Virtual Paintout 28: Medieval Castles in Napa Valley!

For the month of June the Virtual Paintout gang visited Napa Valley, California, USA. I fell in love with this gorgeous castle, called Castello di Amorosa.

This 12th century style medieval castle is a fully functioning winery! The building began in 1994, and has become world famous. Dario Sattui, the owner who fell in love with medieval castles while touring Europe as a young man in an old VW van, is the great grandson of Vittorio Sattui, an Italian immigrant who founded V.Sattui Winery in 1885 in San Francisco. 

The whole story is fascinating, and I loved reading it and touring the castle via Google street view.

Here is the original location (as always, you can

enlarge any pics by clicking on them):

I dinked around in Photoshop, playing with color ideas:

The line drawing on the birch wood panel:

First I painted the values underpainting. I wanted an old, aged effect:

Here is a crummy photo with glare, showing the blues being added. I used Ultramarine blue. In Medieval days it was a sign of wealth to use that blue, it being an expensive color to create from genuine Lapis Lazuli.

Some close ups:

And here is my finished castle, complete with actual images from inside and outside the castle. The gargoyles sit atop stone walls, guarding the entrance to the castle drawbridge. The iron dragon is outside, hanging from chains. The rest are painted images from inside, most on the walls of the Great Room.

"For the Love of Castles"

Castello di Amorosa

Napa Valley, CA  USA

8x10 acrylic on

birch wood panel

(Prints, cards and more available

at my Print Shop)

I hope you enjoyed visiting Castello di Amorosa.

Retta

Virtual Paintout 25: Painting Sunshine & Shadows!

For the month of May the Virtual Paintout gang went to the city of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. 

I fell in love with the countryside in the South Bohemian Region, and when I saw a field of baled hay, I imagined that Claude Monet, the famous Impressionist painter who painted LOTS of hay bales, surely must have visited here! So here's my painting, in honor of Monet, an artist I greatly admire.

I call my painting "End of a Well Spent Day".

Leonardo da Vinci said: 

" As a well spent day brings happy sleep, 

so a life well spent brings a happy death."

The dignity and honor of good old fashioned hard work. 

Peace and contentment. 

The end of a good day. 

Headin' in to supper with Family. 

A well spent day.

My original location:

(can click on any pics to enlarge)

A black and white version to study 

the values before starting:

My set up and first sketching-in:

Oh! Guess what? 

I finally bought a little tablet to use for my reference photos!

So now I don't have to keep running back and forth to my 

desktop computer, or print out dull and dark paper references. 

It's a Polaroid 10.1 inch tablet. A TON cheaper than an iPad. 

But it gets the job done for my purposes. Here you can see the 

color mock-up that I played around with in photoshop:

Starting the underpainting here:

Decided to switch directions, and have fun experimenting 

with something I read about in the Susan Sarback book

"Capturing Radiant Light & Color": 

painting in the sunshine and shadow colors first:

Adding variations to the colors:

A couple of close ups:

And the finished painting:

"End of a Well Spent Day"

Cesky Krumlov

South Bohemian Region

Czech Republic

6 x 12 acrylic 

on wrapped canvas

(prints, greeting cards and more available

at rettastephenson.com)

Happy painting,

Retta

Virtual Paintout 23: Greenland - More Than Meets the Eye!

March found the Virtual Paintout gang in Greenland! 

What a fascinating place. It was summertime when the GoogleStreet View car went to Greenland, and I was entertained by all the dogs obviously on vacation for the summer from their usual winter sled-doggie duties. 

I saw dozens of packs lounging around, catching sun or carefully eyeing the google camera as it drove by. This fellow caught my eye... with his ONE peeking eye.

He was curled up on a warm rock, and behind him in the bay was a gorgeous iceburg, half hidden under the water.

I chuckled because the dog also looked half hidden, curled up with his nose tucked into his warm tail, yet peeking out with that one alert eye. (As usual, can click on any images to enlarge)

Here's the original location of my painting:

A close up of my spotted furry friend:

And the finished painting:

"Half Hidden"
Siaqqissoq, Greenland
9 x 12 acrylic on
watercolor paper

Happy painting,

Retta

PS: I haven't mentioned it in awhile, but Virtual Paintout is open to all artists of most traditional mediums, of all skill ranges. So please feel free to check us out at the Virtual Paintout blog. It really is a blast painting all around the world. We never know where we'll end up at the first of every month til our leader, artist Bill Guffey, posts the new location. Join us!?

Virtual Paintout 21: What's For Lunch??

For the first month of this new year the Virtual Paintout gang went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Gorgeous state! Lots of historic sites and statues, rich with meaning. 

I passed by (virtually, using Google Street View) this lovely open area on Lemon Hill Drive and noticed the covered picnic area in a beautiful park-like setting. Then my imagination took over, and I thought "what if?"...

Lemon Hill Drive location:

What if folks were enjoying a peaceful picnic on a beautiful afternoon...

What if suddenly they noticed the ground vibrating, and heard loud growling sounds...

What if "something" was coming...

What if the screaming started, and everyone took off at a dead run...

And what if an uninvited Mother and child showed up at the picnic?? (can click images to enlarge)

"Uninvited Picnic Guests"

6 x 9 sketchbook

Ink, watercolors, colored 

pencils and watercolor pencil

Happy sketching,

Retta

Virtual Paintout 20: Timeless Italy!

Last day of the last month of the year! Time for a photo of my studio workspace. Yes... a wee bit messy. And I confess, this is a neat day, ha ha ha!

On to my painting for Decembers Virtual Paintout. For this last month of 2014, we virtually visited Rome, Italy. So full of beauty and history! 

A sense of Timelessness.  Words fail me. 

The site I chose was at the Baths of Caracalla, the famous ancient Roman Baths. Built in the early AD 200's, they were huge public baths. Here's my original location (can click on any pics to enlarge):

Something appealed to me about the ancient ruins, beautiful sky, and green grounds.

And those trees.  

They looked as if they had been around for ages. 

Their height, their shape. 

Old trees that could tell a story. 

And my imagination went wandering, and I saw Others present. 

From an even more distant past. 

Like Time overlaying Time. 

Energy from the Past still interwoven with Today. 

So I played with it. :-)

In progress on my easel:

And the finished painting:

"Timeless"

Baths of Caracalla, Rome, Italy

9 x 12 acrylic on

wrapped canvas

A couple of close-ups... 

first the Triceratops Mama and baby:

And the Brachiosaurus:

My thanks to artist Bill Guffey for leading the Virtual Paintout. He takes us to a new location every month, and spends untold hours posting all of our paintings in our Facebook gallery. You can visit Bill's own art website Here.  Thanks, Bill!

I haven't mentioned it in awhile, but the monthly Virtual Paintout is open to anyone of all skill levels and almost all mediums. It's a lot of fun! For more info, check out his blog Here. 

Thank you for visiting and Happy painting - and Happy New Year!

Retta

PS: for the purists amongst us...

The Brachiosaurus was from the Jurassic era, and was first discovered in Colorado, North America in 1903 (not Italy, ha ha).

The Triceratops, on the other hand, was from the late Cretaceous era, and many skeletons have been found in North America and Canada. Oh, and the flying Pteranodon hung out in about the same timeframe and places as the Triceratops. 

Obviously, my painting is a work of fractured fantasy! :-D

My Sketchcrawl Adventure... and Win a FREE e-book!

My friend, author Mary Pax, is having another book launch!  

I'm super excited to be participating, since I enjoy her writing. It's a strange combination of urban fantasy/contemporary sci-fi/paranormal adventure/ and even steampunk. Weird is a good word for it! 

Mary has generously provided a FREE set of e-books (Books 1 & 2 of The Rifters series) to one of my lucky commenters here. I'll announce the winner on October 1st (last day to comment and be included in the drawing: Sept 30th).

The new series is called The Rifters, and Book 1 launched on Sept 8th. Here is the LINK to Mary's website, where you can read Chapter One of The Rifters; it also has links to Amazon and other sources. As of this writing, The Rifters e-book is FREE at Amazon, Smashword and others! Cool deal, yes?? 

I've read several stories by Mary Pax, and enjoyed every one. I always end up shaking my head, thinking "how in the world does she think this stuff up??!" 

I have a lot to share, so will be posting thumbnail pics from my sketchbook. Just click on them to enlarge... don't wanna crash anyones pc, with so many images to load, ha!

Without further ado, here is our "Book Launch Vacation":

(Spoiler alert: 

forget what the Settler Tourism Department says... 

there ARE weird happenings around Settler, Oregon!)

I'm one of the lucky ones. I live in Southern Oregon. The infamous town of Settler, Oregon is within a days driving for me, being up north from my town. Since my husband is a photographer, we drove up to the Caslow County Fair and Expo at the end of August. Jim wanted to take photos of the high desert country, and maybe Swit Lake if he had time before sundown. 

Me? I did a SketchCrawl.** That's where you take your sketchbook and painting/sketching paraphanalia and just hike out to... wherever. Last time we visited Settler, Francine at the Settler Mercantile let it slip that the rumors were TRUE about "otherworldly beasts" being spotted near Settler. 

We found out for ourselves this time! I had hoped to stumble on some Beasties to draw. Was thinking... "Wouldn't that be cool?? If I survive the encounter, that is! Mwa ha ha, sure wish they were for real."  Careful what you wish for!

                                 

          

Well, we DID make it home in one piece, and I am so excited to share images from our "vacation".

I really DID get to see some of the rumored "other worldly beasts". Honestly, I thought it was just "marketing hype" for the tourists, ya know?? But after Jim dropped me off so he and Joey (our Mini-schnauzer) could go exploring on their own, I took my time poking around. It was an overcast afternoon, so not too hot.

There were boulders to sit on and sketch, but it was almost dusk when the adventure REALLY started. That's when the beasties ventured out!! 

Enough jabbering... below are pics from my 5.5 x 8 inch sketchbook. Some were rough... I was trying to draw fast, the light was fading. So a few of the color touches were added from memory once we made it back home. But wow, it was amazing to see what really lives in Settler, Oregon. You've GOT to visit Settler for yourself. Honestly, if you love "weird", you'll have a blast!

You can click the pics to enlarge. I didn't caption these; they are in order, so you could read each journal entry if you'd like to know about the sketch following it.

And a few of the photos Jim took:

He thought this was funny...

Morning glow on a pansy...

And they were functional!!

Taken right before the sun came up...

He said he noticed a lot of strange things around Settler, this being one of them...

Yikes, Jim almost ran nose to nose with this guy...

He said he had a hard climb to get this view of Swit Lake, but it was worth it...

Even some of the plant life there is weird...

He stumbled upon this old house right at sunset...

A full moon!

I wonder if that full moon might explain some of the weirdness, including these strange lights he saw??

Well, what can I tell ya... I now know where Weird lives. 

Hoped you enjoyed the visuals from our vacation, and I know you will enjoy this new book series from Mary Pax. And don't forget to leave a comment by Sept 30th so I can put you into the drawing for a FREE set of e-books!

Happy painting - and reading,

Retta

=========================

**The town of Settler, Oregon is a figment of author M Pax's     imagination, as is my account of our vacation, my Sketchcrawl, and my encounters with the Beasties. Oh yes, the sketches are real!! But they were drawn right here in my own safe little studio, with Joey barking and Vevie and Butterfly meowing to be petted or fed. They are the only carnivores around here, and they don't glow green. ;-)

Edited to add:  The drawing is now closed. Thanks for looking at my sketchbook... hope you enjoyed it.