Often, I see a scene I like but I am not sure how it will translate to a full-size painting. So I do a "study" -- a small painting to test out my ideas. Every so often, I just like the small painting the way it is and call it a day. "Sonoma Hay" is one of those paintings -- it's just 5 x 7 and I popped it into a standard size photo frame (with glass removed). It's the perfect size for a small wall, a side table or on a stack of books on a bookshelf. If you've wanted one of my paintings - here's a chance to get one for a song - just $150. It's available at Moss and Moss in Mill Valley.
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Three cheers for the Red, White and Blue! These painterly summer flowers are looking for a new home -- and the color combination is actually a lot more versatile than you might expect. Zoom in on this photo and you can see the actual brushstrokes and colors. Imagine it in a beach house, a summer cottage, or any room that needs a pop of color -- a kitchen, a hallway, a bedroom, a guest bath. Red, White and Blue is an 11 x 14 oil painted on canvas and framed in a classic light wood floating frame. The regular "Buy Now" price is $500, but to celebrate American Independence Day it will be sold tax-free to the highest bidder at auction. Starting bid is $150 - bid in increments of $10 - the auction ends Tuesday, July 3rd at 8pm Pacific. Collector gift certificates not valid for this sale, sorry. Shipping costs are extra. Interested? Leave your bid in the comments or on my Facebook Page. Northern California summer starts when the hills turn from green to yellow to gold. I've been painting outdoors a lot during the past few weeks and every day the changes become more obvious. I've got several plein air paintings in various stages of drying, waiting to be photographed and posted on my website. Plein air painting, while not officially a sport, is a good workout. First you have to pack your backpack (paints, thinner, brushes, palette, canvas panel, towels, garbage bags, clamps, bungee cords, sunscreen, hat, collapsible umbrella, water and a power bar) and your easel (in my case, a "guerilla" box and a tripod) and then drive to your previously scouted location. Then you either "car paint" if your vista is viewable from the side of the road or you hike. And then you stand for a few hours, stepping back and forth to check how the painting is coming along. So, if you see a painter on the side of the road while you are out for your run or ride, wave or say hey. We sports people need to stick together! Sunday, May 13 is Mother's Day in the United States. I want to pay tribute to my mother, Melita. She was a kindergarten teacher and our home was always filled with art supplies. She was always crafting or doodling and took adult education classes in drawing and painting. She taught the Arts and Crafts badge for my Brownie troop - we made papier mache sculptures. Macrame plant holders, beaded flowers -- every craft du jour happened in our house. She would have really liked my new art studio! Melita loved creating things and giving them away for others to enjoy. This Mother's Day, I'm honoring the joy and spirit she had for art by giving away a painting. Share a positive "MOM" comment on this blog post at my website and you'll be entered. Make sure you are on my email list so I can contact you if you win! My new art studio is getting organized, and today I put two paintings on my new drying rack (a re-purposed picture ledge from IKEA). These paintings are from my day being a painter in one of the gardens on the annual Outdoor Art Club tour in Mill Valley, California. I was stationed at a house with a wonderfully shady woodland creek where I found Calla Lilies in bloom. The finished painting will be a gift to the homeowner. She also had wonderful succulent plants, so I also painted a close-up of this Agave to add to my growing "Landscape Reductions" studies. Our local Mill Valley Patch online newspaper ran a really nice story called "Artists Flourish in Gardens of Delight" that featured the event and my participation in it. This is a really fun event for me -- besides getting to paint, I have a chance to visit with many local friends that are either volunteering or taking the tour. Another editorial feature this month was the inclusion of my painting "Geraniums" in Marin Magazine, leading off the Arts and Events Calendar. I entered their cover contest this year with another painting, but I didn't get accepted. Seeing this made everything feel just fine! So many wonderful things are happening, I'm going to celebrate by giving away a piece of art in May. If you aren't on my email list, sign up today, and you will get an email with all the details. Several months ago I was commissioned by the Innis Arden Golf Club in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, to create an historically-inspired painting for their clubhouse. The mandate was to portray the club as it existed at the turn of the 20th century, when it was a 9-hole private course located on Sound Beach (now Tod's Point), at the waterfront estate of J. Kennedy Tod. I was unable to travel to the site, so, with limited e-mailed reference material -- a small black and white photograph of golfers Sound Beach in 1901, a copy of a 1900 hand-drawn course map, new color photographs of the Innis Arden Cottage (which is now a community treasure on part of the town beach), and sleuthing on Google Earth -- I developed a plan to place the golfers in accurate perspective to the home and figured out the direction of sunlight for that location. I could take some artistic liberties to help tell the story. I chose the time of day (morning light) and season (late summer/early autumn), taking clues from the golfer's clothing. No one living today would know exactly what the golfers looked like and what specific plantings were around the home. At the same time, the painting needed to be an accurate impression of the site. Without the historic cottage and a specific pair of entry gates -- the painting could be three golfers anywhere along a coastline. Over several months, rough sketches and color studies, more photographs and videos created on iPhones were sent back and forth by e-mail with the client. My very patient husband stood in as a model for the kneeling golfer, as the reference photo was very dark, and I wanted to place him in a different direction to improve the composition. An online artist friend who lives in a nearby town kindly sent me some of his personal photographs of the area which helped me recheck the colors of sea, sand and sky. The finished painting measures 30 x 40 inches and will hang in the main entry of the modern-day Innis Arden Golf Club, which is a few miles away from Tod's Point. Sometime during the next year, I will see it in it's new home and give it a protective coat of varnish. Some things, you just have to do in person! I learned my color palette from a lineage of artists that traces its roots to Claude Monet. It was a thrill to see his actual palette on display at the Musee Monet Marmottan in Paris. (I found out photos were not permitted AFTER I took this one. Luckily my camera was not confiscated, and none of the museum attendants caught me photographing ALL the paintings downstairs.) I could see the familiar hues of yellow, red and blue -- though their names have changed over time. But what thrilled me was the mixtures they created. And what surprised me was the paint mixtures on the ages old palette seemed so untouched, uncleaned, and yet so fresh! When I finish painting at the end of a day, I scrape my palette and save the pure colors and then I scrape up all the bits of color with a palette knife into new mixtures and save them for another day. Though I don't have anything particular in mind for them, I am always amazed at how the same limited number of colors I use can make so many different shades. In today's batch alone, I came up with 7 different greens! When artists use the same consistent color paints, the finished painting has a color harmony. So when people say to me, "I love your color!" it's because it all comes from the same colors. I wonder if Monet kept his palette scrapings? Northern California weather has been extraordinarily mild and dry this winter. I know this is not a good thing for our snowpack water supply, but it has given me the opportunity to get outside and paint. I joined a "Meet-Up" group of plein air painters on the last Sunday of January in Sonoma County and had a great experience. The group loosely convened about 1 p.m.and wandered off in many directions. We gathered back together late in the afternoon and showed each other what we had accomplished. Here's a photo of my finished painting "Marsh and Mountain" on the easel. You can see my pencil sketch up in the corner. It's now ten days later, the paint is dry, the painting is framed and ready to be shown to prospective collectors at an event this weekend. After a busy holiday season, it feels great to be back in front of my easel. I am now working on a large commission painting of golfers in the landscape. The first step is a pencil sketch, followed by a small color study for approval by the client. The image you see here is only 6" x 8" - just big enough to capture the mood and color notes. The final painting will be 30" x 40"! I will never forget the feeling I had making this painting - my eyes, my hand and my brain were completely connected. It was the very first time I completed a painting in COLOR! It was just a few years ago, and I am ever grateful for the lessons I learned. On this day when we offer thanks for the bounty and blessings in our lives, I want to add thanks to the people who enrich my life - by teaching, by encouraging, by appreciating and by supporting my endeavors in art. |
About the artistLinda Rosso is a California artist who delights in the colors she sees out of the corners of her eyes. Read more... Get my blog via email:Please sign up for the Linda Rosso Studio email list -- you'll get occasional emails about shows, special offers, events and artist postcards you can hang on your refrigerator.
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