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 The Beach Hat, 12" x 12" Oil on Birch Board. $1200 A hot summer day under the pier in Huntington Beach, CA. I was trying to capture a photo of the beautiful shadows, when this young woman stepped right in front of me. A bit hurried, she grabbed her hat, and then dashed of to her destination. I shot the photo and said to myself, “I can’t wait to paint this scene.” So, here it is.
It was hung tonight at the Galleria, in the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, in Thousand Oaks, CA for the exhibit “New Works, ACCV Board and Friends.” Some of the paint is still wet, so I guess it qualifies for “New Work.” It is joined by 5 other paintings of mine, plus works from a dozen others. Join us for a free Artists’ Reception Saturday, June 12th, from 4-6 pm.
Here is a collection of some more photos of the beautiful California that I live in. It is truly a wonderful part of the world to live in. Most people only get to visit.
Today the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival closes. I had the three paintings below in the event, plus one that was offered up for the “Painting in the Streets” event. I love
 Central Ducks, Always Welcome, Triangle Sun  Lucy and this guy
Here is a short (7 second) film showing the entire process of painting the Huntington Beach Library on Main Street.
The Huntington Beach Plein Air art show is hanging and I got a really fantastic spot in the gallery … on the back wall across from the main entry, so my three paintings were the first pieces you see as you walk into the main room of the gallery. Although I did not win any awards, it was great to know that the curator of the gallery felt that my paintings were of the caliber to be the main focus of the main gallery. Once they hung the show, a single individual (Michael Obermyer) came in to judge the artwork. That can be pretty much a crap shoot sometimes because the preferences of a single judge can go all over the board. I really respect Obermyer’s paintings and have admired his work for many years.
I will be back next year. They announced that as a part of Hunting Beach’s Centennial celebration, they will have a requirement to include at least one painting with a historical building as the subject. That will be fun.
So the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival is coming to an end this week and today I delivered the three paintings that I felt were my best efforts. The first two I have already posted, and below is my third effort that was entered into competition. Being nearly alone on the beach, away form the day-to-day life with a book and the sun, I call this “Solitude“. Thanks to Teresa for being a good sport and enduring the sun and a good book for over three hours while I worked this all out. I added the pattern on her bikini after the white underpainting had dried which did not take long because of the Cobalt Dryer I used. That was nice because I was able to rag out the lines in the brown patch on the right hip.
Back from another weekend. I did not get much painting done, but I had a wonderful time at the beach. It started out at San Onofre on Friday. I left work at 1pm to make my drive down to the camp site, and it ended up that I did not get there until nearly 6:00. I changed into my swimming trunks and went straight to the shore and dropped my things and went into the water. After a 5-hour (190 mile) drive I was so ready for a good swim. There were very few people on the beach at this time of night which was fine my me. I stayed there in solitude watching the sky and the birds and and the sea. The sun went down around 7:30, so just after the big red orb lost its last flicker on the horizon, I made my way back to the cliffs to make the climb back to camp. Oh, what a night it was. I decided to not put the tent up, choosing to sleep in the bed of my Ford F-150. With a tarp over half of the bed to catch the evening dew, I put three sleeping bags down for the base coat and used only a sheet for a cover. The night was a balmy 70 degrees.
I got up with the sun and packed up and found a Starbucks in San Clemente and continued my drive north to Huntington Harbor where I painted this … “Harbor View” which is a few of the harbor from the end of Edinger. As you can see, I was able to save the tree from the potentially disastrous stripe of phthalo blue. <whew!>
So, there I was, really enjoying painting the trunk of this fat fruitless Mulberry. I had the blue brush in my hand when I reached to the ground to get more red paint when I noticed that my brush hit “something” as I reached over to the ground. I paused and took a deep breath and slowly looked over to my freshly painted trunk, and as you see here, there was a long blue stripe across it. Not just any blue mind you, but PHTHALO blue. This particular blue is only good for doing blue awnings and boat covers, and also for that rich gem-like water that needs to pop. When mixed with anything, it kills it. I have to keep it far away from anything, then I go and stripe my tree. <DOH!!>
I slowly wiped it off with a fresh paper towel, and then re-painted the missing bits back in. I will finish up some of the details in the harbor in the background tomorrow, and I will post the rest of the painting then.
So, I got two paintings in this weekend at my first entrance into the competition. I was invited last year, but was unable to make it. The competition is through three weeks, but as I have a day job, and live so far away, I can only paint on weekends. I will be glad if I can get three new paintings worthy of entering when it is all said and done. Here are the first two sketches I did, and will likely go back to both locations later and paint again. I love the Bolsa Chica wildlife preserve. There are some awesome birdlife wondering around there. Pelicans, egrets, and many smaller shorebirds were there watching me while I painted.
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A quote I would love to live like a river flows
Carried by the surprise of its own unfolding
~ John O’Donohue
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