Beautiful Red Pomegranate - San Francisco Golden Gate - Sausalito

August Pomegranate • 5" x 7" • oil on board (photo taken outside in daylight)

August Pomegranate • 5" x 7" • oil on board (photo taken inside night)

I am trying to find the best way to photograph my images myself.

Golden Gate Bride covered in fog - San Francisco Marina Blue

I saw this beautiful pomegranate in the market and wanted to paint it immediately. It seemed to have a little crown on top. I am getting used to sitting down and doing a daily, one session painting but need to find a the happy medium for quicker drying time. I paint with oil paints and walnut oil and think I need to add a touch more alkyd. These paintings are taking a lot of time but I think they will get faster as I do them daily.

Tuesday after walking our dogs in Larkspur my friend and I went to the MOMA art gallery in San Francisco and to a wonderful lunch on the water. Our table had a view of the foggy Golden Gate Bridge and the marina. I realized that although the fog was surrounding the bridge the sky was blue over the marina.

Last Day of Summer Vacation... So Blue

So Blue Sunset • 16" x 20" • oil on canvas

It is Sunday and school starts tomorrow. So blue to see the sun going down on this beautuful Sunday. Time to pack up the blue beach chair and striped umbrella for the next sunny trip to the shore.

Today is also my sisters birthday and all she wanted was to spend it in this chair, relaxing at the beach and watching the kids play. She still loves to romp in the cold California ocean too.

Four Figs

Four Figs • 5" x 7" • oil on board

I really worked this painting. There are many wet on wet layers here. This started out fun, got traditional and then back to fun. I really love the bright color details and the creamy paint. It was almost impossible to sign through the thick white paint. It reminds of a Wayne Thiebaud.

Sparrow on Barbed Wire

Sparrow on Barbed Wire • 6" x 6" • oil on board

This little sparrow perching on barbed wire signifies the dangers facing these little birds.

Daily Painting Sparrows Nest

Sparrows Nest • 6" x 6" • oil on board

Here it is – my first daily painting! I actually painted it yesterday. This took me almost 6 hours. I painted this nest after finding an injured sparrow and its nest on the ground. I put four eggs in the nest which represents my family. Today I painted the sparrow; I will post it tomorrow.

I need to call Wildcare and see if the sparrow I tried to save made it. It really looked like it had a broken neck. There is a goat at a barn I used to ride at and it has a broken crooked neck. It lives with it twisted and doesn't know anything is wrong because it was born that way.

I didn't use black paint in either of these paintings and I like to let the primary colors show a little to give a sense of the fact that it is a painting and I mixed the colors.

Little Wounded Sparrow

Bird Offering Woman a Flower • 5" x 7" • Pastel on Paper

I have been having a week of birds. I was preparing to put up my owl painting after a fun conversation with my family about our owl experiences, when I had a sparrow experience.

This morning while at the barn I found a baby sparrow on the ground between the arena and a well traveled horse path. It's wings could open, yet it couldn't fly. It was in conversation, chirping away with an older healthy bird on the edge of the barn. I picked it up and found its nest on the ground a few feet away under a tree. I decided to take it to our Wildcare where they save birds. I made new friends as we worked together to collect hay and a bucket to transport it. I decided to post my oil of a sparrow, but, found this pastel sketch I did for a large street painting I created at a festival.

Santa Cruz Fire and Fiery Sunset

Sunset Through Grass • 8" x 8" • oil on board

I woke up yesterday to hear Santa Cruz was on fire and being evacuated. Many of our California sunsets are a rainbow with a vivid orange. I painted the oil above after an ocean hike.

My daughter and I packed up our dog and headed to Rio Del Mar beach where I took the following photos of the clouds reflecting the fire.

Many homes burned and families and animals were evacuated, but the beach was happy, gorgeous and full of life. The birds were going crazy feeding around 5 pm. The smell of fire was in the air. There were helicopters carrying big buckets of water to the fire. On our way back home we passed at least 20 fire trucks making their way over the hill to the fire. Very scary. Then something wonderful happened; my cousins had a healthy baby girl. Her grandma in Santa Cruz had some exciting news to balance out the stress of the fire. Coincidentally the baby was born a few minutes after her grandpas August 13 birthday.

Wine Country - Where everyone is happy...

24" x 30" • oil on canvas • Sonoma Trees and Fall Vinyard

Went wine tasting and to art galleries in the Wine Country over the weekend. The vineyards are quite lush and full of grapes now, yet, the road and trees on this painting remind me of the road and tree lined street in my earlier post, San Francisco Street 1.

I painted a much brighter, springtime version of this painting once and it was purchased from my studio while I was out. I never had the chance to meet the buyer or photograph it. I'll have to paint it again.

San Francisco Street 1 • 18" x 24" • oil on canvas

Lori California Margulies

It was meant to be that my name in every imaginable creative form was taken on gmail; yet I managed to get the email address loricalifornia. Quite the perfect name considering my favorite thing to do is explore California, by foot, boat, horseback, photography and painting.

Here is my latest painting of a San Francisco street. The building on the left looks like my old flat on the corner of – you guessed it – California Street!file:///Users/Lori/Desktop/photo.jpg