Eucalyptus 3, Woodside

Eucalyptus 3, Woodside

8x10 original oil painting

The leaves on the trees are changing to fall colors.  Yesterday we were watching the first storm of the season strip away the bark from the Eucalyptus trees in our front yard to reveal intense yellows, browns and green colored trunks.

Stanford Hills 2

Stanford Hills 2

8x10 original oil painting

The landscape surrounding Stanford is rolling hills and open space with ever changing colors.  As we're approaching winter, the golden hills are beginning to turn green. 

On my palette, I have seven basic colors of paint, plus white.  As I was creating this painting I was amazed at the subtle variations created from these eight colors of paint.

Pacific Heights, San Francisco

Pacific Heights, San Francisco

8x10 original oil painting

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Pacific Heights is located in one of the most scenic settings in Northern California with spectacular views of the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge and the Presidio. It's an affluent neighborhood characterized by painted Victorians and mansions that were largely built after the 1906 earthquake.

I captured this view on one of those perfect afternoons when the Golden Gate was free of fog and the Marin headlands seemed so close across a glistening bay. I'm sure it was days like this that made Pacific Heights attractive to the builders of these beautiful houses.

Market Street, San Francisco

Market Street, San Francisco

8x10 original oil painting

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 I've always liked to paint architecture.  Josef Woodard of the LA Times described my paintings of Ventura as "townscapes."  Following in that tradition, I've painted a cityscape of San Francisco, looking down Market Street at the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero.

I'm attracted to the shapes and colors in architecture and the abstract juxtapositions.  I like the long shadows that tall buildings cast in the city.  With buildings of different heights, the sun can peek through in different areas. 

Cable Car on Hyde Street

Cable Car, San Francisco

8x10 original oil painting

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I feel lucky to live so close to San Francisco.  Over the weekend we went with friends to the ACT Theater to see the play "Scapin".  The evening was warm and when we left the theater at about 10:15 pm, the streets were filled with people.  I was inspired to paint a street scene of San Francisco.

In this view you can see the Hyde Street cable car with Alcatraz and Angel Island in the distance.  It was a clear warm day with views across the bay.

Capitola Beach

Capitola Beach 2

8x10, original oil painting

The end of summer brings warm, sunny weather to the California Coast.  Sometimes September and October are the hottest months of the year, but the days are shorter and the sun shifts lower in the sky, bringing more dramatic shadows along with it.

Capitola Beach is located along the Monterey Bay, just South of Santa Cruz.  The town hugs the coastline with shops and Spanish-style homes that date back to the 1920s.

My painting shows Capitola Beach on a warm, sunny weekend, when everyone was at the beach.

Alice Waters' Hens

Strutting Hen, Soul Food Farm

8x10, original oil painting

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Last weekend we visited Soul Food Farm in Vacaville with our friends Jim and Anita.  Soul Food Farm supplies eggs for Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley.  If you're not familiar with Alice Waters, she founded Chez Panisse Restaurant in 1971 with the philosophy that the best-tasting food is organically and locally grown.

We stopped at Soul Food Farm to buy fresh eggs and support the local farmers. They have seven different breeds of laying hens that commingle on the farm in Vacaville. The chickens have a good life, they roam acres of beautiful pasture every day, foraging for bugs and laying eggs.

I decided to take photos and paint chickens.  The color of the hens are variations of earth tones, browns, rust, oranges and black. Above is a painting of one of the hens, strutting around the field.