Weekend in Santa Cruz

We drove over to Santa Cruz on Friday afternoon and spent the night at our friends Linda and Jim Owens' house. On Saturday morning we got up and drove down to the yacht harbor area, where Linda meets up with a crowd of her fellow ukulele players for what I guess they would call a jam session. (Although how much jamming a ukulele can do is questionable.) While they played. I walked down to the beach and did a couple of pen and ink drawings with washes. I used a Speedball #6 nib and black Speedball ink. I'm just learning to work with the pen-love the varying line weights you can get with it.

This is actually the second one I did-there was a race going on and lots of sailboats were out. Too bad they weren't all flying their spinnakers! This was done on a tiny 4" x 10" Arches cold-pressed block..

The scanner didn't pick up the colors as well as it might have-the light house looks better in my original, as does the sky. I used Dick Zunkel's 3 sky colors-colbalt, perm rose, and yellow ochre applied to wet paper for both paintings. Also, in the original the ocean is level-couldn't fit the whole paper in my scanner, so it looks tilted here.  This was on a 10" x 14" block.

Plein Air at Moss Landing

Last Thursday, May 17th,  7 of us from SCVWS met at Moss Landing on the ocean. It was a bit cool early in the day, and plenty windy, but we had a great day. There were boats, seascapes, and so much more for us to paint. We went to Phil's for lunch (I had the squid and chips!)Leaders Jenny and Sylvia, plus Brad and I were so happy to be out that we stayed until 4:45. I wore a ponytail and forgot to put sunscreen on my ears-a mistake I will NOT make again! 

This old boat was the last thing I did-drew it and got a little paint down, but I had to complete it at home.

I used a 10" x 14" Arches cold-pressed block.

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 I used  the same block for this piece-there were so many beautiful purples and sage greens in the foliage growing on the dunes. This was done under very adverse condidtions! The wind was blowing like crazy up on the dunes and my stool legs were sinking deeper and deeper as I worked. Working en plein air is not for the easily discouraged!

 This is actually the first painting I did in the morning-I edited out many boats and omitted a big building behind the Bay Fresh Seafood shop. There was a roaring diesel motor in the distance part of the time, but when it stopped, I could hear sea lions barking and the cries of the gulls. I used a 6" x 12" Arches cold-pressed block. Used a tan watercolor pencil for the initial drawing on all 3.

Los Gatos Plein Air

It was a beautiful day for painting in downtown Los Gatos. We had a a huge turnout-28 people! The only downside was the parking-not many open spots and all of the spaces nearby had a 2 hour limit, so periodically, someone would have to jump up and run to move his or her car! We enjoyed a demo by Dick Zunkel, who uses a pen and ink technique with washes. He uses a Speedball nib in a holder, with black ink. I just used my Faber-Castell Pitt pen this time, but will definitely try out the equipment Dick recommends-loved the varied line weights he achieves with it.
I used an Arches cold-pressed block, 11" x 14". There are a few perspective issues, but I was happy with the first run at it.

Plein Air on March 29th

It was a beautiful morning after several days of rain and 17 people turned out at the old Agnews site. This was a state mental hospital for many years but when it closed down, 4 of the opriginal buildings were preserved. The clocktower, former director's house and 2 other beautiful  old Spanish-style buildings are adorned with intricate brick and tile work on stucco. One of our paintsite leaders, Sylvia remarked that the  grounds are almost like an arboretum.

This is the old clocktower in a 9"x7' Cachet spiral-bound watercolor book. the shade patterns changed rapidly, as the clouds moved in and out.

This view of some of the trees is in pen and ink on a 10"x 14" Arches cold-press block. The colors on this piece look awfully wimpy in the scan-they're not quite as pale in person, but I should have pushed them some. My main focus was mixing lots of greens and trying to differentiate among the various kinds of foliage. 

PEO Cover Art

Here's the painting I did for this year's cover of our chapter yearbook. The themes I can use are stars and daisies, so inspiration is hard to come by. Using a photo from a seed catalogue for a reference, I tried to be a little looser than usual and it worked out well. I don't know whether the subtle shading in the petals will be discernable in the scan. Was almost done when I realized I should have been working in portrait format, rather than landscape. I guess the sides will just have to be cropped to make it work. It was done on an Arches 7" x 10" cold press block.

Plein Air at Niles Railroad Museum 3/8/12

While the museum was closed on Thursday, the SCVWS Plein Air group had a beautiful day for wandering around the grounds and painting. Several of us elected to paint this old caboose. I used a tiny 4" x 10" Arches cold-pressed block and a fine-tipped black Faber Castell Pitt pen. Having the outline of the piece delineated and then breaking through the picture plane with the lamppost was something that just came to me as I began ro draw; I like the effect and wilI use it again sometime. Working with pen and ink and washes seems to yield the best results for me when I paint en plein air. I started a second painting of the old depot building, but it will never again see the light of day!
NOTE: I'm happy to say that this little piece was SOLD in June!

More Maui

Again, Arches 6"x12" cold-pressed block

Here's the second piece I did on the trip. I was sitting in pretty much the same spot as the day before, just turned a bit. It was much sunnier this time-not the gray sky of the previous day. I tried scratching some white into the water-not sure if I should have been more agressive with it. Or should have just hit it with some white gouache later.