As you may be aware, I participate in 3 shows a year for the Christopher Queen Gallery in Duncans Mills, California. There is almost always a theme for the show, but for this one we had free reign of what we wanted to do. I decided to do some paintings from some of my many adventures with my girlfriend Vanessa.
Make sure to check the show out sometime before the end of April to see them in person!
Christopher Queen Galleries
Google Map Link: https://goo.gl/maps/5a6KkwhedizAB7kM6
Thursday - Monday 11-5pm
"Over The Hill" 8x10 inches. Oil on canvas board.
This is from one of the best viewing spots in Sonoma County that not a lot of people know about. It's from Burnside Road, which is between Sebastopol and Bloomfield (another place that not a lot of people know about). We got there on a really pretty evening and just walked around taking pictures. I found this view that featured the light hitting the hills and this truck was a great focal point for the painting.
"Dusk At Lover's Point" 11x14 inches. Oil on canvas board.
Lover's Point is a popular area in Pacific Grove. I think a lot of people have fond memories of this area. The springtime is the best time to be there when the flowers are blooming and making a bright carpet of fuchsia covering the ground. Vanessa and I made some nice memories of our own here.
"Sundown On The Laguna Trail" 11x14 inches. Oil on canvas board.
One of my favorite areas to get expansive views of the wetlands and the surrounding hills and mountains of Santa Rosa. My favorite time to check it out is when there are wildflowers or after a rain because there is not a lot to get in the way of you experiencing everything visually.
"Glacial Stream, Mt Rainier" 14x18 inches. Oil on linen board.
Vanessa and I were trying to figure out if there was any single place we've been that found more beautiful than Mt. Rainier National Park and there are only a few places for me that even compare! We were in awe of the wildflowers, the glacial creeks, waterfalls, and just the sheer grandeur of the mountain. It's impossible to capture it all in one painting, so it's best to take a slice of the beauty and really try and do a good painting of it.
"Stairway To Heaven" 14x18 inches. Oil on linen board.
This was toward the end of our hike around the part of Mt. Rainier National Park called "Paradise" and I must say, it lives up to the name! The sky was incredibly clear yet the mountain was full of slow due to an unseasonably late winter storm that dumped a ton of snow on the Cascades. It made for some uniquely dramatic scenes such as this one. As I said in my last post, rather than try and fail to capture the majesty in one painting, take a part of the scene and do it well instead.
"The Sea Across The Badlands" 18x24 inches. Oil on linen board.
Vanessa and I have really fallen in love with the deserts of Southern California. It's one of our favorite places to go vacation in the winter. We were there during an extremely beautiful time of the season in between winter storms. The clouds were beautiful and billowing over us. We saw some really early wildflowers on the floor of the desert basin, but also went to some of our favorite vistas, such as this view of the badlands. I bet it's so fun to take an off-road buggy and explore the hundreds of canyons that you see in this view. Don't miss the sliver of the Salton Sea in this painting!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures here. I get a lot out of re-living the memories encapsulated in the paintings here. As an artist I think it's great that I have the opportunity to attempt to share my feelings about experiencing the world through the things I produce.
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