Pasture at Janet's Farm watercolor 5.5" x 8.5"

Study in watercolor. Sketch in preparation for a possible larger work. Those aren't splatter in the sky. I'm sure those must be birds flying off.

Watercolor sketch 5.5 x 8.5 (Strathmore Sketch book)

Sister Janet lives in Oregon writes poems, trains horses, and is a nurse. Her pasture.

Mena 8 x 10 Acrylic

Brodie in his wagon 8 x 10 Acrylic

This is the original study. Sometimes things work out better without planning or a drawing. Brodie will grow up in Lake Tahoe, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.

Childe Hassam at Work acrylic 10 x 12

I am reposting this one as I did a bit more work on it. Childe Hassam 1859-1935. This is from an old photo in a great work on Childe Hassan by Ulrich W. Hiesinger. It's to remind me of his working conditions. I like the street scenes and horse cabs Childe did before and just after his French stay. After a time he got too much into the French style of Impressionism but eventually returned to be an American style painter.

My first art teacher

When I was 12 an artist set up across the road from where I lived and painted our neighbors fields and barn. For over a week I stood just back of him each day after school. Somehow I knew not to bug him. He was the one who talked. I didn't have the sense that he was a great painter but someone fully engrossed in creating something special. In the following years I recreated his initial sketch many times -- a large mulberry tree towering over a few sheds and fruit stand just in the distance across the strawberry fields. And that's all I will say about that.

It wasn't until I took an art class at a junior college in Maui that I actually started painting.
The instructor let us go out and just paint. The smell of paint, and mediums drew me in. I took some lessons from Betty Brown in suthern California in portrait drawing. But then academic stuides took me away from painting for a number of years.

Thoughts on Painting

Since reading Richard Schmid's book, Alla Prima - Everything I know about Painting, my view of my personal painting journey has been affected. The thing to know about learning to paint is that every painting brings you one step closer to your goal of being a better painter. Learning to be an artist is a personal journey as varied as personalities and circumstances. The things you do while learning to paint are not necessarily things you will continue to do, but are stepping stones.
For example, using a photo to make a painting. Or copying the work of a famous painter to better understand his process. In the beginning there is no personal style. Personal style develops after painting number 2,634 or somewhere thereabouts. Everything up to that point is basic learning and fair game. Art is a way of looking at the world.

I recommend:
"Rolling Hills and Ranches" $65 [www.MALT.org] Marin county plein air painters
"Nature's Temple" $30 Paintings of William Wendt [www.Lagunaartmuseum.org]...