A Summer Morning

The early morning and late-day light always grab my attention. The shadows that rake across the landscape and the golden hues of the light call me to paint.

This is a barn in northwest Michigan that I drive by regularly, always seeing it at different times of the day. I have done a couple of small paintings of it now and have in-mind a large one.

Early light, white barn, oil, 8" x 10"

A trip to California

Last month I had the great pleasure to spend a week in and around Santa Barbara, California, with local, resident painter Marcia Burtt.

I first met Marcia when I took one of her workshops in Sedona, Arizona, in 2007. That was really the start of plein air painting for me. After admiring her work online for quite a while, and dreaming of spending more time painting, I took the plunge and was hooked. I've kept in-touch with her since and last year saw that she was offering kind of a mentoring, one-on-one time of painting together for artists, so I took her up on it. I stayed a few nights in the apartment connected to her Gallery in-town and then a few nights at her ranch about an hour-and-a-half up in the hills. We painted together every day, first at some of the Santa Barbara beaches that I have come to know from her decades of painting there, and then familiar scenes around her ranch.

Marcia paints with acrylic, which have always frustrated me with their quick drying time, but it's still great to watch and learn from her.

Here are some of the paintings I completed there. I have several more that need some touch-up.

Butterfly Beach, oil, 11" x 14"
Late-afternoon, oil, 8" x 10"
Afternoon field, oil, 9" x 12"
Oak on Quail Mountain, oil, 12" x 16" SOLD