Crashing waves at Monterey

Knife painting from Monterey Plein Air Convention

Oil on Canvas 6x8

Annie

This is Annie. Right now she is still on the easel by the ficus tree... maybe finished... maybe subject to corrections. It's great to have her around the house.

Oil  on stretched canvas16x20

Painting Buddies

The plein air convention was really a hit.... lots of friend painters sharing experiences and stories.

oil on canvas  6x8

Asilimar Beach

One day while out painting I discovered it can become very cold at the ocean. the clouds, the wind and the drop in temp got to me really fast. A kind person loaned me a jacket but it was not enough. I think this took 5 minutes and I was out of there.... packed up and gone ... but it was a long walk to catch the bus that brought us. ... didn't take the bus any more and wore more clothes than was necessary.

Oil on canvas 6x8

Ocean Drive

Ocean Drive at Pacific Grove recently. A nice warm day. Lots of other painters out there.

8x10 oil on canvas

Shinin' Thru

One of the small works I have completed last month. I painted a number of these small works last month.... most of them are knife paintings...... mostly for practice and a learning experience. I may be going out East plein aire painting next month so I thought it might be nice to get up to speed. When painting out-of-doors there is a certain amount of speed that must be maintianed otherwise the light and shodows change so much we lose the scene.... so we sketch quickly. Better to do a small picture so that we can finish up and catch the essence of it all.

Oil on Gessoed Canvas 6x8

Cherry Tomatoes

Well the tomatoes are starting to ripen. Found this bowl of 'em out there just the other day.What a treat!

The smoke has cleared away... at least for today and yesterday and the temp has warmed up into the 95 area. Best to stay indoors and paint... or take a nap... or something. :-)

 I hope your life is going well too.

Quick Draw 2013

Every year there is a Quick Draw event... artists meet and do a plein air painting which is then auctioned off and the proceeds go for the benefit of Scenic Nevada ... a group that preserves the good things to look at around the State. Last year I was invited and this year I was invited back.... thank you ladies.
Unfortunately this year the event was in the heat of July and not too many people showed up ... but the one's that did had a great time and all the paintings were sold. The food was catered by a local restaurant which serves organic and local food. There was live music donated by a local group.

Stella

I don't think I posted this painting of Stella. Sometime we try new techniques and strokes. This was from a foto last Fall. Always nice to paint the family.

Oil on Canvas panel
11x14 inches

Gardening

 This year I had a small garden in the back year... not much of a back yard but a whooper of a garden. Notice my wooden planter box.... 18 inches tall .... but the tomato plants really took off ... they are huge. The zuccini's are not too small either. may even get something to eat this year. :-)

Desolation Wilderness

Yesterday Baron and I hiked up to the Desolation Wilderness ... at least t the Floating Island Lake. Great Hike... beautiful weather....wonderful scenery . We must do that again..... sooner.

It's me again!

Hi Guys
It's me again. Someone suggested that the blog page was a way to let y'all know I'm alive and doing something so I'm back. July was Reno is art town month... lots going on. ... but I was without my truck for most of the month. I think I got hosed. The mechanic changed an expensive electronic thermostat, the water pump, the sending unit before he figured out it was a clogged radiator ... but then it may not have been a clogged radiator... it may have been a bad radiator hose that was collapsing. I'll never know.
I visited the artists lofts in the old Riverside hotel a week or so ago.  Very interesting. It was converted into apartments some time ago... that didn't really work out so the mad the apartments into artist lofts. Now they are very interesting. Several artists opened their doors for visitors so we paraded thru.
Scenic Nevada held their annual Quick Draw ... a pleine aire paint out session where we sold the paintings at auction at the end.An interesting bunch of artists and a group of fine people showed up. The crowd was not as big as last year and most of the collectors were not there so the prices were somewhat lower. Sold all of the paintings anyway.
The Artist's Coop had their Rockin' Out show. this was a show where basically the paintings wre about rocks. I entered some of my little Arches paintings.... actually sold one.

Urban Roots, which is a charitable organization, had an open house during the Art Town festivities ..... live music, a tour of their gardens and an auction. One of my paintings was there.

The above painting is an artist's view of the pass just South of Gardnerville heading up into the HighSierras.

It's a funny thing about life

A soul cannot live without loving.-Catherine of Sienna

A group of two hundred executives were asked what makes a person successful. Eighty percent listed enthusiasm as the most important quality. - unknown

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.-Somerset Maugham

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.-Mother Teresa

We're traveling off to Navajo Land again .... Arizona ... land of wondrous piles of rocks and arches. OK... so I did not get to travel there.... but the fotos were awesome ..... still practicing for my trip to Arches National Park in Utah

Oil on canvas board 5x7

Genuine laughing

Genuine laughing is a vent of the soul, the nostrils of the heart, and it is just as necessary for health and happiness as spring water is for the trout.-Josh Billings

 Don't carry a grudge. While you're carrying a grudge the other guy's out dancing.-Buddy Hackett

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.-Anon.

 To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.-Bertrand Russel

This is painted from foto references ... not en plein aire... too bad..... it would have been nice to be there in person.

Oil on Masonite Board 9x12

Navajo-Hopi Reservation

Praise in public. Criticize in private.-Anon
 Some goals are so worthy, it's even glorious to fail.-Unknown
 If your life is free of failures, you're not taking enough risks.-Anon.
 Don't judge those who try and fail. Judge only those who fail to try.-Anon.

As if I went to the Navajo-Hopi reservation I researched the picture files and came up with this interpretation of a rock pile found there.

Oil on canvas board 8x10

Happiness is not the absence of problems; but the ability to deal with them.-Anon.
When you judge others, you are revealing your own fears and prejudices.Anon.
It's not how far you fall, but how high you bounce. -Anon.
Some goals are so worthy, it's even glorious to fail.-Unknown

OK... so I did not go over to Arizona to paint this one ..... it was an inspiration from a foto .. but it is on a 6x8

Oil on canvas board 6x8

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.- Aesop

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.-Cicero

Be all that you can be, but don't join the Army.-Paul Guttman

There is no security on earth, there is only opportunity.-General Douglas MacArthur


 so I had to do a self-portrait ... it wasn't fair all those other folks having all the fun :-)

Charcoal on smooth newsprint

An optimist

You have to recognize when the right time and the right place fuse and take advantage of that opportunity. There are plenty of opportunities out there. You can't sit back and wait. -Ellen Metcalf

An optimist is the human personification of spring.-Susan Bissonette

We need men to dream of things that never were.-John F. Kennedy

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.-Cicero

 I was the model today ... much fun
Here are the pix ..... of me and what was produced

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.- Madame Dorothee Deluzy

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.- Buddha

Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness.- Richard Bach

 I do the very best I know how-the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference. Abraham Lincoln


 Each Wednesday we head for the Portrait Society of Reno and paint from a live model. Today, it was none other than Renate, the longtime host and manager of the Portrait Society. I say "manager" because she has been doing it for forty years ... opening every Wednesday, contacting the model, setting up the model and then closing down.... quite a spell for doing a great job. There would be no Reno Portrait Society without her.

OK.... I painted her with a knife. Painting can be tough with a knife. Anyway, this actually looks like her... at least that's what she said.

Knife Painting Oil on 11x14 canvas board

The best way to cheer yourself up

The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up.- Mark Twain
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.- Albert Schweitzer
 Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards. - Vernon Sanders Law Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.- Oscar Wilde

Thinking of the sea again .... it was nice over there.

Oil on canvas panel  12x16

Happiness walks on busy feet

The habit of being happy enables one to be freed, or largely freed, from the domination of outside conditions. - Robert Louis Stevenson

You cannot be thankful and unhappy at the same time. - Anon.

Happiness walks on busy feet. - Kitte Turmell

You will never be happier than you expect. To change your happiness change your expectation. - Bette Davis

Today I painted a portrait with my knife .... a little bit trickier than with brushes..... and the results are much different ... but the likeness came out ok.

Knife painting oil on Masonite panel 9x12

The secret of happiness

The secret of happiness is curiosity.-Norman Douglas
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads. -Albert Camus
That all men are equal is a proposition which, at ordinary times, no sane individual has ever given his assent.- Aldous Huxley
All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.-George Orwell
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.- Albert Einstein
If you can't look at the other side of the story you are on the wrong side
If your party doesn't want you to see the other side of the story but follow it in blind faith you are trapped in a religion


High in the Sierra Nevada's there is the beginning of a stream, quietly, coolly meandering it's way down to the river below.

Oil on gessoed Masonite  9x12

Happiness is not the absense of problems but the ability to deal with them.-Anon.

 If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.-Katharine Hepburn

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads. -Albert Camus

If an idea's worth having once, it's worth having twice. Tom Stoppard

The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.Matthew Arnold


Today I went out plein aire painting at the Truckee River.

Oil on canvas panel  11x14

7 Pix

Here are my 7 pictures that are up for the show.
I only need 5.
Please vote for your choices of which 5 pictures you would enter in the show.
Let me know right away.


Thanks

To forget oneself is to be happy.-Robert Louis Stevenson

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.-John Gunther

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.-Colette

Happiness is not being pained in body nor troubled in mind.-Thomas Jefferson

The mini's continue

Oil on Panel 5x7

Happy is the man

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads. -Albert Camus

It is in virtue that happiness consists, for virtue is a state of mind which tends to make the whole of life harmonious.-Zeno

Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though t'were his own.-Johann von Goethe

 No man is happy unless he believes he is.-Publilius Syrus

Happy is the man who has love

Continuing the paintings for the mini show

Oil on panel 5x7

You can be happy!

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.-Norman Vincent Peale

 Happiness is not a station to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.-Margaret Lee Runbeck

The really happy man is the one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.-Anon.

 It takes great wit and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish. -Robert Henri

Can you be happy?
You can be happy!

This week I enter the Latimer Club's Mini show ... no paintings larger than 5x7.

Oil on canvas 5x7

To forget oneself is to be happy

To forget oneself is to be happy.- -Robert Louis Stevenson Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning out over the bad. It's simply a choice to take action.- Anna Lappe Happiness gives us the energy which is the basis of health.- Henri-Frédéric Amiel College isn't the place to go for ideas.- Helen Keller Revisiting old studies and making a few changes makes a big difference

oil on gessoed board 11x14

Nothing’s better

Nothing’s better than the wind to your back, the sun in front of you, and your friends beside you.- Aaron Douglas Trimble

I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.- Buzz Aldrin

The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.- Havelock Ellis

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.- Benjamin Disraeli

Behold ... another of the herbs in out herb garden...............

Pen &  Ink with water color pencils 4x10