Los Gatos Plein Air 2010 paintings . . .

Apologies for not posting any work during last week's Los Gatos Plein Air event but I hit the ground running and tried to compress 5 days worth of painting into less than 2.5 days real-time. This left no opportunity to post anything in my rush. I even went so far as to start a night painting of the local movie theater, a rarity for me, but the manager kept shutting off the marquee around 11:00pm both nights I was there, which was just about the time I wanted to start the frickin' painting, after a my late dinners with other artists. I later learned the manager didn't feel like hanging around until 2:00 am or so to placate an artist and the theater was an old building with no electrical timers. (Well, okay, there was second 'minor' distraction in the form of a man named Tim, one of the event-organizers and leading town bon vivant, who came out of a restaurant across the street to hand me a glass full of wine and then hung around to keep topping it up as I tried to work. That might of had something to do with me not finishing that painting, eh, Tim? --)

In the end the Los Gatos Plein Air Festival was a great event for me. I met a lot of terrific people in the town, and some excellent artists on the circuit. I had a terrific time painting in the soft warm sunlight while you all were being deluged by rain back home.

Oh yes, and everything I painted sold. Everything. I forgot to lead with that, didn't I? (Ha!)

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Here are the paintings, minus two which somehow got missed being photographed in the hustle and bustle of the last minute preparation for the Gala dinner and public show:

The Little Red School House Winery

9 x 12 | oil on panel | Sold

Painted next to Paul Kratter, a fine Bay Area painter.

Red Light at La Canada

9 x 12 | oil on panel | Sold

View from the Noviate, Sunset over San Jose

8 x 10 | oil on panel | Donated for Private Auction

Painted along side of Bryan Mark Taylor and Anne McMillan 

View across the Valley, Morning

9 x 12 | oil on panel | Sold

Painted along side of Carol Gray-Weihman

and Alfredo Tofanelli and Lori Putnam 

(One of my favorites of the week)

Regal Sunset, Regale Winery

11 x 14 | oil on panel | Sold

Painted along side of Carol Gray-Weihman

As I mentioned, two paintings did not get photographed at the end of the week. One is of some children playing in the fountain at the Los Gatos Postal Park, and the other was a side commission of a Victorian house in the historic area of the town with huge palms out front. (It soooo looked like my world back home, except for the giant palms.) I gave the painting of the children to my hostess in appreciation of her warm hospitality and the painting of the victorian was purchased by the owner of the house. Both are Oregonians transplanted to California. My kind of people.

And that is all for Los Gatos for this year.

Whoops, there is one more amusing thing to share: Turns out the All-American "Artist Who Can Not Be Named" lives in Los Gatos and the town residents love to lay claim to him as their home boy. (Truth be known, he actually grew up in Placerville, which puts hime on the wrong side of the tracks, but now lives somewhere up in the LG hills.) Since my name is Thomas "K"itts everyone I met while painting on the street felt obliged to share this fact. So I decided to count how often I heard it: 15 times in less than six hours of public painting. Man, that artist must be some awesome famous dude . . . (Ha!)

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My next paint-out will be in Telluride, Colorado, starting at the end of June and it will carry over into July Lots of big rock out there. Looking forward to going 'Edgar Payne' on you all!

Thomas