California Street, San Francisco

 

California Street, San Francisco

original oil painting, 8x10

SOLD

 

California Street is over 5 miles long and one of the longest streets in San Francisco. It has a number of important landmarks including the Fairmont Hotel, Mark Hopkins Hotel and Ritz Carlton. The view in my painting is the eastern portion of California Street which runs from Market to Van Ness Avenue.  You can see Polk Street in the foreground and the cable car lines in the street.

 

You may have noticed that I like to paint streetscapes.  It makes for challenging compositions.  Part of the challenge is deciding what architectural elements to paint and what to leave out.  Simplifying the color palette brings harmony to a city scene that can be full of bright garish colors on signs, buildings and cars. 

View of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz

View of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz

original oil painting, 8x10
SOLD

The ocean in Santa Cruz is part of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, some of northern California’s most beautiful shoreline. Along West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz are stunning views of the cliffs and the ocean.
  

I was attracted to this particular scene because of the colorful iceplant in the foreground, contrasting with the jagged cliffs against the ocean.  I've used cerulean blue in the painting, although I've found it tricky to integrate into my oil paintings.  Cerulean is a bold, pure pigment that leans toward azure and is often used in skies and reflections on water. I think it works well in this composition of the coastline on a bright fall day.

Main Street, Ventura

 

Main Street, Ventura

original oil painting, 8x10

Buenaventura Gallery, SOLD
Reception: Friday, October 6 from 5-8 pm

 

My show is coming to a close on Saturday, Oct 6, stop by the Buenaventura Gallery this week to see the paintings. Chris Beirne and I have a reception on Friday night from 5-8, as part of the citywide First Friday art event.

 

This is the last painting I will post from my art exhibit. I picked the location because of the colorful brick building on the corner of Main Street and Chestnut. The building is a cultural landmark with Art Deco influences that has been beautifully restored and is currently a restaurant called Watermark on Main.

 

Look for a coastal painting next week!

 

  

View of the Bay, San Francisco

View of the Bay, San Francisco

orginal oil painting 10x8

SOLD

I was painting in San Francisco and I wanted a photo of a street scene with Alcatraz and Angel Island in the background. I drove around until I found this spot on Hyde Street and then I waited for the Cable Car to crest the hill, into the sunlight. It actually took quite a while. The cable cars don't run that often. It turns out that people driving in cars don't like it when you're standing in the middle of the street to take photos, but I was happy with the composition.

Kalorama Street, Ventura

Kalorama Street, Ventura

original oil painting, 24x30

SOLD

The opening reception for my show at the Buenaventura Gallery was a lot of fun. We had about 200 people come through the gallery that night.  I want to thank everyone who came by to say hello and show their support. I'm also grateful for all the help from the staff and volunteers. I'm very proud of my new paintings and I think the show looks really nice in the solo room at the Buenaventura Gallery.  

The painting of Kalorama Street is in the show. We use to live in the Sea View condos off of Kalorama Street in Ventura.  I always thought the street was unique and interesting, it has Mexican Fan Palms growing out of the street. At some point the city must have widened the street and paved around the palm trees. There's an ocean view at the end of the street, a mixture of houses, churches and apartments. It has a Southern California feel to it - wide street, lots of palms trees, a fog bank and warm sunlight, colorful plants and a 1960s style apartment building.

Mission and 2nd Street, San Francisco

Mission and 2nd Street, San Francisco

original oil painting, 24x30

SOLD

I took the photo for this painting, after I had been to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art with my friend Alicia.  We were on Mission and New Montgomery Street waiting for a bus, when I pulled out my camera to capture this composition.  I liked the F-line rail car with the Ferry Building in the background.

This painting is 30x24, the largest size oil painting that I've done to date.  I used my t-square to get the vertical building lines parallel in the background.

Underpaintings by Ann

 

A couple of weeks ago my niece Ann was visiting from Wichita.  She likes art and likes to help me in the studio.   I had some drawings from photographs on canvas panels and I asked her to do the underpaintings.  She used a thin wash of Transparent Red Oxide paint and divided the painting into three values, a dark, middle and light tone.  After the underpaintings dried, Ann also helped me lay in the sky on a few paintings.  The above photo shows Ann finishing the sky in a painting of the flower fields in Santa Paula.  Thanks Ann!

Red Van on Opal Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz

Red VW Van, Santa Cruz

original oil painting, 8x10 SOLD

I can't resist painting old Volkswagen vans. I ride my bike past this little yellow house and red van on the weekends on my way to Capitola.  It's at the corner of Opal Cliff Drive and Court Drive in Santa Cruz.  They had this old red van which I really liked, but recently they got a newer red van.  Luckily I got a photo with the old van on a day with wispy cloud formations in the sky.

  

Poli Street 3, Ventura

Poli Street 3, Ventura

original oil painting, 16x20  SOLD

available at the Buenaventura Gallery, Sept 11 - Oct 6

Reception: Saturday, September 15, 4:00 - 7:00 pm

The painting in this view is from the corner of Poli Street and North Catalina Street.  The street is lined with old Mexican fan palms, queen palms and 1920s Spanish style houses.  Ventura High School, which was directly behind me, casts a big shadow in the foreground.

Chill Out Cafe, Santa Cruz

Chill Out Cafe, Santa Cruz

original oil painting, 10x8 SOLD

available at the Buenaventura Gallery, Sept 11 - Oct 6
Reception: Saturday, Sept 15, 4:00 - 7:00pm

The Chill Out Cafe is on 41st Avenue in Santa Cruz.  It's a charming Santa Cruz hangout, full of locals eating breakfast burritos.  I've wanted to paint the building for a while because of the barn red color and it's popularity among surfers.
  

Lagoon at Hendry's Beach, Santa Barbara

Lagoon at Hendry's Beach, Santa Barbara

original oil painting, 10x8

SOLD

In March, Chris Beirne and I painted together in Southern California.  I asked Chris to find a place to paint with big cliffs, along the ocean. Chris picked Hendry's Beach in Santa Barbara and suggested that we paint at sunset. It was unusally warm and sunny, which meant the beach was packed with people, not the best situation for plein air painting.   

When I returned home, I painted the scene above. It's funny that I ended up painting the lagoon instead of the cliffs.  I was attracted to the reflections on the pond, the green in the hills and the vertical compositional elements of the fan palms.  You can see the long shadows from the setting sun.

Poli Street, Ventura

Poli St, Ventura
Original oil painting, 8x10

SOLD

I'm posting a preview of my paintings for my upcoming show at the Buenaventura Gallery in Ventura.  This painting is a scene of Poli Street, between Lincoln Drive and North Pacific Ave.  It's a picturesque part of Poli Street that was developed in the 1920s with Spanish style architecture.  Craig and I use to live about a block away on Encinal Way.

The repetitive style of architecture gives the painting a sense of rhythm. I also wanted to create a sense of depth with the dark tree shadows in the foreground and  the lighter foliage in the background.

Ojai Preserve at Sunset

Ojai Preserve at Sunset

Original oil painting, 8x10

SOLD

I've been painting with my friend Chris Beirne to prepare for our art exhibit in September. Recently we were scouting a painting location in Santa Barbara and we ended up back in Ojai. We decided to head over to Chris's favorite painting spot on Besant Road, to paint as the sun was setting.

The meadow where we painted is called the Ojai Preserve, an open space with walking trails and Eucalyptus trees in the background. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, we set up to paint. The trees behind me were casting a shadow on the road and there was a red/orange tint in the background in my scene. The light was shifting which gave me a more dramatic value range to work with. We painted for about an hour before the entire scene was engulfed in shadows. The beauty of painting at sunset is the warm glow the sunlight casts on everything, however, you have to paint VERY quickly.

After I returned home I did the painting above in my studio, using my plein air painting as a reference.

I have to add some information about this palm tree, since I love to paint palm trees. It's a California Fan Palm (Washingtonia Filifera), the only palm native to the Western United States and an iconic palm tree in California.

View of Bay Bridge, San Francisco

View of Bay Bridge, San Francisco

original oil painting, 8x10

SOLD

The Bay Bridge is an impressive site.  You can catch a glimpse of the bridge from many streets in San Francisco.  It's actually a pair of bridges spanning the San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland.  A western span connects downtown San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island and an eastern span connects the island to Oakland.  It has one of the longest spans in the world, which it feels like when you're driving across it.

My painting shows the Bay Bridge in the distance on a street in San Francisco.  In the foreground, on the left you can see a typical San Francisco building with curved corner windows.  When painting cityscapes it's difficult to decide how much detail to include in the painting.  I simplify the information while trying to suggest a sense of depth and space.  Then I hope to find a balance that works in the painting.

The Cove, La Jolla

The Cove, La Jolla

8x10 original oil painting

SOLD

We spent Christmas in La Jolla with my family. The weather was beautiful, 80 degrees, and we were half a block from the Windansea beach. We were also near the Cove, a swimming and diving beach that is sheltered by sandstone cliffs.  La Jolla Cove has some of the clearest water of all San Diego beaches.  It is also part of the San Diego La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve .

In my painting above, the shallow areas of the water are emerald green with some yellow hues.  As the water gets a little deeper the color turns ultramarine blue with some gray tones.  On clear days along the ocean front, there is usually a line of reddish-purple haze near the horizon line.

San Francisco Street 4 (in progress)

I'm working on a larger version of the painting I posted last week.  I liked the painting so much, I decided to paint a larger version 16"x20."  I started the painting by laying in the values using transparent red oxide as an underpainting.  I'm about half way done. So far I really like the painting.  It can be a love/hate relationship when I'm working on a painting. We'll see how it comes out when it's finished.  I'll post the finished painting.

San Francisco Street 3

San Francisco Street 3

8x10 original oil painting

SOLD

Finally, I'm back to painting after the holidays.  The sun is moving higher in the sky and I'm getting direct sunlight in my studio again. 

The painting above is a street scene with a cable car line.  I don't always know the exact location of my photographs, because I'm often taking pictures as I'm driving around San Francisco in my car.  (I do wait until I'm at a stop sign or stop light.)  I like to include cable cars because they give the paintings a sense of place and they make a nice focal point for my paintings.