Two in One

Posted on April 4, 2019 by

Two in One

I am back in San Diego after a trip to Texas for a family wedding. On the way out we drove and took our time. I was able to get quite a few paintings in, although I was not always able to post, due to time and connectivity. I felt kind of bad about the unposted paintings but today I was able to use one of them after all.

This morning I went to my sketching group and we had an amazing model whose long limbs seemed to form geometric shapes. This evening, with the help of my iPad, I superimposed one of today’s paintings over a sketch of a moonlit beach that I did on the Texas trip.

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Windsurfers of Padre Island

Posted on March 27, 2019 by

We spent the last two days at Padre Island in Texas. Our camping spot is right on the inter coastal waterway, at Bird Island Basin. There are lots of windsurfers of both varieties, birds and humans, and I had lots of fun painting them. The three sketches above are my favorites so far.

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Across the Street

Posted on March 24, 2019 by

We spent the day at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and it was an incredible visual experience. It is unbelievable that so much beauty exists underground and is definitely a place that you have to see for yourself.

However, it turns out that you can’t take watercolors down into the caves so this sketch is of the buildings across the street from where we stopped for the night. I really liked the way the setting sun lit the hill and filled the sky with soft color.

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A Guadalupe Mountain Sunset

Posted on March 23, 2019 by

We hustled today and arrived at Pine Springs Campground in the Guadalupe Mountains just in time for a quick hike and a gorgeous sunset. It was too cold to paint outside so I sat in the front seat of our camper with the heat on and tried to capture the essence of the moment in a series of quick sketches.
This is a 9 X 9-inch gouache sketch.
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Reclamation Is Good for Wildlife and Artists

Posted on March 22, 2019 by
One of my college friends grew up to be a botanist and was able to make a big difference by helping to reclaim habitat along the Colorado River near Yuma. She showed me her reclamation work last fall and it was so gorgeous that I wanted to go back a spend a week there painting. So far this week of painting has eluded me but I was able to camp there last night.
The area is full of birds, especially migratory birds, who rest there while on route back north. Last night we enjoyed a full moon and a gorgeous night sky. This morning we woke to a beautiful dawn along the Colorado River which I attempted to capture in the painting below.
It turns out that reclaimation is good for wildlife and artists too. 
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Wondering

Posted on March 11, 2019 by

Wondering

This main figure was drawn as a two-minute warmup from a live drawing session. The rest, the background and color, was added later with Inktense color pencils and a water brush.

I thought the model looked as though she were wondering about something, so I tried to make the background suggest a possible memory.

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Something about Cooking Together

Posted on March 10, 2019 by

Something about Cooking Together

They stood so closely as they chopped onions, their body language stating that they clearly were a team and were clearly delighted to be with each other. There was something about this young couple cooking together that got my heart.

At the time all I completed was a line sketch and then later tonight I added color. I surrounded then with dark colors to try and emphasize their togetherness, but I think I overdid the darks.

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