This is a plein air sketch I did last weekend at Marcia Burtt's property in Southern California. She is a fantastic artist, a gracious host, and a fountain of knowledge, which she shares generously. I had a great time with her.
This is a quick little palette knife sketch of the view from my studio in Penngrove in the early morning. I'll be doing a larger version of this scene at some point this summer.
This is a palette knife painting of a scene somewhere in Devon, I vaguely recall, that whooshed by me on the train to Plymouth to see friends in Cornwall last year.
I took that iPad painting I did the other day, cropped it to a square format, then painted a large interpretation of that, as it seems I wasn't quite done with the subject matter.
This is my first still life in ages. Now that I have a proper setup, thanks to my good friend and fellow artist Todd West, who built and installed two beautiful shelves in the art studio I'm renting, I will be doing more still life using flowers, such as these intensely fragrant roses that grow right outside the window. Thank you, Todd!
I set a new record for myself with this one: only 3 colors! And another record: it was done totally from memory. I can't even tell you the type of flowering bush this was. It was not a rose bush, that's all I know.
Another barn painting, this time on Davis Lane in Penngrove. The two sheep were hunkered down against this beautiful barn, perhaps awaiting a storm. The sheep, the gorgeous barn, the sunlight on the distant hills and that neon yellow mustard field in the mid-ground all begged to be painted!
This is painted from one of my "drive-by shootings," from the car as I was driving by this pink barn on Adobe Road in Petaluma. I did an iPad painting of it in a different format earlier, and left the brown railing out of this one, which I may add later.
This was a quick sketch using a photo of a painting I found online of this dog. I loved the perspective and, using the same limited palette I've been working with lately, bashed in the shapes over a dull orange ground, leaving bits of it poking through on the neck, mouth, and in the eyes. I used a cool, pale blue wash for the background, which gave it a pink glow. I quite like the effect.
Still working with a limited palette (5 colors, plus white), I'm learning what freedom is when the choices are few. I may tweak this one, but the exercise is essentially done. I love elephants in their natural environment, at peace with the world.
An iPad sketch that I hope to later turn into an oil painting. In this barn on the property where my art studio is, Robert creates lighting fixtures for restaurants and high-end residential interiors. The property also has vineyards and will be offering wine-tasting/aperitif-tasting soon.
I have rented a light-filled art studio where I can finally start producing some larger works. This was just for fun, an interpretation of a Roos Schuring painting to loosen me up for the bigger stuff, a Dutch tulip field.