Capturing light is such a wonderful challenge in trying to paint.. Even though I'm looking at a photo, the subtlety's of what is happening just fascinates me to no end. I have to look past what the subject is and look deep into what is really happening within the edges of colors next to another. I have to feel the light not just paint it.. It comes down to what color do I put down first, should I approach it this way or that, so much thinking has to happen.... All this makes me aware of how fantastic this planet is and the need to take care of it... Original 6x8 inch oil painting on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box: (Sold)
Coffee cup in hand, visor down, morning talk on the AM, I make my way to a meeting. I think of my son and his trips every morning to and fro in traffic... Soon he gets to leave all this as a memory as he gathers his family and heads into a more peaceful way of life... Good for him.. I'm gonna miss him, but, it will give me a really good reason to go back East to give and get a hug.... Original oil painting on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box: (Sold)
Dark streets, rainy nights, glare, a bit of chill in the air and a touch of mystery... I'm happy... Not sure just what that's about, but never the less ever since I was a kid I loved that look and feel... At an early age when I started to paint, it was that kind of scene that pulled at me, so here I am, many years later and they are still calling to me. My journey is a 6x6 inch original oil painting on Birch panel mounted to a varnished wooden box: $200 includes shipping in USA
I got an email from my good friend and I must say, "One great art" Tom Swimm that took this shot and sent it to me to paint. Tom and his wonderful wife Rosemary make this two month long show that we do extra special at the Laguna festival of arts. This oil painting is 8x6 inch but I will be making it into a 60x36" canvas painting that will be in next years show in Laguna.. So yesterday I painted this and got a feel for what I will do on a bigger scale. Again, this is a 8x6 original oil on Birch panel mounted on a varnished wooden box:$140 (Sold)
While driving around in some back roads one morning like I do, I came upon this one mail box at the end of a dirt road in the middle of farm land.. I look around and in the distance up this road I spot this house who's mail box this must belong to... I stop my car and venture up to this lonely mail box, camera in hand, squat down and fire off one shot.. As I head back to my car, engine still running, the thought crosses my mind, if anyone in the house happened to be looking out there window at that moment had to have scratched there head wondering (what the) even though I waved, holding my camera up, probably added even more to there confusion... I just drove off with thoughts of how I was going to paint this... So here it is.. A 6x6 inch original oil painting on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. (Sold)
When I'm out in the back roads of small towns there is a quietness in those early hours that feels wonderful to me, then breaking the stillness is the sound of the morning paper hitting driveways giving the start to a new day.
With the soft clouds filling the sky as the day begins its end, I say good by to the wetlands and all that it will be... With summer coming to an end I leave this place, go back to cars, traffic, cell phones, emails and a-like.... Could be be worse... I count my blessings.. Lots of under-painting in this one, each stage I let dry then build more color on top till I got what I wanted..
So, my wife walks in with a sheepish grin on her face and at the same time extending her arm holding this bag out to me... I say, smiling back "what's in the bag" as she hands it over ... I slowly undo the folded top just to play the suspense a little longer for myself.... I peek inside and suck in my breath..."Candy Apples"! You must understand... I... LOVE... CANDY... APPLES!... Finding spicy cinnamon candy apples is really difficult or so it seems... Well, I immediately unwrapped the paper, salivating, I prepare carefully to take the first bite.... Fortunately I had the presence of mind to photograph it first... Then the challenge of figuring out how to begin eating this delectable, sweet, scrumptious candy apple.... At 7:14 am I had the second one for breakfast... Just couldn't wait any longer...:) Oil on Birch panel mounted on a varnished wooden box: (Sold)
Back-bay and its wildlife preserve is truly a wonderful place to be. It is very much like a sanctuary not just for migrating birds, but for us humans that also need to stop and take a mental refuge amongst the waters, reeds, trees and flowers.... So much to learn here when one stops..
Closed! I said to myself in disbelief looking at the gas-gage and hoping I'll make it to the next station.... Yes I found another just in time and could lean back and cruse happily into LA...
With the sun glaring on my windshield I head east to Palm Springs on a hot summers late afternoon. My trusty camera in the ready, I click off one shot hoping to capture the subject for my next painting. So here it is in all its glory, painted in sepia colors, I handled this almost as a water color on top of lots of under-painting. The glazed color's gave the richness to the shadows I needed, popping the glare to the setting sun. This oil painting is a 6x8 inch on birch paneling that is mounted to a varnished wood box. $140 +s/h (Sold)
Here is another that was lost in the shuffle of galleries... Thought I would never see it again.. It has been a year so it feels good to put it on the market again... This is a 6x8 inch oil on archival board mounted to a 2 1/2 inch varnished wooden box... I love this piece, but then again... I created it... brings a tear to my eye... Can be yours: (Sold)
Going home in early morning fog I was reminded of the subtlety of shapes and color of all that is around me... The location is incidental, but the mood is unmistakably familiar at first glance... Funny how somethings are like that... Loosely painted and fun for me to do I needed to share.
With a relatively warm muggy morning, the sky giving me challenging colors to work out, I pick my camera up and take one photo as the sun continues to rise obliterating all the colors that first caught my eye... Then download the shot, print it, tape it to my easel, do the painting, take a picture of it.... up-load... And... Now you get to see the finished work two hours later.... I think back on a film and this same process from beginning to end would have been a week or more.... I do love the new ways... So here is a brand new 6x6 oil on Birch paneling, mounted on a wooden box, ready for someones wall.... Hope to have another this week to post. (Sold)
This was the sixth and final in the series on waves on the west coast. This has been a real treat to do and work on. After viewing this I decided to add some clouds in the sky, I needed to feel some movement on the horizon.. Always tweaking.. This is in La Jolla and their beautiful warmer waters. 6x6inch oil on archival board mounted on a 2 1/2" deep finished wooden box so no framing is needed. For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
My continued love for the airstream will never end.. Yes! and the iconic of all "the 57 Chev."... How much more Americana can I get... This was so much fun to paint that its silly... I smiled the whole time, from the sky to pebbles it was happy-time... May I remind all, from now till Jun 25 /09 any painting with a Paypal button can be purchased, after that date all my blog posts will be in my summer show for two months.. Any interest during that period will have to be through emails and based on availability.. The above painting is a 6x6 inch oil on Birch panel mounted on a varnished wooden box ready to hang.. For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
Here is a place for me of much memories, "Balboa Island" in Newport Beach.. This strip of land has water on both sides and it ends at a place called "The Wedge". has some of the best surfing ability's in southern California... Now this relatively small section on Balboa Island is the fun zone, there is a barge that ferries people and cars back and forth, while yachts and Duffy's dodge this constant. I'm in a Duffy just cruising with some good friends, sipping on an ice-cold margaritas when this shot was taken. 12x4 inch oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. (Sold) 
Here I go again making changes to my work, but I cant help myself.... I really like this better that I completed the peppers, I liked the other but for me... "This one is it"...
Yes this is a repost of this painting, but after a long look like I do of my work I felt it to be a little bar and because its my painting, I can do whatever I want... I added the electric & phone poles with wires and all along with headlights coming down the street... I feel, it made such a difference to the composition and look, it deserves another peek...
This was a labor of love to do and accomplish.. after painting this I need to re-do my prescription for glasses... Oh! it was fun painting and working it all out... Also good burgers at "Big Bills".. This along with my other blog paintings will be going into the Laguna show in the summer. I mentioned before that on Jun 25 all paypal buttons are removed from my blog site and there will be a price increase as of that date do to the nature of the show. I hope to post more blogs between now and then at present prices unless otherwise indicated. During the summer I will accept emails if there is any interest on a painting, all emails will be checked every evening for two months... Just as a thought, this painting , as much as I would have loved doing it in one day, wasn't gonna happen... This is a 6x8 inch oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. E-mail schwartzart@earthlink.net
Traveling through the heartland a couple of years back, the small town feel of time standing still captured my mind. In pulling off the road for food or gas, I just stare and feel the wonder that these places still exist.. Those buttermilk skies made me want to stay and never comeback to the speed that I live in.. This is an oil on Birch panel, mounted on a 6x8 inch varnished wooden box. For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
The painting is from the Laguna Canyon, one of many trips up & down I'll be doing this summer. The canyon runs from east & west, west ends at the ocean and just a few block up is the Festival of Arts... In this painting I wanted to capture the glare at this time of day so I needed to paint wet into wet to get the distortion of color in the trees and light racing over the land.. This is an oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
Caught this at 5:45 in the morning this last weekend and had to stop and take this shot. it was already 79 degrees in the Springs ( Palm Springs that is) and was going to really heat-up, so time was of the essence to get home and out of the sun. The layering of the hills and pushing of colors and shadows is what I wanted to convey, I just might do a canvas of it for the up-coming Laguna Festival of the Arts that I'm in.. This is a 6x8 inch oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box ready to hang. (Sold)
I love playing with the abstraction clouds give me, not just shapes but also the mottling of color within... The colors in the hill, the negative space around the clouds all form designs and add elements to explore and vital to this mix, the linear foreground of green supporting it all. Oil on Birch panel, mounted on a 6x8 inch varnished wooden box$130 (Sold)
From the beginning stage to the finish line. The process of moving through and thinking of what is painted first, how the colors would feel and just what I wanted this to look like at the end is such a wonderful stimulating experience .. Oh! there where many steps, but not to bore anyone, I'm just showing three, like with any of our paintings, the stages are numerous, I'm lucky to have photographed these, I get so into it, I forget to take pictures.. I indeed had fun playing with all the geometric shapes, then to accentuate them a bit further, the pebble effect came into play... I then looked at this for sometime before deciding on the sign post in the foreground and where to place it... A little to the left, a little to the right, here, there???... I walked in & out of my studio half a dozen times before committing, I did not want to feel.."Oh No!" why there... Yes one can change it, but what a hassle.. "Enough on this" .. Look and enjoy.. 6x8 inch oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. (Sold)
My continuation on the them of trains. These giant that crisscross the lands of this spinning ball has had an attraction for me since childhood... The sheer power in what they are is what gets to me... I used to take my kids to a place and we would wait at the entrance of this tunnel. We would stand on the tracks and when we felt the vibration we new... then wait again..., hearts beating a little faster staring into the giants black cave, then we would see the light beam swaying back & forth against the walls, we could feel and hear its deep throaty rumble, it is at this point we jumped back as this monster of steel shows itself, a blast of an air-horn, fallowed by the warm wind created by this magnificent machine as it rolls past. Great stuff... I can still feel the excitement talking about it....A memory forever... I have to go paint another, talk soon.... Oil on archival panel mounted on a 6x6 inch varnished wooden box. (Sold)
My love of these giants that crisscross the lands never ceases to enthrall me time and time again..
In early winter coming through Bakersfield here in California, you can run into "tule fog" a very heavy low to the ground kind of fog that makes driving a bet tricky, sometimes it will open up and and within seconds your looking at a gray wall that your headlights cant penetrate so you come to a crawl.. It felt good to pull off, get gas and take a breather before heading back on the I-5 to LA and then Orange county... I have made this run so many times that its silly... As a side note.. If your ever on this run, you must stop at a place called "Harris Ranch" it is the best place to stop and eat or stay the night... Its the only place I have been that has eggs that taste like eggs.. An oil on Birch panel mounted on a 6x8 inch varnished wooden box.For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net (SOLD)
Along the California coast heading up to Big Sur on I-1 about 6:40 in the morning, I took the chance of finding a place to pull off and take some shots.. This place is named "And rightly so" "Ragged Point" I used to live in Pismo Beach and made numerouse runs up this coastline some time back, "Still wondering why I left", but like the tide in this painting moving back and forth always there, always changing so goes my life.. This was a challenge I wanted to paint of this angle. I was inspired by fellow artist and good friend Mark Kerckhoff from the festival that we both are in during the summer. He did such an angle in a painting last year and nailed it, I was next to him and threatened to cover the painting for it was getting too much attention..:) So I in turn just finished this one, I hope you enjoy. 6x8 inch oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box.For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
There are so many places in this state to see that after a while its enough to make one nuts..., Yes, every state has there share of beauty but I must say.. California is a bit over the top when it comes to the abundance of diversity... From a spectacular coastline, to mountains and places like Owens Valley or Mono Lake, "Now there's a place.. Its like being on another planet"... Anyway! its a fun state... So here we have a 6x8 inch oil painting on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. (Sold)
To paint what happens in the streaming of light moving past and around objects is such a fascinating thing to realistically do, but in this painting, to interpret my impressions of the light, the subject became secondary. The light and the distortions created a wonderful abstract for me making this a lot of fun and great departure from my usual controlled surface. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I. Oil on Birch panel, mounted on a 6x6 inch varnished wooden box. (Sold)
So I go down to a little place in Mexico named "Rocky Point" its about a three hour ride south of Phoenix. It's a fishing town, lots of gringos changing the look of an otherwise sleepy place. I go to disappear, there are times I need to do that. I don't speak nor understand Spanish...With gestures, smiles and my only two words "Gracia's & Si" I'm able to eat some fantastic Mexican food that I love. Not understanding Spanish frees my head of thoughts that bombard the brain like a radio that I cant turn off... I wander in & out of shops, I get to pass people talking away and I cant chime in with my opinion or any perception of if they are right or wrong, its just all sounds..., like background music.... I find I can see and test more intensely... Its also a great catharsis... Soon I will go back home and like the skiff waiting for the tide to come in, I to will again become one with the familiar... This is a 6x6 inch oil on Birch panel mounted on a varnished wooden box.$125 (Sold)
From a show I did some years ago in this most fabulous of city's... It is one of the few places I know, if your looking to eat and you open the yellow pages and with your eyes closed, go to the first place your finger points too, it's going to be a knockout restaurant or diner... It is literally a no-brainer.. On a Monday morning I cross over the bridge from Sausalito to the San Francisco side and on N. Gary, spot a diner at 6:45am and tried getting a table or counter before I got on the road was a challenge and worth whatever it took to chow down the best breakfast I had in a long time... I have done this countless times, spot something, go in, and have never-ever been disappointed. Thus, this painting that is long overdo... Sham on me... This is a 6x6 inch oil painting on Birch panel mounted on a varnished wooden box "So no framing folks" A steal at $125 + s/h (Sold)
Heading into Arizona I caught this cloud hugging the ground... Took one shot and new this was going to be my next painting.. I must say, I do love the flat plans of our country.. So heading east on I-10 with few headlights heading in the opposite, my two loving sisters and I take a drive up to Sedona for a few days should be a fun time of laughing, eating, wine & picture taking for more blogs.. I'll have my laptop with me and will try to post some shots of the area for those that have not had the thrill of seeing this part of America..
The absolute joy of just mixing color is what I felt in painting this apple, Yes! I also enjoyed eating this fine Fuji apple with extra sharp Cheddar-cheese and some really good herb crackers.... Back to the painting.... this was fun for I don't often do a solid color background, so to work out just how or what color was just a joy and a nice departure from my sky & lands... Enough talking... I have to finish a landscape... The apple painting is 6x6 inch on Birch panel that is mounted on a varnished wooden box...
Taking a nice departure from my skies as I was getting ready to do some cooking, I looked closely at this onion and thought... "Theres my next painting" And so there you have it.. I will be posting next week as I'll be out of my studio for a few days but in the meantime this could be yours. (Sold)
With light fading and shadows elongating across fresh fallen snow, I add one more snow painting to my never ending process of exploring the medium of oils and what takes place when color and mood are mixed together to become one.. This is a 6x6 inch oil on Birch panel on a varnished wooden box. For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
Just found this shot amongst all my stuff and thought "This will be a nice challenge" So the painting began with the sky and seeing how and what the coloring was going to be... Then that arduous part of painting, the trees.. Trees are a challenge for me, thus you see them in a lot of my work... I just cant let them win, at lest, not all the time.. I started with the glow of the sun and worked out from there, seeing just how many trees I wanted and there rhythm. Then I painted the snow, working out color, shadows and all.. Then I set back and see how I feel about it. There are times after having posted a painting I decided, I don't like it, for one reason or another.. I remove it or rework the painting and see if I can bring it to where I want... Sometimes its a big change, sometimes not... The bottom line is, regardless of its location, my mission in painting is, create a mood, paint it as best I can, be true to my craft and strive to learn something about the process of putting all the pigments together so they make sense. Here is a 6x6 inch oil on Birch panel, mounted on a varnished wooden box. For availability E-mail:schwartzart@earthlink.net
