Social Justice in Moraga

Long time no see – but just because it was summer vacation and I was far to busy for blogging, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot happening behind the scenes that I’d love to share and I’m going to see if I can catch up! As usual, the post is loaded with easy links to click on where text is bold.

Yesterday, for instance, I took in my painting, La Niña to Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art in Moraga, California for Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All, an exhibition curated by Gutfreund Cornett Art.  I’m standing in front of the exhibition banner featuring one of my favorite pieces from the show, Xian Mei Qiu’s  The Bird Cage (I can’t wait to see the original photograph on plexiglass in person!) The show opens Sunday, September 18 with a 1:15 pm  Artist Talk at the Soda Activity Center and runs through to December 18.

The art in the exhibition is extremely moving and powerful (as can be seen in their online catalogue), juried from artists across the country and beyond!

The exhibition catalogue can also be ordered through Amazon (I’m on pages 34 & 35).

Saint Mary’s College mission styled campus is stunningly beautiful, its white stuccoed architecture gleaming through its green and flowering landscape, nestled into the golden hillside east of Oakland – a gorgeous setting to look at some of the darker themes we need to pay attention to in our world.

This the the Soda Activity Center (up behind the church) where I’m told the Artist Talk will be held. There is free public parking directly in front of this entrance and the Museum is just across the way where a reception will be held in the pretty courtyard. I hope you’ll consider making the trip to experience the work first hand and to hear the artists tell their sure to be fascinating stories!

 

Los Gatos Plein Air Art Show and Sale

The Los Gatos Morning Rotary Club hosts the the annual Los Gatos Plein Air Art Show and Sale. Artists from all over the US are juried into this week long event where artists paint throughout the area, producing an amazing oeuvre of fresh work to be auctioned and sold at the end – the results are always impressive!Here a few shots I manage to capture from today’s sale at the Town Plaza (artists websites are linked to their names).

Greg LaRock (Newport Beach, CA) – Best of Show

Suzy Long – ( Mendocino, CA) The Copper Bucket – People’s Choice Award

Susan Elwart Hall  (Atherton, CA) – Artist’s Choice Award

Susan Elwart Hall – Pink Buzz – Oil – Honorable Mention

John Guernsey (Marietta, GA) – Courtyard at the winery -Oil -Second Place

Waye McKenzie (Truckee, CA)

Wayne McKenzie – Mountain View – Oil – Third Place

Wayne McKenzie – Friendly Rivalry – Oil

Wayne McKenzie – Santa Cruz Surfers – Oil

Anton Pavlevnko (Mollala, OR)

Anton Pavlevnko – Trickling Creek – Oil – Honorable Mention

Terri Ford (San Jose, CA)

Terri Ford – Valley Vista – Pastel – Honorable Mention (with a bit of reflection)

Kevin Kasik (San Jose, CA)

Kevin Kasik – Shannon Road (detail) – Oil

Me and Kevin hanging…

David Stonesifer (Los Gatos, CA)

David Stonesifer – Foot of Shannon Road – Oil

Ed Lucey (Los Gatos, CA)

Will Maller ( Los Altos, CA)

Sergio Lopez (Santa Rosa, CA)

Sergio Lopez – Capitola Rooftops-  Gouache

Barbara Clark (Corrales, NM)

Barbara Clark – painting detail – oil

Sterling Hoffmann (Sebastopol, CA)

Abby Zhang (Los Gatos, CA)

Laura Wambgans (Santa Clarita, CA)

Art Docent Volunteers, Julia and Judith

Art lovers

Artist Lorraine Lawson volunteering with the Morning Rotary.

Along St. Joseph’s Trail

I clearly don’t know all the correct names of these creatures and blooms I came across on my hike along St Joseph’s Trail – but I’d like to! If you know the real names please chime in!

Bay Area Checkerspot

Skipper on a yellow Devil’s Paintbrush

Bermuda Buttercups / Soursop

Seep Monkey Flower / Common Monkey Flower / Mimulus guttatus

Sticky Monkey Flower / Orange Bush Monkey Flower / Mimulus aurantiacus

Scotch Broom

 

Yellow Flower

California India Pink

Ladybug

Tadpole

                        

California Poppy, ?. White Lupine

Flowering Shrub

Railroad

White Flowers

White Morning Glory

White Iris

Wild clematis gone to seed

White Lupine

Fairy Lantern / Globe Lily/ Calochortus alba

Nightshade

Clover

Vetch

?

?

Thistle

?

Smallflower Lupine / Lupinus polycarpus  (micranthus)

Blackheaded Grosbeak

?

Purple Finches

 

While Hunting for a Bunting

Rumor has it there’s been a rare sighting of a Painted Bunting at nearby Ulistac Nature Area Restoration (way out of it’s natural range) and I went to see if I could get luck this morning. This is was I found while out hunting for a bunting…

Maybe next time! This is a wonderful park though, full of birds and butterflies because of the wetlands and native plants – it smells heavenly, sages in the hot sun!

Spring Robins

Spring arrived on the mantle of a thousand beating wings. More reliable that a calendar, the migrating robins descended on my berry tree and stripped it bare in a single day (with the help of a few cedar waxwings).

When my models show up, unannounced or not, I have to set everything else down and pick up the camera because blurry or sharp, these photographs will make excellent reference material for my paintings when the birds are long gone!

Robin in the Dormant Plum - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Flight 1 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Orange Berries 4 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Orange Berries 2 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Orange Berries 1 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Orange Berries 5 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Flight 2 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 1 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 13 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 2 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 4 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 3 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 11 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 8 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 9 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 7 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 6 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin in Red Berries 5 - Marie Cameron 2016

Robin with Cedar Waxwing - Marie Cameron 2016

More on the cedar waxwings next….

 

Capitola Rocks

LGAA Plein Air - Capitola - Capitola on the Rocks (WIP) getting there…Marie Cameron 2016


Before

This is how my little 8 x 8 inch plein air painting turned out after I took it back to the studio and messed with it a little…. perhaps there’s a little too much of a warm cast in the lighting but I think I’ve traded some of the freshness of color and application of the earlier stage for  a stability and structure of the final version.

Capitola Rocks - oil on board - 8x8 inches - Marie Cameron 2016

After

 

It’s still a cute painting but that’s the whole thing about plein air –  to learn how to let the immediacy and imperfections of the moment fill the canvas with life and don’t try to beat it to death with notions of what it should look like…… It’s a lesson I have to learn over and over again.

 

 

Studio Visit – Carole Rafferty

I fell in love with one of Carole Rafferty’s paintings. Well, actually, I love all her paintings but there was one in particular that was beyond perfection. It was a little out of my budget but that didn’t stop me from seeing it in person. Maybe if I couldn’t have the painting, I could paint the artist with the painting!

Carole Rafferty Portrait - Marie Cameron 2015

Carole Rafferty with Street Corner #1

I know Carole from the Los Gatos Museum Gallery and the Los Gatos Art Association where we are both members, but she’s also represented by Nancy Dodds Gallery and the Studio Shop and the American Impressionist Society and the California Art Club.  Her studio is in Palo Alto (and has had a fancy reno since I visited it in 2015 – which is nice for her but who else would even notice with all these gorgeous paintings all over the place?!).

Carole Rafferty Studio - Marie Cameron 2015

The artist with a coffee and another favorite painting, Street Corner #2.

Carole Rafferty specializes in urban landscape painting, but everything she sets her brush to has that same dreamy, super skilled handling of paint, light and palette.

Carole Rafferty Paintings in the studio- Marie Cameron 2015

Just look at this lush light and shadow playing across the scene!

Carole Rafferty Paintings in the Studio 2- Marie Cameron 2015

Rafferty’s work is so atmospheric and absolutely filled with the sense and spirit of place…

Carole Rafferty Easel - Marie Cameron 2015

…like this Marnia view that was fresh on the easel.

Carole Rafferty Palette - Marie Cameron 2015

Looking at her tools of the trade, I think, it’s not what you’ve got…it’s what you do with it!

Carole Rafferty Chinatown Lanterns - Marie Cameron 2015

There is so much to learn from this Chinatown painting, Grant Avenue San Francisco. The overall effect of the palette is subtle but there is so much complexity to the color! The peach of the buildings is underpainted in the sky, the green of the awning is echoed in the shadows throughout, the red dots are repeated as awnings and lanterns and lights of the cars. I love too how the figures and cars and relegated to different zones in the painting.

Carole Rafferty Paintings - Marie Cameron 2015

More fabulous paintings everywhere you look!

Carol Rafferty Portrait 2- Marie Cameron 2015

You can see more of her amazing work on her website, http://carolerafferty.com.

Above Shark’s Tooth Cove

When I go to Shark’s Tooth Cove, one of my favorite beaches in California, I usually scamper down into the cove and nestle myself between the soaring cliffs and the pounding ocean. I am so in love with the keyhole tunnel and the dramatic sea stacks that I’m quite content, me, the resident ravens, the squads of patrolling pelicans and the occasion nude sunbather.

Shark's Tooth Cove - Cliff View South - Marie Cameron 2015

This time I decided to explore the highlands that surround the cove where farmers cultivate fields of brussels sprouts, and maybe cabbage. I’m glad I did!

Shark's Tooth Cove - Puddles View North - Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove - Brussel Sprout Field View South- Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove Brussel Sprout Field - Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove Beach - Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove - Bunny Ears - Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove -Looking Down- Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove - Pelicans - Marie Cameron 2015

Shark's Tooth Cove - Tooth View South - Marie Cameron 2015

There were some guys with a drone checking out the view from all vantage points, maybe one day I’ll enjoy that kind of footage but I would want to try it on a day when no-one else was there as it certainly breaks up the peace for other beach goers, and that’s what this place is all about peace, beauty, inspiration along the coast of Northern California!

 

 

La Mirada

I’ve been wanting to get to La Mirada, part of the Monterey Museum of Art, for awhile now and I just managed to squeeze it in before the obligatory (but no less fantastic) visit to the aquarium. So glad I did!

It’s a quaint museum, full of all the beautiful charm of early California and it exhibits gems like this oil painting, Cypress, Monterey, by Francis McComas amidst crystal chandeliers, a grand pianos, painted ceilings and murals, antique tile work and lovely gardens. This painting was on my mental list of “must sees” as it so perfectly picks up on Art Deco California!

Just look at the Cypresses less that a stone’s throw away from the museum!

Monterey Bay - Photo Marie Cameron 2015

And of course the Monterey Bay when you look over your shoulder!

Detail from The Sea by S.C. Yuan - La Mirada, Monterey - photo C. Purohit 2015

The other pieces I really wanted to were part of the exhibit of Si-Chen Yuan’s work like this gorgeous oil painting, The Sea.  Love that palette knife technique!

Detail from The Sea by S.C. Yuan - La Mirada, Monterey - photo Marie Cameron 2015

Castroville Farmouse by S.C. Yuan - La Mirada, Monterey - photo Marie Cameron 2015

Castroville Farmhouse was another Painting by S.C. Yuan that makes you feel that you  would only have to look out the window to see that kind of local landscape. Such a sublet but perfect palette!

Knock Knock - La Mirada - Marie Cameron 2015               Tiled doorway - La Mirada, Monterey - photo Marie Cameron 2015                Woof Woof - La Mirada - Marie Cameron 2015

There are so many fascinating period details on the grounds of La Mirada like this tiled doorway above and it’s thick wooden door with it’s charming doggie knocker and this detail of a beetle a fountain in the woodland garden.

Beetle on Fountain at La Mirada, Monterey - photo Marie Cameron 2015

It’s officially on my list of dreamy places to exhibit!

 

in- + spirare

Inspire comes from the Latin:  in- + spirare – to breathe.

So I breathe. I take deep lungfuls of clean forrest air, fragrant with bay laurel and dry brush. I am quiet so I can hear bird feathers beating against the breeze. I am still to gaze at the deer who freeze and gaze back at me before bounding away. I look for the lizards fleeing from my shadow. I take in every hue and texture and form of the dormant thickets that lace the woods. I take sensory notes and digital photographs. All of this will inhabit my paintings one day, some of it already has.

Picchetti Clouds - photo Marie Cameron 2014

Clear blue sky and raking clouds.

Picchetti Birds in the Persimmons - photo Marie Cameron 2014

Birds feasting in the persimmon tree.

Picchetti Pear trees- photo Marie Cameron 2014

Old pear orchard flaming red and gold.

Picchetti bounder - photo Marie Cameron 2014

Deer bounding through the silvered grasses.

Picchetti Dormant Forrest - photo Marie Cameron 2014

Dormant forrest rich with texture and subtle color.

Picchetti - Blue and Emerald Dormant Forrest- photo Marie Cameron 2014

Here in emerald and blue…

Picchetti - Green curtain over Lavander- photo Marie Cameron 2014

Here in a green cascade over lavender…

Picchetti - Gray Tangle Dormant Forrest- photo Marie Cameron 2014

Here in a gray tangle…

Picchetti - Golden Tunnel Dormant Forrest- photo Marie Cameron 2014

Here in a tunnel that leads to golden sunlight…

Picchetti - Desiccated Leaf - photo Marie Cameron 2014        Picchetti - Seeds Taking Wing - photo Marie Cameron 2014        Picchetti - Poison Oak - photo Marie Cameron 2014       Picchetti  Dried Thistle - photo Marie Cameron 2014

And here in the details of a desiccated leaf, seeds about to fly and the warning of poison oak and a dried thistle.

Picchetti me in a tree - photo OP 2014

Live oak lounger.

Picchetti Walker - photo Marie Cameron 2014

Walking through light and shadow.

Picchetti Clouds - wet leaves Marie Cameron 2014

Soft and hairy leaves still clinging to water droplets.

Picchetti deer in the green forrest - photo Marie Cameron 2014

Quiet visit.

Street Art at Stockton & Taylor

Sadly, it seems I’ve been spending more time behind the wheel than in front of my easel this summer.
Happily, there’s something to see while driving about. I’ve particularly enjoyed the local street art the intersection of Stockton and Taylor where there is a sad concrete underpass. Someone had noticed it was in desperate in need of some humanizing!  For me, this spot combines color field painting with elements of urban landscape. The fences, signs, power lines and structures speak of human activity while the paste-ups or “wheaties” sing of the human spirit. I like how all this contrasts with the very sparse representation of nature (the fluttering pigeon, the shadow of a tree, the clump of dying grass in a crack).

My thanks to the anonymous artists who see an opportunity for the sublime in ugliness!

Street Art - Fan of Dripping Paint  at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Dripping Paint in the Shadow of a Tree at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Dripping Paint at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Native American Paste-Up at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Dripping Paint & Pointing Arrow at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Dripping Paint Red & Pink at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Diagonal Dripping Paint  at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - John and Yoko Paste-Ups at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013

Street Art - Purple Rain at Stockton & Taylor photo by Marie Cameron 2013