Our class has been painting in this beautiful setting called "Portola Pastures."  Scenery is gorgeous with stables,  horses and magnificient Eucalyptus trees.  What more can an artist want. 

Pears and Silver Mug

This is the first time that I have done a silver object.  I do enjoy painting pears - there's something so voluptious about them.  Hope to do some more soon.

Village of Brantes, Provence

Brantes is one of the beautiful villages in Provence that I visited last July with my art teachers Brigitte Curt and Jim Smyth.
We painted at the bottom of the hill looking up at the village.  Later we climbed up to Brantes, sketched and had lunch.
It was one of the many memorable experiences of this trip.  This particular painting was not done in situ, but later from the study, and using a photo as reference. 

White Pitcher on yellow drape

Another still-life done in class. White objects and drapes were the challenge last week. Getting the texture of the white object is also very challenging. The texture of my pitcher looks like ceramic while the actual pitcher was porcelaine.

I thought it looked pretty good and didn't want to smooth it out further to give it a more polished look resembling t porcelaine. Too worried about ruining it.

But, I will do it again and try to come closer to the texture of the real object.

Lemon and Blossoms

This painting was done in the still-life class that I am currently attending.
I am learning to recognize values and to simplify them to the main three - dark, light and medium. Then, of course, come all the in-between these three. Sounds easier than it is, but with practice I hope to reach a better understanding of it.

Reflections in the water add interest to the painting, I believe. I love to paint them. Tell me what you think?

Bayland Marsh

There will be a lot of scenes from the Baylands because this is the primary location where I paint with my " En Plein Air " class. The location is beautiful. We have everything, land, trees and water. We only have to paint it beautifully. The location, itself is very inspiring.