High Sierra Painting Trip

I just returned from a week in the mountains.  A group of us (10 artists in all) packed into Chicken Foot and Gem lakes off the Rock Creek trail in the eastern sierras.  This was a trip designed to let us focus on painting, so we had mules bring in the bulk of our supplies and a cook for the duration to keep us well feed.  

I had fantastic time and the days quickly flew by.  Each day went something like this:

-          Wake at dawn (or earlier)

-          Grab of cup of coffee head off to do a morning painting

-          Breakfast at 8:30 or so

-          Pack up a lunch for the day

-          Head off to some more distant lakes or views and spend the late morning and afternoon painting

-          Return for dinner

-          Hang around drinking wine and swapping stories and tried to stay awake until 9pm (without much luck)

I don’t have time for a long post (I’ve got a big backlog of framing to get to for a Sept 10^th show), but Terry Miura is posting a fabulous day-by-day account of the trip that you can read about here:

    http://terrymiura.blogspot.com/2011/08/sierra-pack-trip.html

 OK - I'm going to get back to framing now ...

Figure in the Landscape

I've recently completed this painting, and have noticed that for the first time figures have started making appearances in my landscapes.

As humans, we are naturally drawn to any figures or people that appear in paintings.  I've been trying to add these figures in such a way that they are not the immediate focus of the painting, but rather fun discoveries one can make while looking more closely.

In this painting the figures are particularly small.  Click on it to see a larger image of the painting if you can't find them ...

http://timonsloane.com/artwork/gallery2/v/Hidden-Cove-900px.jpg.html

What I particularly like is that by using figures I can more explicit control the sense of scale in the painting.  In pure landscapes, it can be hard to imply the true sense of grandeur or vastness of a scene.  With a figure added, we suddenly read everything in relation to the scale of the figure.

http://timonsloane.com/artwork/gallery2/v/Making-Memories-900px.jpg.html

Timon Sloane TV Interview

I did an interview for a local TV program a few months ago.  In the interview I talk about plein air painting and the process of painting landscapes from life.  If you're interested, have an look and let me know what you think ...

Timon Sloane Video Interview

If you have any trouble viewing it, please drop me an e-mail.  This is the first time I've integrated a video into my website, and the process of converting the video format and installing a flash video viewer wasn't as trivial as one might hope/expect.  Youtube makes it look so easy :-)

Carmel Art Festival

I had a really fun week at the Carmel Art Festival last week.  I looked all foggy and overcast as we were checking in, but then magically the skies cleared and we had really nice weather for both of the painting days.  Aside from some high winds, it was perfect.

I was up in the dark painting in the morning, and painting through sunset each day.  Here's a painting I did from the road overlooking the Carmel River.  This was a good evening spot given that it was protected from the winds coming off the ocean.

"Cypress With A View"
Pastel
9x12
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The show days (Saturday and Sunday) we didn't have quite the same luck.  There was some rain on Sunday, but overall it was bearable.

I love Carmel.  It really is my favorate place to paint.  There's so much variety and beauty in such a condensed area.  And since Monterey is a peninsula, I can find morning and evening locations with terrific lighting by flipping back and forth between eastern and western views.

Capturing a brief moment

I was out painting on the coast a few weeks ago, and as the sun was coming up there was this brief moment when the ocean's foam glowed as it reflected the pink light of the sky.  I did a quick plein air study, and then just recently did this small version of the scene for an upcoming mini show ...

A Moment of Pink Foam, Pastel, 6x6
Click here for more info

One of the great things about plein air painting (vs painting from photos) is the opportunity to meld together a series of visual phenomena that might occur over the course of doing a painting.  This is one perfect example of such a 'mash up', and I named the painting to reflect the fleeting nature of the moment.

Evening's Inkling

 Just recently finished an 18x24 pastel, starting it from plein air studies and then finishing it in the field.  I like working this way, but an 18x24 is a bit unwieldy when it gets windy.

Evening's Inkling, Pastel, 18x24
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You can find more info here:
http://www.timonsloane.com/artwork/gallery2/v/Evening_s-Inkling-900px.jpg.html

Recent Painting & Morro Bay Workshop

I just finished this painting from a number of studies I did over the last few months.  I started this in the studio and then took it on location to finish it off ...

"Pacific Gateway", Pastel, 18x24
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I was also just invited to teach a pastel workshop in Morro Bay, CA in April.  Click here if you'd like to learn more.