Plein air lanscape paintings from Santa Barbara and beyond…
10×20″ Casein– This was a casein study from a sandbar in Rocky Nook Park– Families with kids were wading up the creek and one twelve-year-old artist sat and watched and talked with me for a long time as I worked, just as I used to do when I was his age and saw someone out painting.
I saw my box of casein paints lying around and realized I haven’t used them for a while. It is a quick and easy way for me to get outdoors and paint… my casein set-up weighs about ten pounds (lightweight cardboard and aluminum easel and all) while my oil painting gear is much heavier.
Grey Day on the San Marcos Preserve– 10×20″
Bee Hives and Human Hives– 10×20″
10×20″ Acrylic and Casein– This is a painter’s paradise… I’ll have to go back with a few miles of canvas some day. 
10×20″ Acrylic and Casein– The seagulls here enjoy bobbing and surfing the spot where the freshwater creek pours into the salty ocean. 
10×20″ Acrylic and Casein– Everybody who would come out at the top of the trail to greet this view would gasp in awe… You can pretty much see the entire Pacific Ocean from this lupine-filled perch. 
10×20″ Acrylic and Casein– My family sketched and played in the redwoods as I painted this enchanted cascade on McWay Creek in Julia Pfeifer Burns State Park last week. Such a beautiful place… every turn on the trail was a painting waiting to be made. 
10×20″ Casein on Stonehenge Paper– This is a view from the path around Lake Los Carneros… on the horizon to the left in the farthest distance you can see the line of palms at Goleta Beach. I mount these casein studies on board and frame them without glass– I love the matte surface and the casein is impervious and really durable after a couple months of curing.
Casein on Birch Panel 8×10″ If I had added the dozens of the happy dogs that chased tennis balls and frolicked in the surf up and down the beach as I painted… well, I need to get a lot better before I attempt THAT painting. I’m not so good at painting moving targets yet.
I painted this same clump of Eucalyptus trees a month or two ago from the other side of the slough. I made this one right after the wonderful, unexpected half inch of rain last week. View on Paintworks
Summer is here and my plan is to try to make a painting a day. Summer in SB means June gloom which feels like a breath of fern laden moist air in times of drought. I’ve been loving going out on these dripping, mossy mornings and learning how to use grey in my palette. One plus is I don’t need to keep use the spray bottle on my casein paints… 100% humidity has its advantages. On the flip side, my paintings don’t dry until I get them back home. 
