Petaluma Weeping Willow, oil 11"x14"

Spring Weeping willow tree in Petaluma-color will symbolize the time of year!

"Sentinel Rock" oil 12" x 16" was selected for Yosemite museum"s permanent collection, I am thrilled.  Perhaps because it was painted on location, it captured the imagination of the staff? It is the view from Yosemite Lodge's front entrance, perhaps that is why? What do you think?
If we were to ask a scientist: a color specialist in what attracts the human eye, what would they say? They would say it is the warm yellow orange color!
What is your answer now? Do you believe science? Painters can paint outside of the box, but can viewers see outside the box?

"orchard" 11"x14" oil

Get ready for Spring! It's not too early to practice Spring colors in the studio and how you want to scale the image on canvas or paper. Try out warm reds and cool reds to understand the range of pinks that you can make. All this practice makes painting in the field easier!

I am back from Pierce Point where I enjoyed a day with Pt Reyes painters and teaching at the Field Institute-outdoors of course. Outdoor painters encounter some of the toughest conditions-wind, clouds, cold, rain in the forecast. But when I arrived it was beautiful with a light breeze and sun and intermittent fog-a normal day at Pt Reyes Seashore.
Those that chose to "show up" as my friend Jennifer points out were winners! We painted.
Even if your painting isn't fabulous the experience of practicing, showing up and getting in the right frame of mind is well worth your time. Next time you will be more prepared!

January day and the ice is thick and the sky feels heavy. Who wants to paint such a cold scene? I was out x-country skiing and saw this and immediately wanted to capture the cold.
I tell my students, make it warm enough to want to look at the painting! It was warm enough for me to be skiing and this means that the filtered light and low light of winter is still light and still inviting, just as is the atmosphere of this January day.

Here is "Coast Range" one of my large landscape oil paintings. "How does one stay interested in painting," my aunt asked me during a holiday gathering.
The question sounded strange and foreign. However in my classes I see such a lack of direction or at a minimum students that cannot relate "study" as part of painting.
Painting has become entertainment and therapy. Students complain that they did not "mean" to do the elements in a painting, but they don't relate "study" with meaning.

This is painted with my left hand. I am right handed and I see right-handed because almost all my bird paintings have the birds facing to the right. Understanding how one sees is as important as what one sees.
Does your painting  at the end of a painting session look"wrong"? It may only be the way the birds are facing and the lingering experience of physically seeing backward that makes us feel the painting is wrong. Neither is wrong but a new sensation and a new beginning!