The Thursday painters met near Lake Murray this week. One of the artists brought her gorgeous red ’50s Chevy for us to paint. I was a bit fearful of the challenge, so made the car small and let the rest of the scenery tell the story.
The Thursday painters from the San Diego Watercolor Society painted at the Sumertime Past nursery in Flinn Springs today. It was cold, but the air was clear, and the colors were beautiful, especially during those moments when the sun came out.
We hiked along the Los Penasquitos Canyon Trail in San Diego, enjoying the bits of green that are appearing now that we have had some rain.
Earlier this week I volunteered at the SDWS to manage a three day workshop. The visiting artist was Pat Moseuk, an abstract painter who uses credit cards along with other tools to achieve a particular look with her paintings. I especially like the geometric look and the color variations she achieves.
Being a workshop volunteer means watching a room full of artists experiment with new techniques while your own hands and mind grow increasingly eager to try the new methods yourself. So, yesterday, when I joined the Thursday Painters at Balboa Park, I was ready to scrape, drag, and experiment with my go-to gouache on black paper.
I used the contour of the place where we were, the landscape leading toward the Balboa Park Botanical Building, and got to work. As I pushed paint around with the credit card, I found myself simplifying the rhythm of the place—the sweep of the path, the layered greens, the bright pools of water. In the end, I like the angular energy of the landscape, but I see I need much more experience before I will be pleased with the paint texture and edges.
Yesterday I painted with about 50 other artists at the San Diego Watercolor Society’s monthly paintout, this time at the Leo Cabrillo Park. After a terrific demo by Geoff Allen, it was time to paint.
Earlier, as I entered the park, I noticed how the sunlight fell between the trees along the path, and how it gave me the feeling of an adventure unfolding. I knew that this would be the scene I would paint.
After the demo, I returned to the entrance and got busy. I also liked the interplay between the undisturbed fields and the road, as well as the bands of light and dark that separated the sky, foliage, and ground. I added the two figures to mirror my own mood and to convey the excitement of following curiosity wherever it leads, both for the figures out hiking or the artist out painting.
I recently traveled to Omaha with college friends to hear another friend’s concert. Catching up in person with my friends after fifty years was a profound experience. As the weekend and our stories unfolded it became clear that many of our early interests remain undimmed by time. Whether music, botany, justice or painting, we continue to be fuelled, supported and guided by those first, fundamental passions.
As I listened to my friend’s concert, I could see his attention shift between the audience and his music. I kept thinking how some people never stop being students of what they love. Even after years of practice, they stay curious — still trying to understand their art a little better, still willing to work for improvement.
In this painting, I wanted to show that the pianist isn’t playing only for an audience. Even as he played, he was also listening, adjusting, and studying again — steady in his devotion to the work itself. Watching his quiet persistence reminded me how learning and creating are really the same act, just seen from different moments in time. Maybe that is what keeps me painting, too.
Last Saturday, I demonstrated using gouache over a field of casein color. So, in this painting, the red area is all casein, and the other colors are gouache. I like this technique because when I overpaint the casein, which is nearly permanent, with the gouache, both colors are visible. I also like the vibrancy of the red casein color.
I thought I would make a lot of changes to the painting, but when I looked at it again this morning, all I wanted to do was to make some very faint gray marks in the lower right and to sign it.
The demo was for the San Diego Watercolor Society’s monthly plein air Paintout, which was held at Lake Murray in La Mesa.
Deliberate Sketching 