Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Sonoma Plein Air 2013

This is 9 of the 13 paintings I did during the Sonoma Plein Air event this year. This one was difficult because these buildings were so far away, I had difficulty seeing the details clearly. Normally I would get closer to them, but the field between me and the subject was private property. Back of the Ranch 6x12"

It was a hot day when I discovered this trailer. Fortunately I had my huge patio umbrella with me and was able to stand in the shade. The most difficult and most time consuming painting of the week, I spent over 3 hours staring at this shiny monster. Back Yard Camper 12x16"

I've painted this truck before -- a beautiful old Studebaker. I had not planned to paint it this particular morning, but the light was so perfect at 8am when I saw it on my way to another painting location, that I changed my plans. Big Red 8x12"


By the time I got to this one, I had a good amount of paintings already, so I was more experimental, using stronger colors and simplifying the shapes more. Curve Ahead  11x14"

This view is from within a private vineyard where we had special permission to paint. The challenge was to get the middle ground greens to fade into the distant blues. Harvest Time 12x16"

I had an hour to kill before the Quick Draw began, so I did a little 6x8" of this Airstream I found nearby. Airstream 6x8"

This was my piece for the Quick Draw. This beautiful old brick building used to be a hardware store I'm told. I was pretty happy with it considering I only had 90 minutes, and there was a big truck parked to the left blocking my view of the sidewalk and store windows. Corner Store 8x10"

I've painted this old Chevy many times over the years in Sonoma, but never this small. I wanted to do something using this proportion, but this was the largest canvas I had left. Yellow in shadow often gives me a hard time but feel I captured it fairly accurately. I'm happy with how it came out, and would like to try it on a 12x24" sometime. Old Yeller 6x12"

When I first did my pencil sketch of this, I was immediately excited about the big shadow shapes connecting the barns. Everything came together pretty easily on this one, and I was happy I didn't get stung by any of the bees from the 30 or so hives across the street and behind me. My favorite of the week. Near the Bees  11x14"