Hello New Year! It is so good to see your ancient self again. May I find you as delightful as ever!
Trees are just now losing their leaves in the San Diego area. It makes for beautiful reflections in the water, especially when contrasted with the reeds on the left.
Are people more quiet on misty mornings, or does the mist damp the sound? We ate on a terrace overlooking Hanalei Bay and seemed like everyone spoke in whispers while keeping their eyes on morning sky and changing sea.
Sending the warmest of holiday wishes to each of you, readers, bloggers, fellow art enthusiasts, family, and friends across the globe. May the new year bring peace, fulfillment, and great painting fun to all!
These last months, I have been working on compositions that look directly into the sun and have strongly backlit features with dramatic shadows. The Thursday group went to Coronado Island this past Thursday morning; the sun was bright, the shadows were long, and it was a perfect time to practice these elements.
Twenty minutes before our group meeting, I abandoned the painting I was working on and quickly blocked out this sketch. After looking at the wonderful work from our group and seeing how the others handled the light, I went home and reworked this little sketch, adding much brighter color to the landscape and highlighting the figures.
Our Tuesday night still-life group has made a change for the fall. We begin our weekly Zoom sessions by viewing select artwork from artists who paint in distinctive styles. Then, using a still-life or photo, we attempt to evoke something of the artist in our work while we paint for 90- minutes.
Our artist yesterday evening was Paul Cézanne, the French Post-Impressionist painter. His still-life paintings are characterized by flat, short geometric brushstrokes that combine warm and cool colors.
Our organizing artist created a still-life setup in her home, featuring apples and pears arranged in a manner that echoed Cézanne’s compositions. After 90 minutes of painting, we shared our work. It was then I realized that my work had taken a significant detour. While my peers had captured the essence of Cézanne, I saw that I had veered towards my style, with its pronounced differences in value and shape.
This morning’s reflection brought revision. I revisited Cézanne’s work and read more about his techniques and perspectives. This led me to adjust my painting, trying to incorporate elements of his style, particularly the use of brushwork, color, and form to describe the subject.
We had so much fun painting nocturnals last night in the dark with our large group from The San Diego Watercolor Society at Liberty Station, which was all decked out for the holidays, complete with live music. After an engaging demo from Luis Juarez, who painted two dramatic views of skaters, I joined a group painting from a second-floor deck and tried to do the same. We had great views of the ice rink and an enormous Christmas tree. The lighting was dim, so I just painted, becoming more abstract as the night grew darker.
Here are two of my sketches.
Deliberate Sketching 