Golden Oak - Autumn Landscape #7

I absolutely adore Robin Purcell's paintings - she's one of those people who generates strong feelings in me of "if only I could paint like that!  I love looking at her paintings of landscapes of Northern California on her blog Robin Purcell - Watercolours in the Plein Air Tradition

It's a great pleasure to add in one of her plein air watercolour paintings to my series of Autumn Landscapes by art bloggers.

This is a much simpler painting than her normal landscapes.  It's subject is an oak tree.

Golden Oak by Robin Purcell
plein air watercolour, 14" x 14"

In her post Plein Air Watercolor "Golden Oak" she comments on how she's pulling back from her usual bright colours when painting oaks - and also the challenge of working out how to paint a tree close up.  She also says about the painting

Although not the traditional autumn colors," Golden Oak "was painted in October in Northern Califorrnia and is true to the Autumn Colors here. I like to paint in October because the golden tones are still here, the light is clear all day ( no morning fog or afternoon smog) and the temperatures are not too hot.

This is what Robin has to say about her approach to landscape painting

California has always been a mythic land of sunshine that stirred my imagination. A fortunate set of influences helped me arrive at my own style of interpreting the California Landscape. I was probably permanently warped by doing paint by numbers as a child. I fell hard for the work of the early California Impressionists, particularly Granville Redmond and William Wendt. Their work helped me to see the landscape as shapes. It is much easier for me to control hard edges with watercolor while painting outdoors. These factors led me to develop a style that simplifies what I see and organizes it into shimmering patches of color. I am a Plein Air Painter who goes outside to see colors and shapes from life so that I can change them in ways feel true to me and express my personal artistic vision.

I'm going to have to organise an interview with Robin!

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog

This is the seventh in my series of Autumn Landscapes by art bloggers. If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes

• drop me a line (see side column for email), 
• reference the blog post in which I can see the painting 
• and (this is important) use Readers Autumn Landscapes in the subject line of your email (This is so I can find it in the masses I get each day!)

Places to Paint: Please note that I'm also interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".