Cloudy Alley in San Diego
Recycling bins and trash cans are my current painting obsession.
Cloudy Alley with Recycling Bins
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Tag Archives: california
Sunset Light, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Painting- Sunset Light
The perfect ending to a beautiful day in Santa Barbara, California. The light there has a special quality. Mellow, diffuse in the marine haze, and gently golden at sundown.
Santa Barbara Sunset Light is for sale.
U Heights Hill- Painting of San Diego
I’ve been making some changes to my process lately. One thing I’ve been trying, and I’m not sure if I think it’s successful, is drawing lines freehand instead of using a ruler. On the one hand, I like the sketchy quality that emerges. On the other, I like things to be crisp.
Balboa Park Painting
I’ve been intrigued lately by the idea of doing tourist paintings. I’m more drawn to the opposite of landmarks- random, run-down places, or just an everyday street- but I like the idea of painting landmarks as well.
Canaletto’s career was based on them; Renoir painted his own versions of Canaletto’s Venetian cityscapes. And of course we have the rich legacy of Paris Impressionist street scenes. Monet, to me, was the star of that genre, but there were quite a few Impressionist masters. I’ll see where this idea takes me.
Also featured here: Gamblin Portland Grey! I’m always on the lookout for better ways to paint our cool, overcast mornings.
Balboa Park Painting is for sale.
Eucalyptus Trees in Balboa Park
Painting of San Diego Victorian House
This Victorian is across the street from where my drawing group meets. Before it was restored, it was a wreck, but it is beautiful now.
Like so many things, it just needed a little work.
Painting of San Diego Victorian House is for sale at my Etsy shop
Houses in Hillcrest- San Diego Paintings
Mission revival houses up on a hill- they have great views over North Park.
Craftsman House- Painting of San Diego
I like the steep pitch of the roof and the way this house (from the early 1900s?) seems to doze in its overgrown garden.
Painting of San Diego Eucalyptus Trees
A stand of Eucalpytus trees in Florida Canyon. I like places like this, where even though you’re in the middle of the city, you get soothing natural vistas.
Painting of San Diego Eucalyptus Trees is for sale.
Rapp Saloon, Santa Monica Painting
I liked the way this old brick building (from 1875) was dwarfed by taller, newer structures around it. I was also intrigued by the atmospheric effects of the buildings in late afternoon light so close to the ocean.
This painting started as a drawing when we lost the car in Santa Monica. We’d parked on the fourth or fifth level of the garage- what we didn’t realize is there are several garages “near a J. Crew” which was my only point of reference. So after going all the way up and down two incorrect garages, we wound up in front of this building and I insisted I had to draw it. Mike went to find the car and left me to work on a sketch.
Time passed and I couldn’t get happy with the painting, so I abandoned it and forgot about it. More time passed, and my truck got broken into. While my GPS was stolen, this incomplete painting was not. I decided a square format would work better, so I started over and I wrapped it up today.
This painting is for sale.
Morning Glory Vines in Santa Barbara
Morning glory vines with blue and purple flowers twine up utility lines in a Santa Barbara back yard.
Santa Barbara painting is for sale.
Embassy Hotel, San Diego
I’ve wanted to do a painting of the Embassy Hotel in Hillcrest for a long time, but I had a hard time deciding which facade would make the best painting.
I finally decided on this one, because I liked the simple, functional look of the brick, contrasted with the elaborate Italian/Spanish/Moorish fantasy palace style architecture of the street facades.
I like those facades too… maybe another day I’ll paint them!
San Diego Urban Painting is for sale.
Afternoon Light, Santa Barbara
Golden late afternoon light in Santa Barbara, California, with the mountains rising in the distance.
Santa Barbara Landscape is for sale.
Sunset on the Hills, North Park, San Diego, California
Shadows and light splash the hills looking East in the sunset.
San Diego Landscape Painting is for sale.
Eucalyptus Woods at Nightfall
Climbing a steep hill in the woods, with twilight painting the Western sky.
The eucalyptus trees in San Diego are some of my favorite painting subjects.
San Diego Landscape Painting is for sale.