After dinner I drove up the mountain towards the Geysers and pulled off at the first big pullout above the ranch. The sun was already down by the time I started painting and there were a lot of cows and flies to keep me company. This is the view looking south. No underpainting this time so I won’t be surprised if the colors sink by morning. 1hr ala prima color sketch.
Road the four wheeler up the hill and painted the view looking west towards Francis Ford Coppola winery. Once again, it got really windy. At this point I can’t remember what it’s like to paint when it’s calm. I struggled with the paint today butI like this view, I think I’ll try it again tomorrow.
Quick post sunset half hour color study. Looking west towards Healdsburg from Alexander Valley.
On the hill above my brothers place on a bright afternoon. It was mid day and way way too bright. My eyes were straining and everything got bleached out. I need to start adding my umbrella to the painting kit to balance out the colors.
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.
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.
Looking west over Alexander Valley. This is a plein air painting I made in the family vineyards. We were experiencing a heat wave that day and I started melting after three hours in the sun, so I painted what I could then turned tail and retreated to a swimming pool. A few days later I cleaned it up in the home studio.
It has been raining on and off for the last two weeks. I have been here in San Francisco for over a month now but have yet to find the time to go exploring. Painted this quick sketch late one night while waiting for my espresso to wear off.
I painted this ArtRage painting on my iPad at B.C. Womans hospital while my wife was in labor with our twin sons Wiley and Rudie. I won’t ever forget when or where I was when I made this painting!
It was near midnight and I was in the cement bunker like basement of the hospital. My heart was racing and I was terribly exhausted and anxious. To distract myself and pass the hours more quickly I sat in the lobby of the delivery room and painted this far off peaceful place.
It was an exciting morning. I discovered that the good folks over at ArtRage added script recording to their iPad app. After the download and a quick cup of coffee I started doodling this little mountain railway scene.
I was really geeking out over this new addition because a few weeks back I had requested this very feature and now it was a reality. Major props to the ArtRage dev team on this one. I’m sure the idea was in the pipes long before I had ever thought of it. Super fantastic, I can’t wait to see what else you have up your sleeves.
After exporting my thumbnail script I up-ressed the painting on the desktop app and went to town. This whole process worked exactly as I had imagined. With the newly expanded canvas on my mac I was able to really flush the painting out, smudge it up and add in a lot of detail that would have taken forever on the iPad.
I really like this new workflow. Its simple, straight forward and functional. I can see myself using this a lot in the future.