Sunday, February 19, 2017

Hotel Catalina

Hotel Catalina, oil, 8 x 12 inches, Catalina Island
I painted this view of Hotel Catalina about 35 years ago. The layers of paint are fairly thinly applied on a panel that was pre-primed with a warm acrylic ground. For the window details, I used a 1/4 inch synthetic flat brush, using Liquin for the medium.

5 comments:

My Pen Name said...

lovely work James!
Question do you ever look back at your work and think there were times when you were better than currently? or do you look at this painting and compare it with your technique and output now.. how does it stand?

To me, art is almost like athletics, there are times when I am just 'out of shape' or I have 'hot streaks' or times when I was able to put more time into it...

Newt said...

Wonderful painting! Any chance we'll see an "Oil in the Wild" video?

James Gurney said...

My Pen Name, I've accepted the fact that my interests, energy, and experience change with the years, and so must my work. But I don't spend a lot of time worrying about whether my earlier phases were better or worse. They were the best I could do at the time, and I keep trying to meet the highest standards I can, while always experimenting with new things. I think you're right that art is similar to athletics, except that we're not as constrained by the physical limitations of a body, so it's possible (hopefully) for an artist to keep improving. Some of my art heroes did what I feel to be their best work toward the end of their lives.

Newt, Yes, that's on the list, but I have a lot of other vids and other releases to do first.

Pilgrim said...

This is beautiful, sky, palette, composition, everything.

Linda Navroth said...

I have to ask: was there a brush fire going on there in the background at the time?