Laguna

The Laguna event is now done. I would have posted on the fly but to be honest I was so tired at the end of each day, I couldn't get the energy. As per usual I couldn't sleep and then I'd get up at 6 and get out and on the road early, then paint till dark and meet artists for the various art parties and stuff. It's a great event in terms of wonderful things to paint and tremendous commeraderie but as for sales, sadly, not so much. As I have a gallery in Carmel, I really wanted to focus on things I could send up the them if they didn't sell. I sold this one, a 20x20, and a 12x16 quick draw but other than that it was slow for sales. Economy, saturated market, some changes the museum made in the way they handled the show all seemed to have an enormous effect. Not that I really expected any different. But good things come down the line from these events. I got to spend some quality time with my Mom who lives out there and that was worth the trip alone.

This painting started as a small study on the first day when it was sunny. The rest of the days were socked in so midweek I went back to this spot with a 20x20 canvas while it was completely overcast and started the drawing in the morning. The light and shadow zones really didn't change much through the day so I was able to get a good tonal drawing in before lunch and then after the snack I went back around 2 to start mixing color, hoping the light would break at the end of the day. It did but only for a few minutes. So this piece is one part study, one part memory and one part imagination. Probably about 5 hours total. As I have been doing larger works I thought about taking out some big canvases 30x30's and just going for that but the frames and shipping would have been a risky investment. As it turned out most of the sales were smaller pieces. Brian Mark Taylor sold a ton of 11x14's.. he's on fire right now. My favorite painter, John Burton, won artists choice. And Brian won a special award... I think it was for just being a nice guy, but he's a hell of a painter. Interestingly, he doesn't use any cadmiums or thinners because he's worried about exposure for his little ones. Doesn't hurt his work any, he's really good at making busy scenes work. More later.