Cottonwood Trees in Nevada Sunshine

Cottonwoods in Nevada, oil on canvas 24" x 30"
This Nevada landscape captures the cottonwood trees which turn to brilliant yellow at the first onset of cold. The mountain desert is spotted with color in the Fall at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Range in the Carson Valley. We'll be up there for the holidays and I hope to find more inspirational views. This trip will likely produce snowscapes!
For more Nevada landscape paintings visit: http://promessi.com/landscapes.htm

Koru Cottage Vacation Rental in New Zealand

Koru Cottage
Imagine a riverside house nestled in native bush on the Coromandel Peninsula, with a
vibrant artist community. Go fishing, hiking, kayaking, bird watching.
Dine on New Zealand fare, fresh from the ocean or homegrown local produce.

This lovely house is available to rent overnight or long-term.

Working on the Koru Cottage website has inspired dreams of learning about Maori art, enjoying music festivals, and hiking on the Coromandel Peninsula.

Designed by Margot Duane and Philip Chudy, in collaboration with Jenefer Duane and Ron Spinhoven. The site is coded in XHTML with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and we worked hard to ensure elegant, consistent cross-platform and cross-browser viewing.

Yaro or Rabbitbrush?

Many thanks to attentive Nevada viewers, Cliff Brewer and Lisa Wetzel for looking closely at Jim's newest Nevada landscape paintings and spotting errors in our descriptions. Cliff, a professional landscaper noticed that what we called 'Yaro' is actually 'Rabbitbrush.' And Lisa, who sells real estate in the Carson Valley with ReMAX Realty Affiliates, knows her valley well. "If there is snow on the mountains, it's Spring. If there is no snow on the mountains, it's Fall."

Here is the painting they spotted, with corrected descriptions on its web page.
It's an oil painting on canvas 30 x 36 in., titled: Carson Valley, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range

Thank you Cliff and Lisa!

Carson Valley, Nevada Oil Painting

Carson Valley, at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range
oil on canvas
30" x 36"

The Carson Valley in Northern Nevada has the drama of light and shadow in all seasons. The Sierra Nevada range rises straight up from the valley floor. I liked the brightness of the cottonwood trees and desert Yaro up against the blue-purple mountains on this Spring day.

Other Northern Nevada paintings by Jim Promessi:
Sierra Nevadas, 24" x 30"
Cottonwoods in Nevada 2 SOLD, oil 22" x 28"

EFPN, Elder Financial Protection Network teams up with Bank of the West for education program

Thanks to Darrell Holdaway's video expertise, you can watch Iowa Representative Leonard Boswell (co-sponsor of the Elder Justice Act) speak about the Bank of the West sponsored Workshop for Elders. Keynote Speaker, Jenefer Duane, CEO and Executive Director of the Elder Financial Protection Network presents valuable workshops to help prevent elder financial abuse, teaching elders how to BeWise and avoid Scams, Fraud and Identity Theft.

Darrell taught me how to play, I mean work! with YouTube.com, so I've posted the video. Thanks, Darrell, for helping me develop another skill to help my customers, like EFPN. Take a look and let me know what you think.

The voracious squirrels are ravaging our fugi persimmons, but they dine at an unusual table and leave lovely snippets of orange.

Sierra Nevadas, Oil Painting

Sierra Nevadas, oil on canvas
24 x 30 in.

Jim has been busy painting Nevada and California landscapes. This one shows the Carson Valley in Spring. I'll start posting new paintings, hopefully a new one each week for a while. I'll also post some of the websites I've been working on. Lots of production happening at the Promessi studios.

Nelly Capra's website is launched

Nelly Capra is talented in so many ways, and she shares her talents with people who enjoy all things about Italy, from food to touring, from history to learning about the culture from a native speaker. She shares her success with people in need, such as The Hunger Project.

Nelly and I have had fun together collaborating to develop a new look for her website. I enjoyed the challenge of building the site using XHTML for the content, with Cascading Style Sheets to provide the presentation elements. We worked to enhance search engine optimization, while providing compelling content to help visitors find Nelly's tours, catering, events and specialty products. You've got to try her soft almond cookies, known as Mandorletti. Nelly teaches Italian language classes, cooking classes and caters lovely dinner parties and events. Enjoy her new site: www.ornellacucinaitaliana.com.

Crystal Springs, Soaring Gulls

This painting will be exhibited at the California Art Club's
97th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition.

April 27 - May 18, 2008
Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA)
490 East Union Street,
Pasadena, CA

Crystal Springs, Soaring Gulls
oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inc.

Twilight Clouds & Pond

Twilight Clouds & Pond
Oil Painting by Jim Promessi
30 x 40 inches

Moody and magical are the words most often heard in response to this painting. After the rains of winter, California hills are awash in a variety of greens. In this painting, the new growth can been seen on the tops of the trees. Spring is coming!
See more California landscape paintings on Jim's website: http://promessi.com

Across the Yucatan

A Book Company has released a new book called Across the Yucatan, a travel narrative by Lawrence F. Lihosit.
http://abookcompany.net

Tatiana built the webpage today using xhtml and CSS coding for search engine optimization.

The Fourth in the Backlit Oak Series

Backlit Oak #4
Oil 24 x 36 in.

The process of doing a series of paintings involving one oak tree has further proved to me that art is limitless in its creativity, in what some would consider a limited subject area.

View other paintings from this series:
Backlit Oak
Backlit Oak #3

OPA Juried Exhibition, Santa Barbara, CA

Backlit Oak 3
Oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches

Backlit Oak 3 will be displayed at the Oil Painters of America: 2007 Western Regional Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils Miniature Show.
September 16 - October 15, 2007 at the Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

More of Jim's landscapes, still-lifes and portraits can be seen on www.promessi.com

Triptych: Coastal Range & Wild Mustard

Jim was commissioned recently to produce a triptych of a California landscape that started out with one of his existing paintings. It was an enormous challenge to produce the 'wings' or right and left panels to match the original painting in tone, color and style. Jim is very pleased with the results, as is the client, and we invite you to take a closer look at the whole piece, and each panel on a small web gallery that Tatiana produced: Triptych Gallery.

Triptych: Coastal Range & Wild Mustard, Oil on canvas, 30 inches x 9 feet

Pokerbilia.com

Tatiana just completed a new site for Pokerbilia.com. Emi Tuvey and Gordon Daggy produce clever verses to print on T-shirts that will bring a smile to poker fans everywhere. The shirts make a fun gift for your special poker-player, a casino give-away, or a way to commemorate a poker party. Take a look at their current T-shirt verses at http://pokerbilia.com.

Hiking Along a Path

Hiker is a pastel painting of a person hiking away from Molera Beach along a trail which is mostly meadow.

Every Spring we enjoy a few days at Big Sur near Molera Beach. Some years the river washes out the footbridge and we forge the waters to get to the mile-long trail which leads the ocean. Wildflowers are abundant and the meadow is interspersed with cottonwood trees.

Hiker, pastel on paper
12 x 15.5 in.

Other pastel paintings by Jim Promessi
Tapestry, 22 x 28 in.
Point Reyes National Seashore, 23 x 28 in.
Oaks, Clouds (Elkhorn), 22 x 29 in.

Hiking up to Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

Up to Glacier Point
oil, 24 x 30 in.

Yosemite National Park has been like a magnet for us since our daughter was 2 years old. For 16 years, two or three times a year we head for the mountains, hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, and of course, photographing.

Jim rises early to catch the drama of light revealing the granite mountains. We hike hard, but we're always ready to stop while Jim photographs oft-viewed landscapes in changing light.

Twilight and sunsets are times for walks in the valley, or drives in the high regions. Yosemite inspires us all, Jim to paint, me to think, and Ariana to write poetry. Jim's photographs are grand; Ariana's capture the small, close view of flora and fauna.

Jim's painting Up to Glacier Point shows the quaking aspens in Fall gold color. More Yosemite images and other landscapes can be seen on Jim's website: www.promessi.com. In particular see:
Bridalveil Falls, oil 16 x 20 in.
Yosemite High Country, oil 36 x 30 in.
Yosemite, Black Oaks, oil 24 x 32 in.

Iceplant Along the California Coast

The colors are bright, the air is fresh...we've got to get to the beach!
Iceplant Along the Coast
painted in oil, 24 x 30 in.

Los Altos Art Docents

Jim welcomed the Los Altos Art Docents to his studio last week. They do a wonderful job teaching and introducing art in our local elementary schools. The kids and teachers are always excited to see an art docent arrive, brushes and tools in hand, and some pretty amazing work is produced by the end of class.

The art docents meet weekly to learn new skills, and often ask professional artists to speak to their group about their work. The volunteers promote art appreciation through hands-on art lessons and art appreciation lessons. The art is curriculum-based, the docents are volunteers, and the program is in its 37th year. Each year they hold a Student Art Show.

We welcome the Los Altos Art Docents to sign-up for free email notifications of new postings, usually announcing new paintings by Jim. The subscibe button is to the right and the process is fast and secure.

Crystal Springs, Soaring Gulls

Crystal Springs Watershed brings fresh water from Hetch Hetchy Dam, high in the Sierras in Yosemite National Park. Seagulls swirl, forming tall funnels above the water as seen in this oil painting by Jim Promessi. Crystal Springs provides water for the San Francisco Bay Area. Sawyer Camp Trail is a great biking and hiking area which extends along the eastern side.

Crystal Springs, Soaring Gulls
oil 30" x 36"