Redwood Ridge Estate Winery, Summit Rd. Thursday, November 5, 2015.

Another very special first-time Paintsite ("discovered" by Lois Stevens who is friends with the owners), we were blessed with a perfect day (clear and warm) which made the distant (40 +/- miles away) Monterey Peninsula;  Monterey Bay; the mixed redwood and hardwood forests (which made a fine dark green contrast with the yellow leaves of the vines); and the vineyards on the fairly steep rolling hillsides all equally worthy subjects.   Could it have been any better than that?   Yes it could and yes it was:  First of all, Shirley Motmans and several members of her Santa Cruz Art League Plein Air Group were able to join us - it's always fun to share a special experience like this with fellow artists.  And second, Lois arranged a special "tasting" for us which made for a nice break between painting and our show-and-share "critique".    Several artists took advantage of the winery's custom labeling offer and ordered bottles of wine with labels of paintings they'd done that morning.   Wine lovers in the group pronounced the wines excellent so if you have a special painting you'd like to have on bottles of wine for holiday gifts, Redwood Ridge Estates is the place for you. (See the website: http://redwoodridgeestate.com/   for complete details.)    
 
Upcoming Paintsites:

• Thursday, November 12, 2015:  Ainsley House, Campbell.
• Thursday, November 19, 2015:  Hidden Villa, Los Altos Hills.   
• Saturday, November 21, 2015:  Hidden Villa, Los Altos Hills.    Special Event.

Ongoing:    Last chance - the Annual Member Show at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara ends on Saturday, November 7th.
 
For the Paintsites details, see the SCVWS website or the November Newsletter. 

Painting the Really Big Picture:   You want distant purple mountains majesty?  The Pacific Ocean on a truly pacific day?  Not so distant redwood and hardwood forests?  Up close hillside vineyards in their early autumn foliage?   You want all this in one painting?   Look no further, you've come to the right place --- the following artists captured it all!

Broncha, Jenny, Marilyn and Kay

Looking north-west, artists looking south. (photo by Marilyn)

Katherine

Shirley

Nora

Leslie

Leslie's painting included Christine painting among the vines.

Melanie, happy that she can see forever, and undaunted by the prospect.

Melanie's painting of the Monterey Peninsula over the vineyard.

Marilyn

Marilyn's painting of the Monterey Peninsula, Monterey Bay, forests, hillside vineyards.

Kaaren's of the same,

and Betty's,

and Marion's panoramic,

and Broncha's,

and finally, as does Jenny's.

The not quite so big, but still pretty big picture:  The vineyards and the forest background was the focus for these fine paintings.   (Only artists who included the Monterey Peninsula and the ocean qualified as "Really Big Picture" painters today.   These didn't.)

Jenny's second painting looking North-West over the vineyards at the Coast Range.

Candy's painting of the vineyards and forest.

Dan's painting of the vineyards.

Iris

Iris's painting of the vineyards

Lois framed the vineyard through the barn / Tasting Room door.

Broncha looked back up toward the barn / Tasting Room from the lower vineyard.

Jane set-up lower in the vineyard.

Jane's sketch of the vineyards and forest beyond.

My second painting had an accident on the way to the car.   A large wet bead of dark paint ran across the sky area.  I'm thinking of how I can get it out and still salvage the painting.   Jane    (Note: visit this posting again to see how Jane salvages the painting.)


Close Ups:   These paintings are more intimate and capture the small beauties of a vineyard in November:

Christine's unfinished painting of grape vine leaves.

Christine's finished painting of a post and still blooming rose at the end of a row of vines.

Dick, Yan and Lisha set up close to the vines.

Dicks' painting of post, rose and vines.

Recently I've been painting on 9 x12 paper taped to a fiber board. The resulting painting has a half-inch "matte" which makes for a pleasing unframed presentation. When offering paintings for sale I bring a 9 x 12 frame to give potential buyers an idea what a framed work will look like. It also gives customers the option to use a stock 9 x 12 or document frame to hang the work without the cost of professional framing.    Dick

Lisha's painting of another post, vine and rose.

Beautiful, inquisitive, friendly describes this alpaca.  (photo by Marilyn)

Brad's paintings of alpacas

Beautiful animals and they make the gentlest little whistling and chirping sounds which was almost music to paint by.   They were very interested in what I was doing - particularly the rich brown colored one on the right.   Brad

 

Showing off  our stuff. (photo by Candy)