Painting the morning in the night

Last night I guided a small group through a paint and wine class at Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  One of my students had already taken classes with me, including the Absolute Beginners class and was happy to work through this painting  of winter solstice sunrise across the Salton Sea to hone some of the skills.

We’re doing an underpainting to get rid of the white so in the final painting we’re not strugging with that aspect

We’re painting the sky part of the top coat

It’s easier to paint the bottom of the panel when it’s upside down.

Adding the sun.

All done!

 

Jan Wright solo show.

On Friday I had the pleasure of hanging Jan Wright’s solo show at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.

And here’s Jan herself with my personal favorite in the show.

Here reception will be on October 20th, 4-6pm.  Please join us if you are in the area, or please share this message!

Monthly newsletter

Well, I guess I must be getting old because when I came to schedule the posting of September’s newsletter, I discovered I’d forgotten to post August’s newsletter to WordPress.  So if you only follow me on WordPress you get a double header.  If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you get a repeat!

Anniversary at the Vanguard

My strong association with the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – I teach there, curate about a third of the year’s shows and sit on the advisory committee – goes back pretty much to its inception 7 years ago.  For August Rick didn’t have a theme he wanted to work on and I couldn’t find another artist so I had to fill the walls myself.  I had lost track of the years, but the reception is going to be the 7th Anniversary of the Vanguard.  A few special items will be scheduled, including a mini petting zoo with some rabbits and birds, and probably Rick will come up with some other things between now and then – then being August 11th 5-7pm.  In the mean time, here’s the show wall of the gallery.

Monthly newsletter

I seem to be competing so much these days!!….. Here’s my monthly newsletter.

Monthly newsletter

This month is shaping up to be really interesting – as you can read in my Newsletter.

One of the things that I didn’t mention is that I’m also involved in curating another solo show at the Vanguard Gallery, this time for long-time associate Nick Foschi.   I’ll get to hang two shows in two days.  About 50 linear feet for Nick and about 7 for me!  Just hoping that my flu symptoms wane enough to give a demo/talk on Wednesday evening in Redondo Beach.

Abstract Painting by Nick Foschi.

 

Jumping from one space to another.

The last few days have been so busy – no blogging!  I taught a class yesterday and forgot to take pictures! Ugh.  Anyway, I do have some news from the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – where I will be teaching tomorrow and Thursday.  I will try harder to remember to take photos!  You might get a preview of the show he mentions in the background.

 

Good copies

Underpainting going down

On Friday I ran the Paint-the-night event at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley – and had 11 students, many of whom knew each other, so they were enjoying the evening together.  We painted a scene from an open road through fields in the Ojai area – a painting I’d completed in watercolor many years ago and thought would work well as a paint night subject.

Filling in the grassland.

One of the thing that I tell students at these evenings, is that their painting is not going to look exactly like mine – which is why art forgers are paid so much.

 

 

Fences going in.

However this group all got really close to the painting we were working from!  The main difference was that I had yellow ochre deep – vs yellow ochre which I usually work with, and as I hadn’t used this before, I hadn’t realized how dull this color is compared to regular ochre.  I figure I learn something in every class too, so this was it for this one!

Most of the graduates. One had to go home because her baby was crying.

Birdy, birdy.

Three concentrating on making round blue blobs into birds.

Last night there were three students at the Paint-the-night evening at the Vanguard Gallery in Moreno Valley.  I’ve guided a different group through this painting before, in case it seems familiar, but they were all first time bird-watchers. They all had a lot of fun, and are looking forward to a different painting next month.  If you’re in the area, and you’re interested, it’s on June 23rd.  A great way to celebrate a TGIF.

Variations on a theme.

 

 

A big class!

We were meant to be 16 but one student had babysitter problems at the last minute – so 15 ladies, 10 of them from Morongo Casino came to Vanguard Gallery last night to paint Cottonwood Creek.  I didn’t take many pictures during the later stages as with 15 that was a lot of time that I needed to give individual help to the members of the group.  A few snuck off at the end to grab a burrito next door so not all are holding their finished work, but you can see just about all the paintings that were completed.

Underpainting.

Making Progress

Working on clouds

Some of the graduates

Next month on Aug 25th we’ll be painting a sunrise (see below).  If you’re in the area and would like to join the class, please contact Rick either through the Vanguard Gallery website or by calling him at (562) 556 5178.  Please call him by August 23rd, though as we may have shopping to do.  At the last minute we had to turn away four people because we didn’t have the supplies for additional students and it was too late to acquire them.