Alexander Valley got some long overdue rain today. After the shower I climbed up the hill to paint the dramatic clouds and admire the pooled shadows as they drifted over the vineyards.
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AV Post Rain
Tag: landscape
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Mom’s Driveway
View from my mom’s porch, overlooking Alexander Valley.
Funny story, I am in the process of selling my house and in preparation to put it on the market I painted and ended up with a bunch of empty house paint cans that needed to be recycled. Because of covid rules the guys at the county recycling drop off let you pull up and they grab all the paint from the car for you. Totally forgot that the box with all of my good oil paints were also in the car… I spent a week looking for my paints before I figured out what happened. I mourn the loss of my Genuine Vermilion from Rublex
On the upside, I got to go on a paint shopping spree today and rebuild my pallet! Wahoo! Nothing like clean un-mashed-up tubes.
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Smokey San Anselmo
Today would have been the kids third day back in school but this is 2020 so the school was closed because of bad air. The glass fire up in Napa is still raging and the smoke is now pouring into the Bay Area. Smoke means interesting landscapes though so I found my way to the El Camino Avenida overlook in San Rafael around sunset and painted the view looking back towards Red Hill and San Anselmo.
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In the shade of the oaks
It was very hot and dry in Alexander Valley yesterday. I spent my afternoon standing in the shade of an oak grove on the family ranch, painting one of the oak trees that survived last years fires. The threat of fire was everywhere, still. Ash scars and burned out stumps are in the foreground. Smoke from the glass fire currently raging over the hill near Mt. Saint Helena drifted into the Valley and filled the landscape with an ominous warm haze. Once again it is a tinder box.
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Mt. Tamalpais in the smoke
Rode my bike up the ridge above San Anselmo looking for something to paint. For me, painting Mt. Tam feels a bit like a Marin artist cliche and I usually try to avoid it, but this morning it looked very impressive in its veil of smoke from the fires in Sonoma and Napa.
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Death the Cat
Quick one hour painting done in Photoshop.
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Sierra Side Painting
After spending all day storyboarding action and drama, taking two hours to paint a landscape where nothing happens is pure self indulgence. Ok,got it out of my system, back to work.
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Brush Painting
Playing around with some new digital oil photoshop brushes by Kyle Webster.