Our Tuesday night Zoom group revisited Still Lives with a lovely composition featuring lemons fresh from the trees of Fresno. I added some lines this morning to give it a dash of drama.
Sometimes, the view to the east as the sun sets is spectacular, especially on cloudy evenings. I know I was projecting, but it seemed to me that the crows were delighting in it.
The Thursday painters met today at the Wedding Bowl in La Jolla and painted the view. Too much was going on at this popular location to paint it all, so I simplified away the vehicles and most of the people, but here are two lucky dogs who were there with their owners.
Yesterday, fifty or so Plein air painters met for our monthly paint-out at Griffen Park in La Mesa. It was a gorgeous day, and I walked a bit down a hillside to get under the eucalyptus trees with their dappled light. I hoped that the spot I chose would be popular with walkers, and a small adventurer came along on her bike in no time. What good luck, she made the painting sparkle.
During our recent trip, the sun set with brilliance in San Pancho. At times, the sky seemed as vibrant as cadmium red straight from the paint tube. I wanted to catch the feeling of being on a beach surrounded by red in this sketch.
On our last morning in San Pancho, my sister went down to the beach and took several interesting photos of her shadow. I was captivated by them and used one as a reference for this sketch.
A young woman and her dog sat near us on the beach, sunning and eating together all afternoon. At first, I sketched her because she was nearby, but then, as I watched her, I noticed how much she liked her dog and tried to capture some of this relationship in these two sketches.
Deliberate Sketching 