2023...Time For The Next Chapter

As many of you know, we have closed our "brick and mortar" gallery in Carmel. We had planned for some time to retire the gallery. It was a wonderful chapter in our lives, and we're so happy to have experienced it. We can't thank you all for your friendship and support over the years! I (Janelle here) will really miss being in the gallery and spending time with so many of you on a regular basis...it was a true pleasure that I will treasure.

Johnny will continue to paint, of course. He is planning to do more plein-air paintings while we are in Italy, and we will be promoting and selling these pieces through this blog and our normal website. He will continue to show his work at Carmel Art Association, as well.

He will be painting his larger abstracts that will now be represented by Westbrook Modern in Carmel. Johnny is proud to be showing his work in this wonderful gallery.

We wanted to start the year with a look back at the time we've spent traveling to Umbria, Italy, and all the work that has come home from there...over a decade of painting and being inspired by this magical place has been a joy, a dream and a love and will continue to be a major part of our lives. Johnny has said it over and over...he will never get tired of painting this beautiful landscape.

It's tough work. He hauls so much equiptment with him when he's out painting, but that is the painter's happy chore.

He may not work everyday, but he's always looking, looking, looking...

 

Painting in a pal's garden....

Or even in the snow!

Johnny always carries a few sketch pads of various sizes. Some are just for sketching a moment, others are for drawing to add color to later ...

We often drive out into the farmlands and countryside to find a spot to pull the car over for a work session.

Taking our daily walks is always inspiring.

There are so many memories in these paintings, and the paintings have found their way all over the world. It's quite moving to think about, you know?

The Italian studio will also be a busy place. We plan to ship back many larger works on canvas, as we've been doing now for years. Johnny loves his studio in Umbria!

So, let's stay in touch. Plan to check out the blog from time to time, and keep an eye out for emails that will be featuring the pieces that will soon be available. We're heading back to Umbria soon, so stay tuned!

Gallery Apodaca 

Westbrook Modern Gallery

Carmel Art Association

Work Continues: Umbria, 2021

Janelle & I have been busy with olive picking and general house keeping, but the work is still happening.

Weather has been an issue, as well. We had terrible cold winds for about 10 days, making plein-air painting near impossible, but I was able to get out and do some work in the fields...

I love my new pochade box!

 

I'm happy with the studio work I've done so far. 

We went to Florence to see a couple of exhibitions, and to buy more studio supplies. It's good to have what I need.

Working larger scale is always a good challenge.

Last week I tried painting on the studio floor.

Don't mind the studio slippers, please.
Keeps the rest of the house floors clean.

Painting in this way... It creates it's own opportunities, but it's own struggles.

I did enjoy it. The painting is still in progress.

"Europa", still a work in progress.

Challenges And Opportunities

  As an artist, I've always enjoyed showing the process of my painting experience.

  In this blog post, we take it down to the bare bones.

  The reason why... in this studio, away from my home studio in California, I've had to improvise.

  This has brought a welcoming experience of just tacking the canvas to the wall, and painting it that way. Painting it as it is.

  I guess I think of this as my 'rustic studio', here in Italy. 

  Every experience brings challenges and opportunities, so I'm very excited to show and describe the process here, on this blog. 

The doorway to the studio.

A cramped studio. You work with what you have available.
No complaints.

A group of finished canvases to be shipped back to the gallery.

Trying to keep the plaster walls and tile floors as clean as I can.

My studio floor.

  These paintings will all be exhibited in our gallery in Carmel, California later this year.
  I'm looking forward to the show.

Paintings, Oil On Board....

  I have had some struggles this trip...the weather, mainly. When the sun has come out, it's been so windy and cold that I just don't feel like working out in the elements. I hate to say it..but...

been there done that. I am just betting that it will be warming up...eventualy, before we have to leave this beautiful country.

  I have managed to get some work done, between rainstorms and wind gusts. The finished paintings below are all 8X8 inch, oil on board, done while standing or sitting out in the country side. 

  

  We will drive around most days, looking for a good place to stop and work. I like to find somewhere that has a safe place to set up, is out of the way of traffic, and will offer more than one option for painting. It's sometimes difficult. There are very few places along the roads to pull over. We usually end up down a gravel road, where I only need to worry about tractors or locals coming home for lunch.

  I am still waiting on the nice weather coming this week to really get into more gouache pieces. I have done a few, but I see that the next several days are supposed to warm up, and that will be good.

  So for now, these are a good sample of what I've been working on. The weather, the light, the subtle nuances of the life here... all part of what makes this such a rich and rewarding experience.

This an image of two small farm buildings, out in the fields. I love these useful buildings. They have molto character! The color is the main thing, happy and fresh,  What I am trying to convey in a small painting like thi is the sheer joy of painting, and the painting process itself. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be me. And it just has to be this moment. BASTA!/DONE! 

This is the first oil of this year's trip. It's been more worked...trying to put in a lot of visual information. I like the all over design.
From top to bottom, side to side, there are a lot of interesting things going on. Hopefully, I expressed  the loving eye embracing all of it.

Fauve Color! I Love It.

Here is a good example where you can see that the light in the sky has been dim, and subtle.

A brief moment of Umbrian Sun on the Landscape. 

Painted, fresh casually and relaxed.

More subtle color and light. Trees can have such a beautiful rhythm.

Lago Trasimeno in the distance, fields of color and a lonely road to travel into the scene.
This is Janelle's favorite so far.

My old friend Michael Kainer, dubbed me "Captain Color".  I guess this is why?

I probably will re-work this painting, near the top?

This is kind of a Grand Umbrian scene.

  This last one below is the latest of the larger canvases from the studio here. 

   I'm really happy with the way it is going on this. You can see the smaller "inspiration" painting I am working from, on the left...

  Not finished yet, but getting close.

This painting will be re-stretched and ready to be exhibited in the gallery, soon.

  We look forward to showing the paintings in the gallery soon.