Cornelia Emery's Painting a Day

2012-01-20T00:06:00.001-08:00

Mission Ranch, Carmel. View over the Lagoon...

2012-01-18T23:44:00.000-08:00

Tina's Lagoon III. Water is still high in Carmel Lagoon. What a great place to paint!

2012-01-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

Tina's Lagoon II. High water, water birds, frogs, sound of the surf in the distance....

Tina's Lagoon I

2012-01-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

The water is high in Carmel Lagoon and it's a fabulous painting opportunity!

Up & At 'Em!

2011-07-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

Fabulous pup with personality!

At The Museum

2011-07-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

8x10. Love these ladies!

Little House By The Sea

2010-07-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

this just won an Honorable Mention at the Santa Cruz Plein Air festival.

8x10

I will be away until August 11th in a place without good internet access. Whoa! Lots of time for painting!

Molly Dog II

2010-07-16T23:16:00.000-07:00

Looks like I am the demo queen and my demo subject is the dog! I did this one at the Santa Cruz "Plein Aire Affaire" last Saturday.

10x10

The Old Gate Post

2010-07-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

The Monterey Bay Plein Air Painters went out to Holman Ranch in Carmel Valley but since I was late, I couldn't find anyone (How was I to know that you had to follow the road that said "PRIVATE ROAD!"?? ) so I painted this cool gatepost with the matilja poppies and the Santa Lucia Mountains in the background. Sometimes bad luck is good luck! (not such good luck with the photo, however. grr)

8x10

Grazing at the Circle P Ranch

2010-07-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

More fog in Watsonville this time but an agreeable horse that posed for several minutes in this golden field!

8x10

tick tick

2010-07-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

This is another picture taken with my phone. Just wait till the plein air festival is over and I promise that I will take some good pix with my camera! ....and upload them to the computer!

Point Lobos Fog

2010-07-09T00:05:00.000-07:00

Another foggy day in 'sunny california'! The minute I finished this, packed up, and started hiking back to the car, the sun came out, the water turned sapphire blue, the...well, you get the drift. Rats

8x10

Overlooking The Mustard Field

2010-07-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

This week I am painting for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History's " Plein Air Affaire." We brought in some "dry paintings" and now we are doing some paintings outdoors on stamped canvasses ("wet paintings.") As we are in the midst of California's "June Gloom" this is a challenge. Fortunately, this field of mustard flowers provided all the sunshine anyone could want!

9x12

Molly Dog

2010-07-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

So last Friday I had to do a demonstration at Gallery North as part of Carmel-by-the-Sea's First Friday. I decided that painting my dog would be fun because although I have painted lots of dogs, I had never painted her. Well, you can't have your dog feeling left out, can you? She looks pretty cheerful here, don't you think?

10x10

Reflections

2010-07-04T00:09:00.000-07:00

A foggy morning at the lagoon in Carmel. This is looking East and usually the sun is in your eyes and it is hard to paint. Today, the hills are invisible in the fog and certainly no sun is getting in anyones eyes but the scene is beautiful anyway...

9x12 oil

Daisy, Daisy

2010-06-29T00:13:00.000-07:00

Here is another daisy from our mystery daisy patch! I have no idea how it came to be in our yard but there it is and providing lots of cool painting material!

enjoy1

the Yellow Cup

2010-06-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

What fun to paint this daisy that just appeared in our yard and the cool yellow cup with bumps!

Three And One

2010-06-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so yucky recently that good photos have been difficult even though painting still lifes indoors has been fun! Here is one with some fab cherries from the farmers market!

Sunnyside Up

2010-06-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

I have spent the past week in West Newbury, Massachusetts visiting Lee Rowan and taking a fabulous workshop from Carol Marine. We learned about values by doing a one-color painting, about painting outside -- putting down the 'most vulnerable' colors first, and doing elipses in a very precise way. We also learned to squint. Squint! Squint! We learned lots of other things as well but that would take 4 days to relate!

Sunlight And Shadow

2010-05-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

Another fabulous sunny (but chilly) spring day here. A great day to paint! 6x8

Al Fresco Lunch

2010-05-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

This is another painting from the Carmel Art Festival. On this day, I decided to warm up and found a spot where the sun was thinking of shining! While I painted this scene with the nice road & a few lupines, a whole herd of cows came and watched me paint! These are a few of the first ones. Later on, they must have phoned all their friends because there was quite a crowd. Painting outside is a lot of fun!

The Sentinel, Carmel

2010-05-26T23:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of the paintings I did for the Carmel Art Festival (May 12-16). Naturally, I forgot to take a photo so this picture is one I got off the Art Festival web site. It was painted Wednesday night right after we got our canvasses stamped and it was freezing and gloomy. Everything was grey-blue except for the little bit of rapidly disappearing light at the horizon.

Lupines in the Valley

2010-04-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

A fabulous day with puffy clouds and trails of lupines and poppies in the grass!

6x8

Sunset, Carmel

2010-04-10T00:21:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for a fabulous sunset to paint and they have all been pretty dull. However, the sky was pretty nice and I painted this in the 20 minutes it took my husband to run into town for pizza! We were all happy!

8x10

Safe Harbor

2010-04-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

I painted this in Monterey, California on Wharf #2 at about 9 at night. There were so many great lighting effects and, of course, the little red boat!

6x8

Carmel Mission in Winter

2010-03-11T23:40:00.000-08:00

So here I am painting the mission again. It is a really hard building to paint probably because it is entirely hand made. We are so used to buildings with everything at perfect right angles and so on that we tend to have trouble with this kind of architecture.

And not only that, I left out the bird sitting on the side of the dome!

8x10

Maine House

2010-03-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

Arrgh! I see that I have messed up and there is glare on the photo. One of these days...

6x8

Around The Bend

2010-03-09T23:59:00.000-08:00

Hmm...Is that the title of a painting or a comment on the painter?

6x9

Bridge Over the Seine

2010-03-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

It has been cold, windy and raining like anything so that all my paintings have rain spots on them. Finally, I decided to paint en plein photo...in other words, in the comfort of my garage! Voila! Sun, puffy clouds, Paris...ahhh

6x8

Pounding Surf

2010-03-03T23:38:00.000-08:00

Whoa! Some title! I have been practicing painting rocks so you will be seeing some of those for the next few days (providing the rain holds off for a minute!)

8x10

I have been chosen to participate in the Carmel Art Festival again this year. Check out the new link to the Carmel Art Festival 2010...and come and check out the festival itself May 13-16!

Into the Woods (aka "Down the Line V")

2010-03-02T23:09:00.000-08:00

this is number 5 of the series. maybe I am getting there!

6x8

High Clouds

2010-02-17T23:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I forgot to take photos of my small painting until it was too dark so here is a plein air one. The weather has been fabulous lately (if you were following the ProAm at Pebble Beach last weekend, you may have seen the cool shots from the blimp proving my point!) So...with great weather, it is time for outdoor paintings!

10x8

Down the Line IV

2010-02-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

Here is #4 in the series. A palette knife painting!

6x8

Down the Line III

2010-02-14T22:59:00.000-08:00

#3 in the series...

6x8

Down the Line II

2010-02-13T23:58:00.000-08:00

#2 in the series. It is fun doing a ton of paintings of the same subject. Eventually, something will happen!

6x8

Down the Line

2010-02-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

This is #1 of a series I am planning do do of this scene which is in Davenport, CA. Stay tooned for the others.

6x8

Double Trouble

2010-02-11T23:50:00.000-08:00

So after doing a bunch of boats (a project which I am continuing) I got carried away with these apples: so cool and so crunchy...

6x8

Little Black Boat

2010-02-04T23:46:00.000-08:00

Another little model boat. I am having a lot of fun with these: how to make them accurate and painterly at the same time. Just like Carnegie Hall...practice practice practice...practice pr....

6x6

Another Model Boat

2010-02-01T23:20:00.000-08:00

Love these tiny model boats! This one is supposed to be a Monterey fishing boat but I think the model makers in China added a a bit of fantasy!
6x6

Windy Day, Carmel Beach

2010-01-31T23:13:00.000-08:00

Title says it all! It was windy and I was at Carmel Beach! A great time to be painting outside!

6x8

one cow out west

2010-01-30T22:52:00.000-08:00

I painted another model boat today but had a #@$! time taking its picture so here is a cow I painted outside. I notice that the cow picture isn't full of glare but on the other hand, it is out of focus. sheesh. My outside paintings are different from my inside paintings...maybe because I am using different brushes and a walnut-alkyd medium which gives the paint a different feel. hmm

6x8

At Carmel Beach

2010-01-29T23:58:00.000-08:00

I am so bad about photographing my paintings! I didn't think of taking a picture of this one until it was in a frame and in the gallery! yikes! See the line of dark shadow on the left hand side of the picture? This is what happens if you are naughty and take the picture with the frame on! Anyway, it was a fun day at the beach with lots of wind and waves and dogs playing and me painting!

8x10

Sail Away

2010-01-29T00:10:00.000-08:00

I love these little boats and they are great fun to paint! 6x6 oil

An Apple A Day

2010-01-29T00:05:00.000-08:00

Yikes! New Years has come and gone and I have just gotten back to doing these small paintings! If you want to see what else I have been doing, check my web site. I really haven't been that lazy!

Tina's Jam

2009-10-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

A beautiful and inspirational jar of jam from Malibu! Tomorrow morning I will open it and perhaps paint it as the level gets lower and lower! yum!

6x6

Prepare to Pie

2009-10-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun painting these shiny things. Wish I could photograph the resulting shiny painting. I am still getting those little shiny speckles. Well, at least they are all in focus now that I thought to use the aperture priority setting on my camera. Sheesh.

6x6 oil

Tomato Family II

2009-10-23T23:26:00.000-07:00

Gotta keep at these tomatoes! I love the little tomato and his mommy and daddy.

Vineyard Road

2009-10-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

Too nice to stay inside today! All the vine leaves are beginning to turn, the sky is blue, the birds are singing....yay!

9x12

Tomato Family

2009-10-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Grrr! I have been having the WORST time photographing my paintings lately! Nothing but glare and little speckles! I guess it is part of my Bad Technology Month where the printer has started having tantrums and the tv is talking back. Now it is the camera which is giving me bad color and lots of glare. Stay tuned for more glaring errors....

Tinker Toys

2009-10-16T00:34:00.000-07:00

These came in a much-used cardboard cylinder which included short and long sticks to put in the holes around the edges and in the middle. Then you could put them all together and make something. Probably terribly unsafe but the owner grew up with both eyes intact and a deep interest in making things.

Reflections on an Apple

2009-10-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

These apples came off the tiny tree in our garden. They are Gala apples and they are very gala! I love rubbing them on my sweater to make them shiny. None of that wax stuff on home grown apples!

No Pears But A Pair Of Apples

2009-10-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

I think our internet connection is finally fixed. While it has been down, I realize how much time I spend on line or just messing around. Not having the internet means more time to paint!

Fall Migration

2009-09-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Migration season at the lagoon. Zillions of birds wheeling and landing. Have to paint fast!
8x10

Can Can

2009-09-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

Painted at Earthbound Farms in Carmel Valley. Lots of things to paint there but this can caught my eye. Great lighting and all the cool stuff in the background! yay!

8x10

Lightfighter Road

2009-09-14T23:09:00.000-07:00

Wonderful clouds today and a though there was still a bit of haze in the air, you could see the mountains off in the distance. In the foreground, Route 1, the bike path, and the old train tracks that used to carry people from San Francisco to a fancy hotel in Monterey.

11x14

Big View, Small Van

2009-09-13T00:19:00.000-07:00

This is the second demonstration painting. Painting from a photograph is a challenge: photos are too small to show that special element which attracted you to the site and also show way more stuff than you can ever deal with. For example: where did that blue van come from??? I like painting from real life where the more you look, the more you see!

14x18

Palmy Days

2009-09-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

A house on Pine Street in Pacific Grove, CA. Loved the shadows on the garage and the big palm tree. Beautiful sunny day 75 degrees. Will have to go back there soon!

9x12

Looking to Lobos

2009-09-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

Painted on Scenic Drive in Carmel looking toward Point Lobos where there are no wolves nowadays but there is ocean and cypress. Took our new dog, Molly, along to see if she would be a good painting dog. Yep. Lay there quietly while I did this!

8x10

Looking Away

2009-09-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

This is the first of two demos I did last Friday. This one has cows. I was using a really big brush and before I knew it, I was finished. That's a tip!

9x12

Still Attached

2009-09-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

A friend who has a bountiful apple tree gave me a bag of apples most of which went into a pie. This one, however, was so cool that I had to paint it!

6x8

Scenic Road

2009-09-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

A very sunny day in Carmel! The boat was in just the right spot!

9x12

View Over Bernardus Vinyard

2009-09-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

what was I thinking here?? However, I did get the intense blue of the mountain in the background...

8x10

2009-08-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

An afternoon painting this time...done at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Labs. If I had only known that you could grow up and get a job playing around in tide pools, you would not be reading this blog! What a deal!

8x10

ps: I am going to have to do something about photographing my paintings! Everything comes out gray. Yuck. Why is this???

Garapatta Daze

2009-08-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

This is a 14 x 18 painting I did for a demo at the Central Coast Art Association. 4 colors, big brush, 1 hour! The demo was at night and indoors so I used a photo. You don't really get much information from a photo but one can only try!

14 x 18

At Bernardus Vinyard

2009-08-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Beautiful sunny day! Birds munching on the grapes and getting tipsy in the trees and singing birdy drinking songs!

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Brought back a nasty cold & wheeze from the airplane. yuk. It did not help my paintings at all!

8x10

2009-08-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Another Maine painting. This one is basically a sketch and I painted it while looking through the screens on a screened in porch. (There are lots of mosquitos in Maine!)

9x12

Morning Sail

2009-08-12T23:42:00.001-07:00

I have been away visiting the East Coast and Maine in particular which is why there haven't been any postings. On the island in Maine, there is no internet connection. Imagine that! Lots of time available to paint! This is a view toward two of the islands (The Crows) in the group of five called, naturally, Five Islands. My favorite place!

8x10

Barn Roof (Paicines Ranch)

2009-07-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

Is this a fabulous barn roof or what! 6x8 sold

Seascape

2009-07-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Another painting from the Santa Cruz festival. For this one, we went to a resort called Seascape where they drove us and all our gear around in golf carts. What a treat!

11x14

Sailing

2009-07-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

Cool view from Hopkins Marine Station on Monterey Bay. I am standing in a cement walled place which I think must be a seagull territory or nest area as they are wheeling overhead and making a huge racket the whole time. There are seagull feathers everywhere but no dirty bombs! The sailboat went by just at the right time!

9x12

View From the Old Farm

2009-07-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

One of the paintings from the Santa Cruz plein air event. This won Judges Choice which was nice because the old farm is probably the last one in the area. It was bought by the city and will not become a development. Yay!

8x10

Save Me!

2009-07-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Another historic house from Pacific Grove. This one is really cool but is so neglected. I hope someone with money or building skills comes along to love and save this house and put back the little balcony around the cupola and restore the shutters up there! Look at the beautiful long windows and french doors! Fabulous! Up and at 'em folks! 2nd & Central in Pacific Grove, CA.

9x12

Mrs H. A. Maynard House 1889, Pacific Grove, CA

2009-07-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I have been busy as a one armed paperhanger for the last 2 weeks! First, I had to come up with 3 paintings of historic Pacific Grove, California and then, off to Santa Cruz, California for their "Plein Aire Affaire". This involved getting up at the crack of dawn every day for a week and driving for an hour to get there. The reward was finding some cool spots up there. You will see the results of that eventually. Stay tuned: I have to go up there tomorrow and Sunday & demo!

9x12

2009-07-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

The cherries are in at the farmers market and this is my favorite kind!
I am using Carol Marine's husband's panel holder and it is fabulous! Not so the painting which is the first still life I have done in a while. Stay tuned...maybe things will improve!

oil 6x8

Alecia Dawn at Moss Landing

2009-06-27T23:49:00.000-07:00

This day started out very foggy but eventually a bit of sun came out to make a few interesting shadows and highlights. Alecia Dawn is the boat on the right with the black stripe down the stern. I love to paint these boats with all their equipment! You have to simplify but still make everything look right. If you are lucky, one of the fishermen will walk by and offer an opinion!

9x12

sold

2009-06-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

This painting was begun at 8pm and the sky is showing signs of sunset although shadows are still not very long and the gardens still busy with parents pushing strollers, kids running around and, out of the picture, the guy who rents sailboats for the sailboat pond is slowly pushing his cart to the storage area and yearning to get home...

7x10

sold

Seven Twenty

2009-06-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the clock on the Orsay Museum, it is 7:20 in the evening. Still sunny and bright and everyone is hanging out around the pond where the fountain is cooling the atmosphere. I am under a row of trees enjoying the shade and loving painting everything!

2009-06-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

A warm June day and the Tuilleries were jammed with people from around the corner and around the world enjoying the sun and the views and each other. What a treat to be painting there!

gouache, 7x10

Paris Sunset

2009-06-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

Another Paris painting. This time they threw me out of the park! Well, not because I was causing a disturbance but because it was nearly nine at night. I really had to paint fast! Even so, by the time I packed up, the nearby gate was locked and I had to take the long way back to our apartment.

gouache, 7x10

In The Tuilleries

2009-06-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

Paintings have been happening but I was not able to upload them from my husband's mysterious Mac! As you can see, however, I have not been really suffering the past few weeks! Paris in the springtime is all that they say...

Gouache

7x10

California Days

2009-05-22T00:28:00.000-07:00

Another painting from the Carmel Art Festival. This one was painted in the blazing sun looking into Marks Ranch off Route 68 near Salinas, California. The old building really was that color and the cattle showed up fairly regularly as there was water around back. Got a pretty good painting and a sunburn to match!

14x18

Big Tree/Small House

2009-05-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

This is another painting I did during the Carmel Art Festival. It is a cool house which is gradually being surrounded by McMansions. The old barn next door used to be visible from the road but has now disappeared behind new houses and fences. The California which made everyone want to live here is being destroyed by them. sigh...

14x18

sold

Old Barn at Garland Ranch

2009-05-18T23:18:00.000-07:00

I had thought of posting some more of my Carmel Art Festival paintings but this morning I was out at Garland Ranch and did a small picture of this nice old barn. If you look carefully, you can see little specks where insects and grass seeds and stuff dropping from the trees stuck to the paint. Fortunately, once the painting has dried, it brushes off easily. All just part of the excitement of painting outdoors!

6x8

The Old Barn

2009-05-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

This week has been the Carmel Art Festival. We had our canvasses stamped starting at 5pm on Wednesday and painted like crazy until between 6pm Friday when we could hang our paintings. I did this one on Thursday afternoon. It is of a wonderful old barn in Carmel Valley. It was a hot day but there were wonderful shade trees to stand under while I painted and all the people there were so nice! What a treat!

9x12

sold

Three On A Branch

2009-05-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

We are just back from 5 days in San Francisco where I enjoyed fun times with a 3 year old and romantic lunches with a husband but did not do any small paintings.

Here in Carmel, the skies are foggy but the tomatos are red! What fun painting cheerful colors!

6x6

Mauve Flower in a Rustic Pot

2009-05-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

Some day my squares will come...and I can paint squares again but not until Saturday. We are off to San Francisco for the week. I am bringing gouache so maybe some of those will appear on this site. Stay tuned!

6x8

Little Blue Boat

2009-04-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

Not a still life this time, but a cool small boat painted from Wharf #2 in Monterey, California just down the road from Carmel. Monterey is a proper fishing town (not just a tourist spot) and there are lots of great working boats to see and paint!

6x8

sold

M&Ms Visit the Big Apple

2009-04-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

Love those m&ms and the fabric with spots!

I got a big box of panels today and was so excited but...they were 6x8 and not 6x6! So...this painting is on an 8x8 gallery wrap.

Loafing Around

2009-04-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

As you can see from these last paintings, I have run out of 6x6 Raymar panels and am using 6x8s. A big shipment should be arriving shortly. Meanwhile, here is this nice big roll (or small loaf) from Il Fornaio cut with a really old French picnic knife with an easily sharpened but not easily polished carbon steel blade!

6x8

Nasturtium!

2009-04-22T17:13:00.000-07:00

Whoa! It has been ages since I have uploaded a painting! I guess I have just been painting outside all day and have been goofing off at night! Here is one of my favorite flowers. It loves cool spring weather and is great in salad as well as in paintings!

6x8

What A Bunch!

2009-04-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

You can tell that Spring is really here when the asparagus appears in the Farmers Market! I just had to paint these before we cooked them up for supper! Yum Yum.

6x8

The Three Graces

2009-04-14T23:49:00.000-07:00

Love painting these little tangerines! So jolly and so good!

6x8

Mr Bird & The Daisies

2009-04-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think that the hardest thing about these paintings is getting a decent photograph. This one has those speckles that indicate that there was glare somewhere. It is also out of focus but you should have seen the other 13. With overhead fluorescents, an old halogen torchere, 2 windows and the open garage door...gosh, where would that light be coming from?

6x8

Demitasse & Kumquats II

2009-04-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

I just had to paint another version of Demitasse & Kumquats before these fruits bit the dust! You can tell that they are not as shiny as they were originally!

6x6

It's A Daisy

2009-04-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

Spring is here!

6x6

Spring at the Lagoon

2009-04-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

A beautiful, somewhat hazy day at Carmel Lagoon! Kids everywhere, flying kites and splashing around in the lagoon while out in the ocean on the other side of the sandbar, the waves were crashing on the shore and out on Point Lobos! A great day to be painting!

8x10

Play Time

2009-04-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

One of the features of missing a week of painting is that it takes forever to get back in shape! This is my not back-in-shape painting for Sunday.

Make A Wish

2009-04-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Remember making a wish and pulling on the wishbone? Hope your wish comes true!

4x4x1"

Kumquats and Egg Cup

2009-03-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it feels like ages since I did a small painting! I have been fighting a cold and it has made me stupid! It is hard to do a good painting when you are stupid and I would not think of boring everyone with the bad ones! This shows a bit of recovery, I think... perhaps because the egg cup is so jolly and because kumquats are always wonderful!

Trio

2009-03-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

More flowers from Malibu. Now I see why everyone loves southern California! Today the sun was shining brightly as I was painting at Point Lobos but it was windy and cold. This makes me think of summer!

8x10