Morning at Leo Carillo

Here is a photo of my view at Leo this morning. Painting on site is often a challenge but it is always a joy. Even when a painting is not a success, look where it was created

A few weeks ago, I flew to New Mexico and painted around Santa Fe. What a great part of the world the Southwest is. In the coming weeks I will be traveling up highway 395 to capture the fall leaves around Mono, Mammoth and June lakes. Then in November I’ll be going to Sedona. I love my job!

San Onofre

Ive been camping and getting some sun out at San Onofre all week while painting for this years annual “Paint San Clemente” event. Here are two of the paintings I have managed to complete this week. It’s been cold and densely overcast, which makes waiting for the sun, much like waiting for Godot.

Today I must change camping spots do that will take up part of the day to tear down camp and get set back up again. Once done I will go out and try one more time to do a painting that I like better to turn in by the Saturday deadline.

Gaviota bluffs

Gaviota Sundown

The Gaviota Hot Springs was my destination. I have wanted to paint there for a long time. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go on a drive. I got to Gaviota Hot Springs at midday. It was a bit of a hike up a steep muddy trail and I was winded by the time I got to the springs. (Note to self; get some exercise dude!) There were two gray-headed gentleman sitting in the pool when I arrived there who had already been there for a couple hours. After a short chat I joined them. The temp was not hot at all, in fact it was luke warm. Around 80 degrees. Bubbling up from volcanic activity was the distinct odor of sulfur. The minerals are said to heal. So, I stayed in and talked about Costa Rica, art, snakes and vanilla beans for about half an hour and noticed that the sun was about gone from the canyon. I wanted to get a painting in before I went home, so I hopped out and dried off. When I got dressed again, I headed back down the mountain. When I got to the trail-head by the parking lot, I looked back up the hill and this magnificent tree was waving goodbye to me and the sun as it went down.

I got in the car and headed south on Highway 101. While watching the sun go down, I knew it would soon be completely gone. I was compelled to do something about it before ASAP. I stopped the car and ran out to the top of the cliffs above Gaviota State Beach to capture the last of the sun before going behind the horizon. So, there I was painting… and the quick 20-minute study you see here was sold right off the easel from a guy that saw me painting from below. He approached me and wanted it so… SOLD! I guess timing is everything, right!? Anthony is here from Salt Lake City and visiting some friends along the coast. He told me that this painting would be a reminder of his dad whose final resting place is just about where the sun is setting there… near Prince Island in San Miguel island’s Cuyler Harbor.

I was happy to have sold this to someone so spontaneously, but the bummer was since it was dark when I finished it, I had no photo. Luckily, he was heading from Santa Barbara to Orange County so I had a chance to take the shot when he stopped by my studio this morning.

I will definitively be going back there soon to do another painting. The tree on the top-right of the picture has a HUGE collection of some large long-necked birds roosting there for the night. Cormorants perhaps? I want to do another painting with the tree as subject… soon

Pt Mugu Lagoon

Although I have lived in Southern California for nearly 50 years, I still find it odd that we can have an 85 degree day in mid-December. While friends in other parts of America are shoveling snow and stoking their pot-bellied stoves, I was out painting at the Pt Mugu Lagoon. I woke up that morning thinking to myself “What a great day to hit the beach.” So, with that, I loaded up my painting gear and a towel into the VW bus, and went off to the coast. I was planning to use my annual State Park pass to get into the parking lot at El Matador State Beach, but I only made it 8 miles from my home to Pt Mugu Lagoon, next to the Seabees shooting range. I parked the bus, lit a cigar and while listening to Robert Plant belt out a live version on “Whole Lotta Love” I gazed at the scene. Plovers poked into the muddy ground looking for lunch. The sun danced off of the wet shoreline of the lagoon below and the distant sea behind. I never made it past this scene to El Matador, and soon was setting up the my EasyL to capture this scene. Here is what I saw…

Mugu Lagoon "10 x 12" oil on Birch Board

Green Ravine

Green Ravine 24" x 24" oil on Canvas

In ongoing inspiration from my Channel Islands excursion in September, I have another Rocks & Water painting to show. This is called “Green Ravine” which is based from the view from our boat onto Santa Cruz Island. There are never ending options in the vistas of these islands. Now I see why David Gallup has had a hard time pairing down his museum collection to just 70 paintings from his Channel Islands collection. He has a couple hundred!

What I tried to accomplish in this painting was the movement of water. There are these surges against the rocks and in past paintings I have simply painted horizontal waterlines, as if I were at a lake. This is the OCEAN. Thanks to some work I saw of Stephen Mirich and his spectacular seascapes, I realized that movement is so important in capturing the reality of the sea. So, expect to see some more shoreline paintings in the near future as I work this out.