Steve Dayton art

Cayucos No. 41

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This one started out with a slightly different idea in mind but after letting it sit inactive on the work table for a few months this is how it ended up. I usually don’t varnish my paintings but decided to do so with this one to help punch up the colors. Instead of using square panels like I normally do I chose to use 11 x 14-inch panels for this two panel bolted together painting.

I used yellow FROGTAPE (for delicate surfaces) to mask off areas where I wanted to spread paint over and I used scrap paper to blot areas of paint after it was applied to achieve some visual texture. I use discarded plastic gift cards to spread paint. I use a couple of old dilapidated foam sanding blocks to smooth and buff the paint.

I used sixteen color mixes on this one most of which are original as they came from the DIY store with a few that I custom mixed using some of those original colors.

Latex acrylic paint on cradled wood panels bolted together | 11 x 28 x 1.5 inches (28 x 71 x 3.8 cm) | October 2023

The two 11 x 14-inch panels ready to be fastened together.

Two .25-inch diameter 2-inch long bolts were inserted through .25-inch diameter holes and the panels bolded together with lock nuts.

Getting around to it

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I started this digital painting near the end of October 2020. I fiddled with it some more in 2021 and thought I was finished with it in 2021 and signed it. I had forgotten about it then rediscovered it in 2022 and decided to add some more detail to it. I decided to leave the signed date as 2021. I was poking around in some folders on my tablet recently and here it is.

Spooner’s Cove No. 01
Infinite Painter 7 | Galaxy Tab S7 tablet | 3000 x 3000 pixels
Spooner’s Cove is located in the Montana de Oro State Park on the California central coast, San Luis Obispo County.

Another Bakersfield Hills work in progress

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I need to do some more work on the sky and clouds. There are a few other things with foreground and the purple hills in the back that need a little more work.

See the finished painting in the “recent work” gallery of this site.

This will be Bakersfield Hills No. 13 when it is finished. Based on a photo taken in July, 2022. The hills of California are forever brown in the summer.

A few unwanted paintings

I retrieved quite a few unsold paintings from the gallery in Morro Bay a few weeks ago and hung them on the walls of the studio to clear up the crowd of boxes taking up space in the studio. What to do with these paintings that nobody seems to want? Hmm.

The piece with the white matt around it at the right of this image is a photo of Morro Rock by Greg Siragusa all the rest of the pieces are by me.

The pieces on this long wall are my creation except the one at the middle of the image with the white boarder and the small piece with the dark frame at the bottom just above the bed headboard.

Back in the saddle again

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I haven’t done any art work for the past couple of months mostly because of some needful distractions and partly because of a creative slump. I decided I needed to get myself out of this creative fear. So having been inspired by places seen during our recent trip to California, I’m back in the saddle again with some digital painting. Here is a sneak peak at something I started working on today.

All of my digital land and seascape paintings have been squares (3000 x 3000 px). This time I thought I would do a size that I hope will fit a more standard size frame such as a 16 x 20 inch and be easier to frame.

Update August 3rd
You can see the finished piece in the “recent work” gallery of this site.

Bakersfield Hills No. 11 | This one is from a reference picture I took out the car window while my wife was driving east along Hwy 58 through the hills above Bakersfield, California on our way home from Cayucos on the central coast a week ago. It’s late July and the hills above Bakersfield are golden and brown with punctuations of green.

Infinite Painter v7 on a Galaxy Tab S7 | 2880 x 2304 px

The New Studio Layout

I finished my new studio layout project this week. Well I mostly finished it. I still need to get a lamp to light up the work table. I’m also planning on replacing the ceiling fan/light with a track system so I can point various lights to areas of the room along with a smart light switch that I can control with my Nest Hub. I was able to toss some things that have been hanging around and not being used so it feels good to declutter.

Moving from left right: I thought I would need to move the paint rack but it ended up staying. Next to it is the new shelf unit from IKEA. I left the top dividers off so I could make a longer shelf to hold my dowels. Next to it on the adjacent wall is my new computer desk. Then comes the tall shelf unit also from IKEA. And finally the new work table I pickup from Home Depot. It has two shelves under the top. The table top can raise and lower using the crank handle. It is very sturdy.