Please let me know if I ever get carried away with all the photos I put up here and accidentally put up a photo that you'd rather not have included,  misspelled your name, or missed a link to your webpage. It's fun sharing photos of some of the events that Susan and I participate in and we'd feel terrible if we hurt someone's feelings inadvertently.

It's hard to believe that this was the fifth year of the Laguna Plein Air show. The first year I was invited to the show, I'd never done a plein air event before and saw it as a challenging way to paint out of my comfort zone and to learn something new. Painting with so many great artists has certainly pushed me to improve and I've learned so much myself that I'm sure the same is true for everyone else. This year I came a week early to teach a workshop for Paulette and Ken Auster at the new teaching facility they've set up -- http://www.kenauster.com/. It was a very fun class and extremely well organized. Below is a demo I did there on my final day of class of a fantastic model named Patti. I thought she had such a great face that I hired her a couple more times to pose outside for me during the week of the show.

"Patty" oil, 16" by 12"

Here's Ken working away in his studio on a little masterpiece of a couple of chefs .http://www.kenauster.com/

How the heck did he get paint even on the back of his easel, is what I want to know!

Paint tubes beware -- get left behind on Ken's palette and it might turn into your final resting spot. Now is that a great work of abstract art or what!

Here's another rather abstract view of Laguna beach on the fourth of July. Looking at this scene sure made me happy I'm not a photo-realist!

"Julio"  oil,  16" by 12"

On the weekend after the workshop I stayed over at my friends Morgan Weistling and Jo Ann Peralta's house. Julio Pro, a friend of theirs and a very accomplished wildlife painter, was kind enough to pose for the three of us in Morgan's studio. Above is the painting I did of Julio. What a joy painting a man with some character for a change! You sure can have some fun with bold brushwork when you aren't so concerned about keeping everything so soft and subtle like you have to on a pretty girl.

And, speaking of people with character... the infamous Bob Wiermaa showed up with video camera at the ready back in Laguna. This year Dan Goozeé and I decided it would be fun to hire some models for the whole week and paint in the courtyard of Mary Linda and Jay Strotkamp, who were also letting me stay in their coach-house for the week. 

Here's Dan hard at work on his first painting of our fantastic model, Tangerine Bolen. I'm using the term "hard at work" loosely here, since painting in the shaded courtyard, away from sun, wind, and crowds; within steps of bathrooms and a fridge stocked with beer and snacks, we have redefined the term plein air painting to mean fair weather plein air painting. In fact, when I met up with Ken Auster the next day and he told me a long story about getting sunburned at the top of a san dune, then slipping on the way down and nearly skinning his back, and only just saving his painting from falling out of his grip on the way, all I could come back with was a lame, "well, a leaf fell onto my palette once..."

Here's a friend of mine, Steve Gefrom, who I hadn't seen in twelve years! Steve used to paint with all of us at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago and I didn't even recognize him at first when he turned up in the courtyard. He drove up several days and painted along with us and it was just like old times. 

Here I am starting my second painting of Tangerine. The first one got wiped off after three hours of unsuccessful struggle. 

On Tuesday, Jo Ann and  Morgan Weistling joined us as well. Here's the lefty himself at work on what turned out to be a great little portrait. I thought it would be fun for Morgan to try some outdoor lighting as a break from his studio work, but with the overcast day we had, the light in the courtyard was nearly identical to that of his north light studio! The most interesting thing about painting with Dan and Morgan and all the other painters who joined us during the week was to see how differently everyone perceived and interpreted the exact same subject. Even something as simple as our colors. Morgan saw a lot more blues than I did, while Bob Lemler and Dan Gooze saw more warms, with me somewhere in the middle.

Morgan and daughter, Brittany, during our lunch break. This was the main view I'd had of Brittany all day, lost in her portable videogame. After lunch I suggested we walk to the water and see some of the views of the ocean, but, even as we walked, I noticed that Brittany was still playing her game and missing all the beauty around her in the non-game world. As an experiment, I gave her my digital camera, showed her how to zoom and told her she could take as many photos as she liked since the card had room for a couple hundred shots on it. Digital cameras are perfect for kids since you don't have to worry about wasting film, focusing, and you can see the results instantly. 

The most amazing transformation then occurred. The game went away and our newly minted photographer started looking all around at anything and everything that might make a good photograph. She studied people, rocks, waves, birds, etc. and starting taking photos. Just the fact of having a camera in her hand was causing her to see things she almost certainly would have missed without its presence.

Here's one of the fantastic photos Brittany took during our walk. Warning -- deep thought to follow! To me, this is an example of what art is all about. Even if we never sell a photograph or a painting or even a poem, just the fact of doing it teaches us to observe the world in ways we never would have otherwise. Art gives us the excuse to travel, to sit and study something for hours on end, to constantly be on the look out for something we find worthy of capturing and sharing with others. The camera was a bridge for Brittany to things that she never would have observed without it, and that is why teaching art in grade schools is just as important as Math and English, even if you never intend your child to make a living as an artist. 

One funny side-note on this little adventure. Morgan was a bit nervous that I'd given Brittany my camera, in case she dropped it or something. "It's just a camera," I told him as we walked down to the rocks and climbed up some of them. About a minute later I stepped carelessly on some wet moss and landed ungracefully on my back. Once he realized I was fine, Morgan laughed, "Here, I was worried about Brittany, but if you hadn't given her your camera, you probably would have broken it when you fell!" Thanks, Brittany, for saving my camera for me!

Here's Anita Hampton joining us in our luxurious courtyard.

And Bob Lemler, as well. 

Here's my good friend, and fantastic artist, Rachael Hayward stopping by to see us painting. She actually bought the painting she saw me working on that day when I had it in the museum over the weekend. It's so rare to actually meet the people who buy one of Susan or my paintings, let alone have them see it being painted! Rachael also had Ken Auster and I over for diner one night and it was a treat to see her collection, which was like a museum. Ironically, she had a large painting of Morgan Weistlings as well, whom she'd never met. She was surprised to hear he'd just been painting with us that very day -- what a small world.

Here's Gil Delinger doing a pastel of Tangerine along with us. It was the first portrait I'd seen him do and it was great!

Charles Muench training his eagle-eye on the model. 

Here's Dan Goozeé giving Tangerine's friend and up-and-coming artist, Olga Medvedev, some pointers. To illustrate the small world point yet again, Olga joined us for lunch, was introduced to Dan, then came up to the courtyard afterward to see what we were working on. Upon seeing Dan's half-started painting, she instantly recognized his style and exclaimed, "I didn't realize you were Dan Goozeé! My father has one of your paintings!" 

And, of course, the incomparable, Calvin Liang. Unfortunately, Calvin had set up in the gazebo in Heisler park for the Quick Draw and was forced to move halfway through his painting, because a wedding had booked it during the Quick Draw and no one thought to tell any of the artists beforehand.

Below are some photos that Jay Strotkamp was kind enough to send me of the Quick Draw.

Albert Handell is never hard to spot even from a distance.

The fearless leader of PAPA, George Strickland.

Gerald Frizler, the Harley ridding, beer drinking, watercolorist extraordinaire. 

Jacobus Baas.

Jason Situ.

John Comer.

John Cosby with all the people he paid to watch him so that everyone would be impressed by the crowd he draws. After all, image is everything in California!

Joseph Mendez with trademark cigar.

Ken Auster wowing the crowd as well.

Morgan Samuel Price.

Ned Mueller shamelessly trying to pedal his Quick Draw in the park. I listened in on the conversation and Ned was saying, "The thirty dollar price includes the frame and I'll also wash your car for a week." Sounded like a good deal to me!

Ray Roberts.

Robin Hall.

Saim Caglayan. 

Here's Dan Goozeé and I painting Patty for the Quick Draw. Even though we only had two hours to paint, John Cosby had finished up early and lent us all his paid spectators to help us with our image as well -- thanks John!

"Patty Quick Draw"  oil,  12" by 9"
All the people who just took my workshop will notice that this painting is a good example something I talk a lot about in class -- of comparing the various dark accents to each other and not letting all of them go pure black. Notice how the dark of the nostril is a bit lighter than the dark in the eyeball, and the deepest dark in the lips is even lighter than that. The tendency is to make them all the same if you just look at each in isolation, so don't forget to squint and compare each value to the darkest dark and lightest light.

Here are some of the children I helped teach after our Quick Draw event was over. This was the second year of this event, sponsored and organized by LPAPA and the LA Times. Each of the fifty children in the event won their local school's art competition and got to come and paint in Heisler park for a couple of hours after we did our Quick Draw and get instruction from some of the artists in the show as well as some of the LPAPA local members. All the easels, paints, brushes, and other equipment were supplied by the two organizations and were the children's to take home with them afterward.

The most satisfying thing about teaching kids is that they are starting out from the absolute beginning so that you can see improvement even in one painting session. Sometimes it takes me months of hard work to push my work even a tiny bit further along!

Sophie was simply adorable, deciding to paint her dog while her mom helped keep the dog in one place while she painted. The dog's harness was purple, however, and Sophie pointed out to me that she didn't have any purple tubes of paint. When I had her mix blue and red together, it was as if I'd showed her a magic trick! "But what about brown?" she asked even more skeptically...

This girl had already done her painting in the allotted time and decided to stay longer and try another one of the moon and shooting stars so she asked me to show her how to mix a dark sky color.

When I first walked over to this little girl, she just didn't seem to be all that excited and I worried that maybe she didn't really want to be here. "Are you excited about doing a painting?" I asked her. "Oh, yes, she said with that same serious expression I'd misread, "I was so excited all last night that I could hardly sleep!" I realized that what I'd taken for boredom was intense concentration and a desire to learn every last bit she could.

Yes, by the time we'd turned in all our paintings to the museum and finished teaching, we were all just as tired as Joseph Mendez looks here!

But some, like, Dan Goozeé, just won't quit! Here he is painting Olga Medvedev on Saturday morning. Like an addict who just can't control themselves, I painted along with him and then even did another quick painting of Glenn Dean afterward. Here's Glenn and Sarah below with the hour and a half painting I did of him. I was very motivated to do this painting, however, since Glenn traded me a fantastic landscape of his for it! I guarantee you he will be one of the greats someday.

By the time I got to the gala that evening, however, I was paying the price and could hardly speak coherently due to exhaustion. My apologies to everyone I insulted by nodding off temporarily while they were making their insightful remarks.

Here's Ken Auster shocking me by buying the painting behind me. I was so honored by such a compliment from an artist of his stature, that I was speechless -- or maybe I'd simply nodded off again, I just can't remember! Well, at least him buying this painting will give me some money to buy another one of his paintings to add to the one of his we already have.

Here's a painting I did of Patty on Sunday in the garden at Mary Linda and Jay's. "Patty in Garden"  oil,  22" by 16"