Magic Days

As the Valley gets more beautiful each day I marvel at the dusty light, the cottonwoods turning, maples still yellow, walking along the Merced for hours.  I went up to paint again yesterday but ended up walking and looking and absorbing this beautiful fall.  It seems the Valley has "emptied" out of cars and people, and each day is lazy with color and light. Makes me a little lazy.  I'm taking a lot of photographs but mostly taking a little time to sit, to take it all in.  I sat by the river yesterday and heard deer walking nearby.  They, browsing for lunch.  Me, still, and watching.  Then they took time to groom themselves, this mother and child, using their rough tongues, preening and caring for each other. Observations like this are pure magic.  For them, daily routine. 

This morning I'm in the studio finishing a commission due soon.  I'll paint along the river later when the sun wanes, and connect again to this fall magic.    

Up-coming events:   Yosemite Christmas Bazaar at Curry Village, Yosemite Valley, on Dec 5, 10 - 6pm.  I will be showing small paintings, prints, and cards.  It is a fun social event for our community and I connect with old friends.

El Portal Open Studio here in El Portal on Dec 13 with a fine group of local artists.  More next week.  But I'm back to taking all this fall color into my expanded stored memory.    

After the Storm

After the Storm" is an acrylic on canvas done in the Valley yesterday among lots of painters who are taking a watercolor class in the Yosemite.  I think there are about 100 of them!   I know one of the instructors and had fun visiting his group that were working outdoors.  I enjoyed watching a woman doing a charcoal who has macular degeneration.  She was not young but I thought she was very brave.  And it was a lovely piece!  

The Valley is cool again, with snow down the walls almost to the floor and it was a magnificent crisp fall day.  I decided to paint the overhang area to the left of the Lower Yosemite Fall as it was washed clean and sparkling in the sun.  I used a large canvas (24 x 24").  The black oaks still have their orange leaves on after about 3" of welcomed rain.  I'm trying to work looser and larger with the acrylic and feel this piece is heading in the direction I'm aiming for.   I just can't get enough of painting Yosemite these days.  And the fall is so magical.

Here is a photo of some young friends who visit me regularly.  They like to come by the studio to see what color I'm using.  Their comments are delightful but I also listen very carefully to the advice they give because they tell it like it is.  How refreshing is that!!! 

Good Storm

Rain, heavy with thundershowers, pelted my metal roof for the last couple of days so I worked in the studio instead of painting outdoors.  We are all most grateful for the moisture and think we got about 2 solid inches, with more on the way.  Good start.  The land has been so thirsty, so dry, and plants have really been stressed.

The second painting is the Cerro Fizroy in Patagonia one of four projects I've been working on for the company called PATAGONIA for T-shirts.  I have sent the Yosemite work to them, and some animals, and this is the other idea my contact was looking for.  I'm going to do it again as I want to use a palette knife to block in these great rocks.  What a mountain range!  There is nothing quite like it in the Sierra.  

The first painting is a final version of "Onion Valley" which I did a series of in this area in the Eastern Sierra for a collector who loves to hike here.  He bought two that I did, and this one he left behind, and I've been working on it for some time as I was not happy with it.  I simplified the forest below hoping the sharp cliffs on the left would be most prominent.  It has been back and forth on this piece whereas the others came to me like 1-2-3.  Funny how hard some paintings are and others seem to just spill onto the surface.    Stop by the blog next week.  I'm painting a lot!

Art Connection

 

I was invited to do a painting demo for the Yosemite Western Artists in Oakhurst in the charming, if tenderly old Gertrude School House last Saturday.  It is my goal to do some teaching this next year and this group of artists were fun and receptive to my different painting style. It takes me about an hour and a half to drive over there, but I stopped and did some drawings of fields and pines along the way.  The fall color was peaking and I enjoyed driving West for a change.  Usually I'm driving East to the High Country.  It was fun to connect with other artists and share ideas.  This event showed me how much I enjoy art making with others.

I did find it challenging to talk and paint as I worked on a large drawing of Half Dome I'd done in the Valley in early spring.  My focus is strong while drawing which was detailed enough to do a painting. I got a little lost for a while where Washington Column meets Half Dome, but I think I fixed it.  I'll look at it in a few weeks and work on it more.

We discussed painting tools after the demo but my favorite question was why I used red in the painting -- my answer was that it was so exciting and I want people to look in that area.  It was a good question because red appears only subtly in natural conditions.  I explained that I paint from my heart and less from my head.  What I like about connecting with others is that I have to articulate what I am doing when usually these thoughts lie dormant in my diminished brain power.  But I forgot to mention that I'm highly intuitive when working outdoors, and I only engage more analytical thinking back in the studio.  

Charlotte Hoffman took these photos of me painting and Half Dome is backwards in some because we used a mirror.  The lesson, again, is that painting is a process, a journey that we take with each new subject.  I often say to myself that the minute I start painting, I am faced with a whole new set of problems.  But this is also the fun part!  The first photo is when I stopped the demo.  

Today I'm working on the Fitzroy image for a PATAGONIA T-shirt design.   Until next week . . 

First Street Gallery Visits El Portal

Carol and Glenn Skoogland, owners of The First Street Gallery in Turlock, stopped by to say hello while on a trip to Yosemite Valley.  Sadie (my cat) immediately took to Carol and they became great pals!  We had a good visit and they were very kind to take my miniature watercolor paintings back with them for The Miniature Show starting November 10th - through December 12.  The reception is Nov. 21 from 

6-8pm.  It's a wonderful gallery and there's an incredible assortment of artists gathered there.  They have original work, prints, beautiful glass and sculpture, carvings, and jewelry.  They are wonderful at framing and are always bailing me out of my framing faux pas.  Check their website to see the collection of Central Valley artists:  www.fsgallery.net.

More fall color paintings -- Pushing color right now and at the same time working hard on values.  The Mt. Hoffman painting is done with a red forest and a painting I did in strong wind at the top of Tioga Pass on the edge of the cliff on my birthday.  What a way to celebrate! And, of course, a fantastic dinner at THE MOBLE GAS STATION  I can't believe this road can close at any time -- but I'm going over every chance I get to paint.  

More paintings next week, Penny

Paintings This Week

Fun week painting with a group of painters.  We dealt with smoke from some control burns, but it made a beautiful haze over everything.  The fall color is slow this year and my friends were a little disappointed but this never seems to slow my color down.  My imagination runs wild in the fall, and the paintings get brighter and brighter.  

Today I'm back in the Valley to paint on my own and will focus on rock formations as I have some strong images in my mind.  I'm quite torn as I'd also like to paint in the High Country, but the cloud cover is going to be a problem with too little light.  I had a great time painting last week and enjoyed the group critique's and companionship.  It was fun!  But I prefer painting alone as I can really focus.  I get lost in each painting, and each time I start a new work, I'm captivated by the scene.  Time with each painting brings a special appreciation and knowing of nature's beauty.  Every time I start a new piece, there is a new set of problems to solve, but it was fun last week to be able to verbalize problem solving with other painters even if I did not always agree.  We are all struggling to understand value, color, and composition.   I'll always be a student of painting.  Till next week .. . ...

OPEN STUDIO this Saturday & Sunday

Over 80 artists are participating in Art Trails this weekend in Mariposa and Oakhurst, so come on out to see us!  I'm at Ann & Ralph Mendershausen's studio at 3287 Usona Ridge Road (Usona Rd. is off Highway 49 S) and we'll be showing our latest work in paint and in clay.  Also, that talented Becky Caraco will be with us with her glass beads and jewelry and other neat glass work.  If you have any questions, give us a call -- 209.742.7734.  Wild beasts in clay, functional vases and bowels, original paintings of trees, lakes, and mountains in colorful acrylic paint, along with prints and cards.  Hope to see you.

The two mountain paintings above just sold.  I had a commission to paint these peaks from one of my collectors, and he came this past weekend and wanted them both.  I drove to the top of Onion Valley out of Independence, CA as this is a place my collector loves to hike in.  These mountains are awesome and I was very inspired.  The eastern Sierra still is still my favorite place to paint.  I'm going again tomorrow!