Waiting for the Green Flash: This painting was also painted during the Oceanside Museum of Art’s Plein Air festival. The OMA held a sunset paintout at Robert’s Cottages. After I finished a so-so painting of the cottages, I turned my easel 180 degrees and caught the silhouettes of people mesmerized by the setting sun. Many thanks to the jurors and judges, Peter Adams, Toni Williams, and Maria Mingalone, for selecting it to be part of the exhibition.
As part of the Oceanside Museum Plein Air festival, I painted most of Sunday at Batiquitos Lagoon in Carlsbad, north of San Diego. By my fourth painting, I was ready to try something new. I looked across the water at a little house perched on the edge of a mesa that was surrounded by strong shadows, and sketched it out on paper prepped with a red casein underpainting. I blocked in the sky and water with gouache, but by the time I got to the dried grasses on the hillside, I realized I loved how the blue contrasted with the beautiful red color of the underpainting. So I revised my plan and let the red dominate the scene.
Many thanks to the festival jurors and judges, Peter Adams, Toni Williams, and Maria Mingalone, for selecting it for the festival exhibition.
This is from a Saturday game at a park in Oceanside. I liked how the strong light on the players showed their movement and focus.
I had fun abstracting the 20-minute poses this morning at the San Diego Watercolor Society’s weekly figure drawing session. I think this one is my best for the day because I finally lost my caution. I started with a red-orange casein underpainting and painted the rest with gouache.
Two days ago, I finished a five-day Plein air class, Golden Hour Watermedia Workshop with Ken Goldman. The artist/ teacher did a terrific job breaking down the topic, modeling, and coaching. I did not post any of my work from the class because Ken made most of the decisions about the composition, palette, and process. However, if you could see my work and the other students’ work across the five days, I think you would agree that we all learned a substantial amount.
Yesterday, I put the learning into practice when I painted this golden hour scene from a photo. It was great putting my new vocabulary onto paper as I painted sky glow, back lighting, and reflections.
I love standing in the Cactus Garden at San Diego’s Balboa Park and looking across to Florida Canyon. Those zig-zags on the hiking path catch my eye—and those ambitious hikers catch my eye, too! We are in the midst of our dry season, and the canyon’s colors are subdued and strongly textured, making for a fun painting challenge.
This morning, the San Diego Urban Sketchers met at Fletcher Cove in Solana Beach. The cove is a narrow stretch of beach that opens from a space between steep hillsides. We painted from a lookout point that looked down on everything. By 9 a.m., the beach was full of people enjoying themselves, and I wanted to capture that busy, happy vibe.
Deliberate Sketching 