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Here is the Crystal Cove cottage of the artist Roger Kuntz.  I painted this workstudy and intend on painting the cottage and more of the landscape on a larger canvas eventually.  I must hurry before the state of California strips all this nostalgic construction to remodel the cottage for a rental unit, I am told I have a year or two.  It is located on the north shoreline at the nostalgic beachfront of the Crystal Cove State Beach in California.  His works can be seen in the book, Crystal Cove Cottages: Islands in Time on the California Coast. 

You can order the book through the Crystal Cove Alliance Store, proceeds will go towards renovating the cottages.   This book is where I first learned about this artist and discovered the cottage where he lived. I am drawn to this cottage for it`s story of an artist and his family spending many a splendid summer here before it`s closing up in order to be renovated.   One of his relatives purchased one my my earlier Crystal Cove pieces and that is how I found out a little bit more of him and their family.  They used to love to get abalones off the tidepool rocks when it was legal in the 1960`s.  He spent hours on this deck painting.  His extended family had summer sleep-outs on this deck.  So, it has history that draws me in by the fact that an artist`s spirit is still lingering here.  I am not sure if he met his untimely death here at the age of 49, if so, then his spirit may very well be here.  

There is another article from the LA Times on Roger Kuntz about his major exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum in 2009.  He was a very talented young artist with a varied style, I admire that in an artist.  

Below you will see several images of the day I got to paint this cottage where he lived his last years of life.

I was there on the 4th of July with my husband having a picnic.  It was a perfect day for painting. 

After the sun went down and it was time to celebrate the 4th of July!

As I always indicate, if you are interested in a work of art similar to this piece or one of any of my Crystal Cove artworks, send me an email on the contact page.  Thank-you!

This was a commissioned piece of art from some very loyal customers.  The request was for some swimming Koi in a waterlily pond on a larger size.  I went to the Mission San Juan Capistrano to paint the workstudy, it is on my website titled Waterlily Pond, an 8X10.  From that and photos of the Koi swimming I completed this montage of the pond.  I am very influenced by my years of studying Monet, only I now interpret through the eyes of a California impressionist.  I have been studying the California Impressionists for years too.  Mainly I am learning about Edgar A. Payne`s principles of art in the past year.  It is a nice combination, reflecting the past and viewing the present.

To me, it`s not about painting a photographic rendition of the scene, it is about conveying how the waterlilies merge with the water, causing reflections, how the fish are submerged in the water, showing the ripples as they tickle the surface.  It is about how the organic plant life grows up from the water, how it reflects, how wild it looks.  It is also about how the sky relfects it many moods, colors and clouds upon the water`s surface and changes it`s color.  It is about the unity of all these shapes, masses, colors, shadows, highlights, mid tones, design lines, textures, etc... they all combine to make a work of art in oil paints by an impression upon my consciousness and psyche.  It is how I express that unique vision utilizing all I learn from my art studies throughout the years.

I can be commissioned to paint these types of waterlily - koi scenes in any size.  I will gladly create an inspiring, high quality work of art because I truly love the pondscapes.  I have painted a four foot wide before and many other sizes.  Send an email through my contact page if interested. 

By the way, I also have a waterlily and Koi pond, it is pure enjoyment for me to watch the fish everyday and observe the play of light, shadow and color upon it.  The more I view it, the more the believability is portrayed in my paintings.  I have painted from it also. 

This is a peaceful setting at the waterlily and Koi pond located at the Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.  I am a patron of the place, I go there when I need a spiritual lift and to enjoy the beautiful gardens, the ancient Mission and chapel.  This work was painted en plein air as a workstudy for a larger piece.  I was commissioned to paint both scenes.  In my studies of Monet for years, I think some of his influence can be seen here.  I adore the French Impressionists.  The waterlilies floating on the water make intricate shadows and reflections, so do the reeds, the lily pads and the fountain that pours the recycled water back into the pond.  It is very soothing to watch and I hope this painting expresses that mood.  It was a cloudy day and colors are more muted then, shadows are warm, edges are blurred.   Kind of puts you in that restful state of mind.

I can be commissioned or simply requested to paint an artwork of the waterlily pond.  Use my contact page to ask, thank-you.  This 8X10 is at the price range of $350 framed for a similar work.  I can paint any size, the larger they go, the more the price.  But it is worth it when you can feel that sense of peace  and enjoy the serene beauty viewing this in your home.

Below is an image of the artwork as it was near completion on the scene at the Mission San Juan Capistrano`s central fountain.  I must go back, there are so many paintings waiting to be created of waterlilies, koi, the plants of the pond and how the water and light join them in a medley of design and color.

Oh yes, see the bride off to your left with the photographer, this place is a perfect backdrop for romantic wedding, family, model, figural shoots and paintings for that matter!

They only bloom once a year and I await with great anticipation as I see the first shoot errupt from the gnarly cluster of fat leaves on a section of bark.  May is usually the date for the bloom, but this year she was late.  There are usually four flowers in all.   I couldn`t get to paint them until there was only one left that had not turned yellow.  The delicate white orchid looks like a dainty tulle skirt to me and the arms and legs of a ballerina or acrobat balance her in middair.   The perfume it emits at night is splendid, simply heavenly to inhale!  I bought this from a wonderful woman at her estate sale, she said it came from Hawaii where she lived.  I have enjoyed owning this for ten years.  I now enjoy painting this once a year.  All initial plein air pieces are kept in my family collection.  My experience in painting this completely o site, plein air, all prima is a cathartic bloom from within my own soul.  That is very dear to me, so I want to keep each one to remember what I was going through at that year, that time, that day.  I want to build a collection of them to show my progression in the expression of my adoration for this exotic flower each year, hung all together.  So far, I have three.  I missed a few years.  If you are intersted in a commission work that is a offshoot from this piece, I will gladly oblige.  A 6X8 is $250 framed.   $200 without.   Or I can sell a print, just let me know and I can upload a high resolution image to www.ImageKind.com where I have an account.

Contact me on my contact page unless you are a customer of mine and know my direct email address. 

Below is a scene from my painting it this year on my backyard patio.

A better close-up:

Funny how nature can create such beauty from a little cluster of roots and leaves on a bark log.   All I have to do is water or mist it and send it my love.

Painted en plein air on the 4th of July at Crystal Cove State Beach.  This is one of the last cottages on the north shoreline of sixteen decayed cottages that are awaiting renovation.  My desire is to paint each of these cottages before they are remodeled.  I prefer the rustic character of the past.  So, my husband & I picnicked here on the 4th and it was one of those dreamy sunny days, crisp light and warm temps.  The beach was crowded but we dragged my art supplies all the way down to a quiet spot.  I was thoroughly enjoying myself as I painted this cottage, I loved the shadows caused by the 1pm cast.  Everything was going hunky dory.  Before I was done, one of our neighbors started to smoke cigarettes and the beach breeze carried it straight towards my lungs.  My swimmer lungs can`t stand second hand smoke.  I was holding my breath, then coughing and walking away, then returned to paint a little more, until he lit up another smoke.  I was about to ask him to stop.  My husband told me not to.  He & I were just admiring how wonderful the painting turned out even though that guy with his wife was annoying.  He seemed to know I was not liking his habit and he lit up again.  I got aggravated and yanked my easel upwards to move it, cussing at this guy under my breath.  The darn easel flew right up off the tripod and flipped over and down into the sand.  Oil paints and painting went face down.  I picked up the piece and my heart sank.  There wasn`t anything I could do but put it carefully away and take it home like it was.  In a few days when it dried, I brushed off what was loose but the rest is permanent.  Days later, a fellow Facebook artist told me I could`ve saved it right then by washing the sand off under a faucet.  I didn`t know that, next time I will try it.  The painting has its original character now, all original Crystal Cove sand embedded into it, funny it seems to have stuck in the right spots.  A lot of Facebook friends love it this way!

Oh, yes, I laugh about it all now!  Some things happen for a good reason!

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Here it is on location that day right before the easel took a flying leap into the sand. 

I will be going back to paint there very, very soon!

Today is about the fifteenth time I painted plein air at the St Regis in Monarch Beach, California. Literally, I did that many times as I just checked my folders of images in Photoshop.  I am part of a program the hotel is sponsoring called "A Summer of Magical Moments" with a group of us artists painting pictures in outdoor stations.   No one is paying us, but we can make a sale to guests, only off property.  This is a stunning property and the interior is very luxurious, so I can`t complain about having to work here.   There are always guests walking by and we seem to entertain them with our artistic skills on display.  It can be distracting too, but I manage to start a painting, talk to guests and takes digital images to record my location.  I have sold several works and met some future art collectors I feel that bonded to me a bit. 

We can paint from photographs or still life arrangements or even a live model if we choose to bring one.  I have for the most part decided to paint the life on the property with the architecture and landscaping.  I have painted the pool with it`s formal fountain three times at different angles.  One time I brought a still life arrangement when the weather was dull.  The rest of the time the weather has been beautiful, so there are many interesting light and shadow arrangements to play with.  That is how I feel about it, I am playing, but seriously playing.  There is so much to learn from playing with these hotel compositions, how the building can serve as a backdrop to a cafe, how people are intergrated into the setting, how it explains life at a hotel.  Combining hotel, people, landscaping with light and shadows into an artistic design is the sum end to artistic growth for me. 

Back to today, I went there with a dried partially finished piece that I started weeks ago on a 6" square linen panel.  I call it blocking in.  I brushed in my main composition design with the shadow patterns and indication of where the lightest light was placed.  It used to bother me when I didn`t get a chance to finish a painting on location.  Now it doesn`t, I am getting older and more patient.  Patience is a good virtue, it allows us to have faith that another opportunity will arrive eventually.  So, it did today.  The weather was the exact same as the last time.  Monet did this over a 100 years ago.  He would work with up to twenty canvases of one location, as soon as the light changed, he switched to another canvas, like every half an hour.  He was pretty prolific, I am a little slower than that.  Really slower.  Monet did`t have twelve children interrupt him like I did one day.   Or a heavily drinking, smoking musician another day that wanted to pay peanuts for my painting.  I just roll with the visits or punches, it enriches my day and I think the guests also, most of the time.  I am a performer and will put on a show to entertain with my hand holding the brush like a composer, it adds a little spice to the place. 

This afternoon, I was ready to lay in what I saw, build it up carefully with loving strokes of color in the right values, be loose with some strokes for that moody feel and finally add the local (pure) color highlights.  I added some people walking on the tiled path who were coming in and out of the hotel.  Finito!  It is titled "Hotel California Afternoon"     See images below for some before the painting was done to it being finished.  

Before or actually the dried block-in brought back today in front of the setting to paint.

Here it is after I was done and the afternoon light has left.  The date palm with it`s orange berries was my focal point, also how it intersected with the building and the arched windows.  Notice how I did not wipe out or stroke away all of my shadowed foundation, it gives the composition strength and structural support, also lead in lines.  Below is the image I took of the completed artwork as the sunlight was dimmed by a marine layer flowing off the coast.  I will take a better image tomorrow without the easel behind it and place it on my website.  This is 6" w x 6"h, oil on linen panel. 

Tomorrow morning I am scheduled to paint by the pool bar and grill from 10am-2pm.  I better get some rest.   There are several paintings of the St Regis - Monarch Beach I completed that will be put on my website for sale.  I will place them in the architecture category.   Thanks for reading!

While driving at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, I came upon this vast and grandeur setting of the backside of Eaton Canyon.  The exspansiveness wowed my spirit.   The late afternoon sunlight was kissing the tops of the canyon and cascading down the tips of the greenery to the crossing bridge.   I was told there used to be a horse stable down here years ago.  The depth of this canyon with the deep shadows cast formed an interesting design that connected straight to the center of interest, the bridge and the sycamores at the bottom near the stream.   I explored the warm light with cool shadows in a way I never have before.  This smaller work may be turned into a larger work, I am contemplating over it.   I am going to be making more trips to these San Gabriel Mountains to capture more of their nobility, color and atmosphere in my artistic impressionism.   

Below is the sight I was painting from.  I went with a fellow artist for the buddy system as this was my first time visiting this Los Angeles area.  It was well worth the trip and we had a wonderful time.  Going back there tomorrow even!

The image only captures the vastness of the scene, it does not show how deep the shadows were and how colorful the back mountains were that reflected the sunlight and atmosphere.  As an artist I chose what part of the composition to focus upon and how to render it with appropriate color, values, edges, lines and form.   I massed in the major shapes first to cover my panel as quickly as possible, then made my adjustments that were needed so I could place in the details later.  I brought it back to my studio and continued to sculpt it to this final study.

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