painting in Santa Barbara

When I was out painting last week, a vacationing couple happened by and saw me at work. They asked if they could take a picture and I said "Of course!", I don't mind. But I hoped they'd send me a copy, and they did! How fun. I don't get a lot of shots of me at work, so this is neat to see. Great photo. THANKS SO MUCH!

portrait commission

When I was out painting the Santa Monica pier last week I met a gentleman and his mom out walking in Palisades Park. I gave him my card and out of the blue a couple days later he called and commissioned me to paint a portrait of his mom before she left town. So I went back out to Santa Monica today and did a plein air, alla prima portrait. It was like doing a 20 minute portrait except with much more beautiful light and having a much more leisurly fours hours to paint. What fun! A beautiful model and a beautiful day. oil on canvas, 20 by 16

The California Art Club 2009 Gold Medal Show

This painting got into the California Art Club Gold Medal show which opens SATURDAY, APRIL 25th at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. This is a plein air urban landscape from the corner of 7th and Hope in downtown Los Angeles, oil on canvas, 36 by 18 inches. In addition to this painting, I also got a 6 by 9 inch painting of MacArthur Park in the show, in the 'miniature' section. I like both these pieces and I think they will be a hit at the show! The opening night on Saturday is $75 for a ticket, but it's open to the public on Sunday for regular museum admission. I'll be there that day from 3pm until they close if you'd like to meet me and check out the art!

Here's another link to see the paintings for sale: https://www.californiaartclub.org/resources/98th/schaefer.html

Santa Barbara Pier

I just found out my motel had an internet connection, so I can post today's painting! Today was completely different weather. Totally socked-in in with heavy fog in the morning and then overcast the rest of the day. But hey at least it was consistent! I got to explore a different color palette and value arrangement here which was really fun and it's own challenge. So here's the Santa Barbara Pier on a cold grey day. oil on canvas, 12 by 36

santa barbara

I'm spending a couple days in Santa Barbara relaxing for the spring break and doing some painting. Here's a plein air of the marina. What a challenging subject! I was painting in a state of confusion for about the first 2 hours because it all felt like a big jumble-puzzle but there was a moment when the painting started to "click" for me and everything started to make sense. But I tell ya, there was a moment I wanted to throw in the towel! So I thought of Let's Paint TV, I persevered, I kept throwing down the paint and everything came together in the end. oil on canvas, 24 by 30

Santa Monica Pier

I haven't posted in a bit because I've been floundering with watercolor and not interested in posted my dirty laundry. But you know, everything that frustrates me with watercolor doesn't exist in oil! In oil there's no such thing as "Oh no! I got too dark!"... No you just scrape it off and slop light paint on top of it. What fun! It was blue skies everywhere today so I headed out to Santa Monica to paint. The temperature was PERFECT! Today I'm officially done with teaching for Fall and have the next term off so this painting felt like a great start to SUMMER! woo hoo! oil on canvas, 24 by 48

union station

I went down to Union Station with a small canvas to do a sketch of the station from across the street. It was for the location part of the digital landscape class I'm co-teaching. This is obviously the painting part of the class! It was fun and a beautiful day. oil on panel, 20 by 16

Later that night I was at the Hive Gallery for their FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY show! What a crowd. Everyone should try to come out for Art Walk! I did a couple quick sketch portraits and this one I especially liked. oil on panel, 14 by 10

Let's Paint TV

This is the place to recharge your creative juices! DaDa eat your heart out! Let's Paint, Exercise, and make fried, iced, blended, lemon, carrot, tortilla pancakes!

Zolita Sverdlove

I met Zolita a few years ago through a mutual gallery in Pasadena. She is my top favorite painter in LA! She has a terrific website here: www.love-art.com I'm glad to have gotten to know her, I consider her my mentor and a good direction to aim for spending a life painting because she continues to see the adventure in it and while she is older than me, her painting is younger! I visited her studio and took some photos, here are some of her recent works and a good shot of her standing next to a near 40 year old self portrait. awesome!