Climate Strike!

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

An amazing number of people marched in San Diego’s climate strikes today. I think there were demonstrations at a majority of the high schools and all of the colleges.

I went to an afternoon gathering at the Federal Building. Both of these sketches show people milling about and talking to each other before the speeches started. I wanted to draw the young speakers but I could not see them through the crowd. May great good come from this worldwide upwelling in support of our Mother Earth and the Green New Deal!

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Brooding

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

The model today struck several poses where she clasped her arms, knee, or belly. As she held each pose, her face took on a frown and her brows furrowed. I thought she seemed worried and that she may have been thinking about something important. Each time I painted her, I tried to accentuate the feel of brooding by having her look into an inner place. I also worked to keep the shapes and colors simple so that they would not distract from the face.

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Rock Shelf

Posted on September 18, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

I painted this morning at Cabrillo National Monument from a rock shelf looking to the west. The fog was lifting but it still obscured the horizon line.

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The Lookout Tree

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Last Saturday at Mission Bay I noticed that people kept stopping in the shade of a cluster of bottle brush trees to admire the sea. I did not have enough time on Saturday to paint it then, so today I painted it from a photo I took.

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Mission Bay Triangles

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

This morning I met up with some 50 plein air artists from the San Diego Watercolor Society to watch the incredible Keiko Tanabe https://ktanabefineart.com paint and then to paint our own scene. We were at Mission Bay in San Diego. I wanted to focus on the many triangles that I saw in the bay, lawn, and trees, so I rearranged the scene somewhat to emphasize these. After moving a tree and skipping the artists, easels, bathers, boats, and dogs, I found that I liked the composition quite a bit.

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Orchids on My Desk 4

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

With this fourth version of the orchids on my desk, I wanted to capture more of the cloud like, almost floating, feeling that I see in these flowers. I made the flowers very pink, connected the blossoms into a single shape, and cropped the painting so that just the lower portion of the blossoms show.

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Orchid on My Desk 3

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

It is so easy to just paint something at home when you are busy, and I am so lucky to have these gorgeous orchids on my desk this week. This morning I developed the background more than I have on other mornings.

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