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Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

acorts — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 22:10:53 +0000

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

As my late father used to say: “Spring has sprung. The grass has ris. I wonder where the flowers is?” Well, they’re right there on my kitchen table, trumpeting sunshine on a gray, rainy day. Thanks, Patty, for the loan of the Mason jar; somehow it seemed just right.

I’ve changed the name on my site to “Paintings from the Napa Valley.” A painting a day is unrealistic right now. Maybe some day . . . for the time being, I’m shooting for a couple of paintings each week. Stay tuned.

8 inches by 6 inches. Oil on canvas.

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Two Red Bartletts

acorts — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:49:41 +0000

Thank goodness for pears! Their long-keeping quality gives artists something to paint when there’s precious little fresh off a tree. I set up most of the still lives I paint on my kitchen table where strong sunlight streams in through a neighboring window around mid-morning. I really like the pronounced contrasts in light and shadow, known in the art world as “chiaroscuro”. The term developed during the Renaissance and meant, literally, “light-dark.” It started when artists drew on colored paper and added white highlights with white gouache and shadows with dark watercolor. The term quickly expanded to mean any strong contrast in illumination between light and dark areas in a painting or drawing. At any rate, I kind of hooked on it.

6 inches by 6 inches. Oil on gessoed canvas.

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If you’d like to receive “A Painting a Day from the Napa Valley”, just click on the “Contact” button (above right) and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

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Rossi Ranch

acorts — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:13:57 +0000

As I mentioned before, my folks lived on Whitehall Lane in St. Helena and this iconic scene was something we witnessed daily through the window over their kitchen sink for the thirty years they lived there. I learned recently that the Land Trust of Napa County entered into a conservation easement on the 52-acre ranch, “ensuring that the highly visible parcel (between Whitehall and Zinfandel lanes, on the west side of Highway 29), will retain its picturesque rural charm for generations to come.” The Rossi family farmed the land continuously from 1906 until the death of Louise Rossi in 2008. The barn and the water tower were built in 1908. Quite a slice of Napa Valley history.

7 inches by 5 inches; oil on gessoed hardboard.

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If you’d like to receive “A Painting a Day from the Napa Valley”, just click on the “Contact” button (above right) and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

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The Braeburns: Jr. and Sr.

acorts — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:41:03 +0000

I have to admit that I’d never tasted a ‘Braeburn’ apple before; I picked these up at the market simply because they were so beautiful. Wikipedia says that the variety is thought to be a cross between ‘Granny Smith’ and ‘Lady Hamilton’, and that “it it believed to have been discovered as a chance seedling in 1952” in an orchard in New Zealand. Wikipedia goes on to say the “they are known to have a burst of flavor when bitten into.” I’ll say! The taste is a combination of sweet and tart and really pronounced. Sitting in the morning sun on my kitchen table, they looked like they were “plugged in,” illuminated from the inside.

7 inches by 5 inches. Oil on canvas.

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If you’d like to receive “A Painting a Day from the Napa Valley”, just click on the “Contact” button (above right) and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

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Big Bowl of Small Mandarins

acorts — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:02:20 +0000

I bought this big net bag filled with mandarins the other day – more than I could possibly eat – but I could paint them. I poured them into one of the many blue-and-white porcelain bowls my late father, the sea captain, brought back from the Far East a long time ago. Right around mid-morning, the sun streams onto my kitchen table, bright and strong, creating the intense light and dark shadows I really like.

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If you’d like to receive “A Painting a Day from the Napa Valley”, just click on the “Contact” button (above right) and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

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Silverado Trail, Looking North

acorts — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:30:06 +0000

I caught this scene last winter, just as the last of a big storm was passing through the valley. It’s looking north, up Silverado Trail, in between Yountville and Oakville. Given the passing clouds, there was a lot of movement in the scene – not only with the clouds, but their shadows on the ground below. It’s amazing how quickly the grass turns its winter green after only a couple of storms.

8 inches by 6 inches. Oil on gessoed hardboard.

Click on image to enlarge.

If you’d like to receive “A Painting a Day from the Napa Valley”, just click on the “Contact” button (above right) and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

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Four ‘Meyer’ Lemons

acorts — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:41:20 +0000

My friend, Sean, walked into my kitchen the other day and found me painting away. “Things a little lean?” he asked. “Ah, yep,” was my reply.

Regardless of the motivation, it’s good to be painting again. Each scene presents its own challenge and I enjoy the process. Once started, it’s easy to get lost in the moment, a state I refer to as “Zen-ing out”, in which it’s pretty easy to have hours pass in a seeming instant. That said, I’ve also been know to Zen-out while ironing, not to mention pulling weeds . . .

This is high season for citrus around here. It’s a little strange that a fruit held in such high esteem by the rest of the world – for its flavor and its rarity – is practically ubiquitous in my neighborhood. My neighbor across the street has a shrub that reaches the eaves of his house and it’s just laden with fruit – hundreds of them. I must say though, that as prevalent as they are here, I hold them in high esteem myself, and find it easy to celebrate their beauty, aroma, and unique flavor. Another reason to love living in California.

Oil on gessoed hardboard. 7.5 inches by 6.5 inches. Click on image to enlarge.

If you’d like to receive “A Painting a Day from the Napa Valley”, just click on the “Contact” button (above right) and I’ll be happy to add you to the list.

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Vine Maple

acorts — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 01:05:03 +0000

I’ve always liked vine maples or, as they are sometimes called, Chinese lantern plants, (Abutilon hybrids), but just planted my first one last fall. I pruned it last week and was surprised to see it was already producing flowers. They don’t so much hang from the branches, as “dangle,” much like colorful paper lanterns. Very cool plant, best in dappled shade. Prune and pinch regularly or the plants will become leggy. I put the branches in a vase by Kathy Kearns, who owns Crockett Pottery here in the Bay Area. For my Kansas City friends, you might be interested to know she graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute. She really knows her cobalt blue! You can see her wares at www.crockettpottery.com. 7 inches by 7 inches. Watercolor on cotton rag paper. Click on image to enlarge.

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Yellow Trumpets

acorts — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:44:32 +0000

When I looked at these daffodils on my kitchen table this morning, they looked like trumpets raised in the air, playing their music with abandon. If they were playing music, it was definitely “yellow.” Or maybe they were just celebrating the return of the sun and warm weather after so many days of cold and rain. Good to memorialize such a pleasant event. 8 inches by 8 inches. Watercolor on cotton rag paper. Click on image to enlarge.

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Green Apples

acorts — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:29:51 +0000

It’s been a while since I posted a painting. Seems I got stuck on a painting of Mt. Tamalpais and, it remains stuck. Moving on, I decided to try something different. A friend gave me a book on Lars Jonsson, a wildlife painter from Sweden. He has an unusual watercolor style, which I tried to emulate, using bigger brushes and less layering of color. The idea for the painting came from my friend, Gene Lyerla. Back in the day his family owned Lyerla Brothers Apples – an orchard and packing facility up on Mt. Veeder here in Napa. As a kid, he remembered the packers wrapping the apples in purple tissue paper. It made a lasting impression on him; just the description impressed me enough to try a painting of the combination. 7 inches by 7 inches. Watercolor on cotton rag paper. 7 inches by 7 inches.

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