The little rain southern California gets in December can make for a spectacular spring in January and February and this year shows great promise. This morning when I was back at Torrey Pines, I was struck by how the coastal chaparral is already greening up. I wanted to capture the contrast between the still dormant plants and the new greens of some of the foliage.
Sometimes, less is more in a painting, as is the case with today’s painting. Yesterday I painted with a friend at the Los Peñasquitos Lagoon at Torrey Park, just north of San Diego. I finished one painting and posted it Monday.
I also brought home an unfinished one that I worked on today. You can see it below. It had the big shapes and colors blocked in but was still pretty rough and I hoped to fix several problems. However, by the time I finished, it looked overworked, which is a bigger problem than the ones I started with.
The fog had been rolling out to reveal the blue sky behind it, and I wanted to show that better. Also, I wanted the lagoon water to appear to be below the marsh plants, not above them. And then I loved my friend’s painting with its pine tree on the horizon, so I used a photo and added one to mine. Finally, I wanted more depth, so I put in some foliage along the lower left of the paper.
After making these changes, the painting looks flat and static. It lost its spontaneity and freshness, especially in the movement of the water and clouds. Knowing when to stop adding and refining is something to work on, as this sad tale so clearly shows.
I painted this morning at Los Peñasquitos Lagoon at Torrey Pines Preserve. We stood by the edge of the road and looked south across the water. I got the greens a bit too bright but with all the rain we are getting, by next week this will be about right.
We had a wonderful holiday and our house was full of family and fun. I did not do much sketching but we did make it to the beach twice where I was able to make several fast sketches while talking and people watching.
Wishing you peace, goodwill, joy, and a wonderful year to come!
Two days ago when I was at Mission Bay I did a quick warm-up of the shoreline to accustom myself to the colors of the day. Today I added birds to the warm-up to make this small painting. Funny how drawing something even once can make you interested in learning to do it better.
It was a quiet December afternoon at Lake Murray in San Diego, and a perfect opportunity for a 30-minute sketch. I liked the way the eucalyptus branch was shaped like the shoreline of the lake and shortened the tree’s height so the branch would fit onto my 6 x 12-inch sketchbook.
Deliberate Sketching 