and was a familiar phrase a century or so ago.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to Real Life

English Breakfast, 6"x6" oil on panel

Well, the whirlwind week of the Carol Marine workshop at Balboa Island is over. I think every one of us was sad at week's end. Tired, but sad. Actually, I'm sure Carol was relieved to be going home — she taught, laughed, critiqued, painted, ate, lectured, and patiently answered our hundreds of questions. She was always cheerful and patient — I can't imagine how she does that. She's an amazing teacher and artist, and so much fun.

It was a wonderful week. I learned so much, and now need to work through my notes and paint a couple of hundred panels while I assimilate everything. Every painter in the workshop was talented, and the room was always full of interesting paintings as well as the combined energy of about 20 people doing what they love.

I've spent the weekend reconnecting with family, Lily (our elderly cat), and the laundry. I painted some today, and look forward to painting this week. Still a lot of home-work to catch up on.

Workshop Wednesday

Pink #2, 6"x6", oil on panel

Well, the Carol Marine workshop is over the hump, and there are only two days left. 

Yesterday was fairly intense, as we had timed paintings and then stroke-limited paintings (also timed). The 10-minute painting exercise is fun, and a great way to loosen up and just paint what you see.

The stroke-limiting exercise was interesting. Carol announced, "Painting is like golf. The fewer strokes, the better." To help us get to the essence of our subject, we had to plan out how to paint it first in 20 brushstrokes. We complained, but it wasn't too bad. I actually didn't use my 20th stroke. Then another 10 minutes and 15 strokes. Still looked like a pomegranate. Last, 10 strokes. There were a lot of curved strokes in the room. I ended up with time left, but no strokes. Since I had a fourth square left, I did a quick painting not counting my strokes, but trying to limit them to what was necessary. I like this last one best.

Pomegranate Study, 6"x6", oil on panel

Today was full. Another demo (my very favorite part of the workshop), studying composition and then an exercise on laying down a mixed color, leaving it, and then choosing another mixture, laying it down, and so forth. We took some time setting up our subjects, quite some time actually. I scored a lovely pink gerbera daisy and enjoyed the process. I finished two different views by quitting time.

Pink #1, 6"x6", oil on panel

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Wow.

Today I started a five-day workshop with Carol Marine, and I'm whooped. And we only painted about 90 minutes out of the day!

Just trying to absorb the knowledge flowing out of Carol is exhausting. Fortunately, she is funny as well as smart, and she is an expert at feeding her students information in an organized and entertaining way. There is just so much to learn, and as she says, painting is hard.

We had about an hour this afternoon to set up a still life and paint it as we wanted to, as Carol walked around the room getting an idea of each painter's style and skill. Some of us fiddled with the lights and objects too much, which ate into our painting time. Guess who.

This is a iPhone photo of my set-up. I love red bell peppers. Yeah, there are a lot of bumps.

We then did an assignment to study value — doing a quick painting using only one dark color, and three main values in varying proportions. I finished this pomegranate in about 15 minutes, and then returned to my bell peppers. 

I was able to sort of finish the peppers, although I wasn't happy with the result. Ever notice how bumpy peppers are? Lots of planes, each with a reflection and/or shadow. I couldn't get a good photo, as the room lighting was challenging, but here's an idea. I do like the greens.

©2013 Cindy Greene

I'm very excited about tomorrow. I know it will be another full day, and I can't wait.

February — a new month!!

30 in 30 January 2013

Leslie Saeta recommended using PicMonkey to create a custom collage of our 30 paintings from January. Since it is a free service (very cool), there is no help page, so it took a while to figure out how to create a custom collage. I thought about just using my favorite paintings (there are some here I'm a bit embarrassed by), but decided to be honest and include them all. 

I'm pleased with my progress in January. I can look at each of these with a critical eye and see what could be improved or what I learned. 

I love the first day of the month. Happy February!