EGRET AT MILLER/KNOX PARK

I'm still trying to get better at painting en plein aire. I worked on site for a few hours and completed the painting with some digital shots back in the studio. The egret came and posed for awhile. Using an empty slide jacket for a view finder is helping me to better frame the composition.

9" X 12"

Oil on canvas

'RECLINING FIGURE/RED'


Oil on primed 1/2" wood panel

'CARQUINEZ BRIDGE FROM MARE ISLAND'


This view of the Carquinez Bridge with Mount Diablo is seen from the South side of Mare Island, a former Military base. There are astounding views of Marin, Contra Costa and Napa counties from one vantage point. I attended my first 'paint-out' there this weekend with a plein-aire group from Benicia. I loved it, although I am still finding my way with landscape painting.

Oil on canvas

14" X 18"

'SOLVEIG IN KIMONO'

Oil on board

11" X 14"

PAIR

Oil on maple

5"X 7"

BODEGA BAY II

Another view from the Inn in Bodega Bay. The land forms a practically enclosed bay in which pelicans, ducks, sea gulls, and seals frolic. We also discovered a wonderful little gallery that was showing the paintings of 1950's Disney animator, Joshua Meador. http://www.BBHGallery.com

Oil on maple

6"X6"

BODEGA BAY

This is the view from an inn in Bodega Bay on the Sonoma County coast of California that we like to get away to.

Oil on maple

5"X 7"

ROCOCCO LEAF

I came across this leaf on a walk in Golden Gate Park on Sunday morning. I placed it in my little chiaroscuro set up to see how the light plays on its crackly surface and through its transparent greens and golds.

Oil on canvas

5" X 7"

'PAMPAS GRASS'

There was a row of tall pampas grass swaying in the breeze along the Bay Trail. I brought one home to paint this still life in the alla prima (all at once) method. I needed a change from painting in layers.

Oil on Canvas

5"X7"

'LITTLE PUMPKIN'

I brought this little pumpkin home from El Cerrito Natural Grocery and set it on the table in place of the cone shell to see how Rembrandt's chiaroscuro lighting effect would work on it's surface.

6" X6"

Oil on maple

THE WHITE JACKET

This is a figure study of Stephanie in her white leather jacket. This was a one session pose, so I painted it in browns, blacks, and whites on a gray ground.

Oil on primed masonite

11" X 11" (had to clip the left side to fit on scanner)

'CONE SHELL, AFTER REMBRANDT'

I recognized this in a shell shop, from a Rembrandt etching, and so brought it home to make a painting. With a copy of the Rembrandt etching to look at, I was able to approximate the angle of light and shadow. I learned how the light was set up to glance off of the top edge of the shell while showing the swirl side in half-light, but most of the shell was actually in darkness. His etching reversed the cone and swirl direction, but the signature was added to read correctly. Rembrandt's etching- http://www.rijksmuseum.nl

Oil on Maple
5"X 7"

"SAWOOEI NAPKIN"

This artfully folded napkin is from Sawooei Thai Cuisine, my favorite El Cerrito restaurant. My painter's radar noticed these beauties on the purple tablecloths, so I asked to borrow one to add to my take-out!

Oil on maple
6" X 6"

'JAZZ ROSE'

I was listening to 'morning cup of jazz' on the FM, while painting this pink rose from the garden. I found myself immersed in the rose's world of edges, turns and transparent light.

6" X 6'

Oil on maple

JUDITH WITH WINE

Oil on masonite panel

In this painting I was concentrating on the overall composition, so that the figure is not isolated or extracted from her surroundings.



SOLD

MERAV WITH ROBE

Merav is one of my favorite artist/models to work with. She has physical vitality which
translates as potential energy, even in her quiet poses.

Oil on masonite

'ANCIENT GLASS'

I was taken with these tiny 'free blown' glass artifacts from around 400 b.c. I took some photos of them at the Legion in San Francisco after seeing a wonderful works on paper show.

Oil on maple

5" X 7"

'YOSHIO IN TUQUOISE CHAIR'


Oil on masonite

9" X 9"

NATIVE GARDEN BY THE BAY

I completed this mural of a native California flower garden with a view of San Francisco and the Bay on July 11, 2007, the day Lady Bird Johnson died at 94. She and Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center, dedicated to preserving and reintroducing native plants in planned landscapes. There is a yellow bird in the center of the mural- and in Ladybird's official White House portrait she is wearing a yellow gown! How is that for synchronicity? The mural is located at the corner of Solano Avenue and Talbot Street in Albany,California. Now, I can get back to posting the small paintings of the 'painting a day' project!

'BUTTERFLY WORLD'

These are pictures of a mural I finished last summer in the interior courtyard of the Albany YMCA, in Albany California. I call it Butterfly World, because all of the many butterflies in the mural are from every continent on earth. I am about to start another large outside mural and I'm preparing for Pro Arts Open Studios, the first two Sundays in June, so I will be taking a hiatus from the dailies until mid-June.

'FIGURE STUDY 9'

Oil on ABS panel

5" X 7"

'SHELL'


Oil on triple primed ABS panel

6" X 6"

Sold

YOSHIO

Sold


Oil on masonite

9 X 14

'CABG'


Oil on canvas

8" X 10"

The medical name for by-pass surgery (Cardiac Artery Bypass Graft) is pronounced
'cabbage'- My 83 yr old father had this surgery last week.

'MONKEY ON TURTLE BEAD'


Oil on maple hardboard

5"X7"

'FIGURE STUDY 8'

Oil on masonite

9" X 14"


Last Wednesday at my figure drawing/painting group- I was trying to loosen up and not be so concerned with results.

'GLASS JEWEL 9'

5"X7"
Oil on maple hardboard

"The problem of the painter is to have the painting create its own light- that's the theory of painting." Wayne Thiebaud

'VAN GOGH'S PICKLES'


Sold


5"X7"

Oil on maple hardboard

'MERAV AND THE TURQUOISE CHAIR'

Oil on masonite
11" X 11"
sold

The first image is the underpainting done during first week with model, Merav.
I used a burnt sienna layer over a gray underpainting and used a wipe out technique, with Q-tips,rags and make-up sponges! I added in darks and lights with more sienna and cremnitz white.

The second image is from the final sitting at the McGee St studio. I added in local color and skin tones in the lights and improvised brush-work in the patterned fabrics in the background. When I was nearly finished, a fellow painter turned it upside down, which helped me to resolve some composition and color issues. When you don't know how to finish a painting, turning it upside down is a great way to see it in a fresh, abstract way.

'GLASS JEWEL 8'

6"X6"
Oil on maple hardboard

Sold







http://daily-painting-practice.blogspot.com

'GLASS JEWEL 7'
Oil on maple hardboard
5"X7"

"Small work fits in with the pace of modern life. In the time where the one liner, the quick fix, instant gratification and short concentration-spans rule, small stuff works. Life burgeons--family, friendship, fellowship, dining and watching long-neglected DVD's like Al Gore's witness to global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." All becomes part of the matrix. Like an impossible jigsaw on the coffee table, the paintbox is always there with its permanent invitation to frustration, understanding and joy." Robert Genn, author of 'The Painter's Keys'


http://daily-painting-practice.blogspot.com

'GLASS JEWEL 6'


Oil on maple hardboard

5" X 7"

'GLASS JEWEL 5"

Oil on maple hardboard

6"X6"

'GLASS JEWEL 4"
Oil on maple hardboard
6"X 6"

'FIGURE 6'

Oil on primed masonite

sold

11" X 11"

'GLASS JEWEL, 3'

'GLASS JEWEL, 2'













Oil on maple hardboard
6" X 6"

'GLASS JEWEL 1'

This little glass jewel is a remnant from a collection of special items that I used in my former profession as a stained glass designer. This morning I was reading from a randomly selected page in 'Oil Painting Secrets from a Master' by Linda Cateura- the words of David Leffel- on Seeing- "Rubens...had the ability to see objects of nature with a painter's eye,.. he could immediately see the predominant feature that defines and distinguishes every object and bring this visual reality to his paintings..." words to meditate on while painting an object not of nature.

Oil
5"X 7"
maple hardboard


lisagreenstein@gmail.com

'OLD CRAYOLAS'

Oil
Sold


maple hardboard

5"X7"