Water towers in Mendocino are like hot tubs on high and wide platforms. I tried to be a little more realistic in my painting this time. My calligraphy is not as prominent as seen on the original but it was fun painting this version after doing the previous one. I did not block out and tried to save my whites by painting around them. Next time I think I would block out with something and then they would not appear wobbly.
A very common site in Mendocino are the water towers that remain from the past. It is cold and frosty in California these days so paintings are from memories instead of plein air. I love painting outside, on site, but not when it's cold or windy. One remedy for the cold is to paint warmer scenes. It is the placebo effect; you get lost in the painting and warm up. Save the snow scenes for hot summer days.
This house was on a photo I had from Mendocino, CA. Today, in California, there was cold with wind and I canceled my plans to go outside and paint. Instead, I played with the painting and tried a lot of different shapes. Notice the 3 eucalyptus trees in the left background and the puddles in the foreground. The laundry on the line was a balance to the painting. There is a lot in this painting and I usually only feature one subject with everything else subordinate. This is what happens when plans suddenly change. It was fun experimenting.
Have you ever tried to paint on a wet surface with watery color. You need to keep a couple of steps ahead with your plan and get it all on before the painting dries. One can add a couple of drops of glycerin to the water to slow the drying. It is difficult to judge the intensity of the color and, in general, it dries at a much lighter value than it appears at first. This is my attempt at a 15-20min wet on wet watercolor. The second one was done with more intense color because of the experience with the first. 
I have shown this one before but found myself painting another laundry scene yesterday. Must be my helping out at home that has focused me on domestic activities. One group washes in the river and the other hangs the laundry out to dry. Do you know that the ordinance in my town had to be changed to allow hanging laundry out to dry! We are all going green.
Was home today instead of with my painting group at Sausalito. It seems that the Bay Bridge was closed and I was told to expect big traffic shunting over to the Golden Gate, so I decided not to fight it. Did some sketching of scenes from summertime and went on and painted this imagined Wychmere scene. Had a good feeling about it with the reflections.
Back in the early 90's I was in the Acapulco region of Mexico with some painters. I ran across a group of women doing their wash in a shallow river. I stopped, put up my easel and painted them. It was a success and was in a show. Since then, I have been asked by people who saw it whether I still have it. I decided to do it again and had some fun with it. The river is shallow enough to walk all the way across. I remember standing on a garbage dump at the side of the river when painting...much easier when you call up memories and paint inside.
There is a wonderful restored Southern Pacific Station in Davis and it has been a source of resuscitation for my painting. It is so therapeutic to set up and paint it with all of the sounds and people rushing off to near and far places. I had the company of Jeff the homeless guy today who gave a running account of the homeless life and why he chose to stay in Davis. He has lots of info about the trains. I finished this painting in 90min as the parking police continuously monitor the parking with some kind of gun. You can not repark, so you have to leave. Jeff was also off to use the internet. It was a good morning.
It was cloudy and misting heavily when I left Davis to paint in the Capitol Plein Air Festival. We went to the 'hood'. For 30 years I drove thru Oak Park on my way to work. It was full of drug dealers, crack houses and men gathered on the street looking for work. They were in old couches and chairs along the side walks. A friend owned a property and was afraid to collect overdue rent. Not any longer, the 'hood' has a new look with proud ownership and cared for homes. This painting is the Oak Park Preschool which is getting a face-lift. Workers were buzzing around, checking out my painting and letting me in on what was going to happen to the building. The sun eventually came out and there were some shadows to paint. It actually got quite hot as I finished up.
This is the week of the Sacramento Plein Air painting. It runs from Sunday to Friday. Who would have thunk that a typhoon would blow in and wash out painting on Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday. Pretty hard to paint watercolors when it is raining. I painted this Joint on Sunday morning with a bright sun shining. Got lots of attention as I seemed to be on the path of all the homeless who were walking back into town. I did have to wind it up since I had another commitment in the afternoon. It was the shadows that caught my eye.
It was wonderful being back with the painters on Sausalito Bay. We were on Napa St. where a huge gathering of houseboats are tied up. Many quite obviously built by amateurs and held together with bailing wire and duct tape. I don't think they are held to any code. 
This is Wychmere yesterday with the warm sunny clear skies of fall. What a beautiful day to paint. I have struggled lately with my painting. I am usually good dealing with the tyranny of detail but seem to want everything in my picture when doing this scene. I have done it from memory and it is better done en plein air. The harbor is quite full of boats. I did a loose sketch and then went on to block out the sky. The water was last and I tried to do a gradual wash from bottom to lighter on the top. This is to bring the viewer's eye to the structures above. The entire scene is iconic around Harwich Port.
Conditions could not be better for painting. Everything popped with the bright sun and clear air, and things dried quickly. We picked out a few of the boats to paint and fortunately they stayed around. It seemed that every boat owner was taking their boat out for a last sail as it was labor day weekend.
Off to Red River Beach once again. Took my friend Inger and we painted the opening to the river. Just a quick sketch and painting. Put the little house in the background for size reference. What a lovely day and the water is still warm. The beach was starting to populate but definitely not to summer time levels. Came home to steamers, lobster salad and hot dogs. Ready for a little afternoon snooze.
Out painting with my group this morning at Red River Beach. In the back of the beach is this salt marsh and a shaky rickety bridge that spans the water which can be high when the tide comes in. I actually witnessed 3 people crossing the bridge with kayaks. It holds together but, I am told that it requires rebuilding each summer. Reminds me of one of those bridges in Viet Nam over a rice patty. It was fun to paint from above, away from the bugs, although the sun did not stay out for good shadows.
Went off with the group for some plein air painting on one of the best summer days. They don't get any better on Cape Cod. This is a very long stretch of beach with multiple jettys. No one was on the beach but the life guards were in their stands. I painted this quickly to catch the glow of the sky. It was clouded over 2hr later. It is a watercolor done on 300lb rough paper which is my favorite. 
There really are no birches across the street but the house was there and I wanted to show someone how to paint birch trees. It was fun. The weather has been like a steam bath here on Cape Cod. I have been painting but with no concentration. Lots going on with house guests and appointments. My show in Woodland is a success. I do have some other work that I need to put up on the blog.
In the center of Harwich Port is a popular eatery for families. It is usually crowded with a line out the door. Today I painted from across the street. It was not sunny so I had to stage my lighting. It is extremely humid and takes a long time for anything to dry. In addition the paper wrinkles, but once home in the a/c, it dries out and is fine. 
I hurried to finish before the rain came and I didn't quite make it. I started painting in full sunshine and put on plenty of sun bloc. Part of the plein air experience is talking to passersby. I love it, sometimes stopping and chatting. That happened while painting last weekend and then they came to my art show in the park on Monday. 
This is a redo of an earlier watercolor of the lighthouse. I had it in my mind as I was baby sitting my paintings at Art in the Park. I staged the light from the right so I could bring some color into the rocks. So I whipped out the sticks and knocked off this pesticide free watercolor painting in about 40 minutes. There is something fresh resulting from fast painting. It is like golf; the fewer strokes wins.
I never liked paintings of light houses. Now that I have painted a few, I see the attraction. You can have dramatic skies plus reflections in water. The actual building is also interesting. This was from a picture of a light house in Maryland, which I greatly modified. There is no such light house except in my head. What fun.
This watercolor was done in the afternoon and nobody bothered me except the bugs. It was a beautiful day in Davis, CA and not too hot. The silos are quite tall and I simplified them. The road in and the posts were added as directional tools and to give some idea of depth and size.
Oops, where has the month of May gone? I have been painting but not tending to my blog. Lots of things going on but put up these paintings done this month. One is a repeat of an old painting done in Mexico this past spring. Thought that I could improve on it and win some competition. The other is a Maine lighthouse.
It was such a beautiful day this weekend that I ended back up on Cantelow Road outside of Winters. I just painted away and encouraged the bike riders huffing their way up the hill. What a great spot. That is the Sacramento Valley in the distance between the hills. The hills are still green but with the 90 degree heat this week, they won't stay green too long.
This was a quick sketch from memory and it turned into a very high key watercolor. I am sure that I could add much more but like the composition and its simplicity. I did the painting on the back of an old painting done on hot press. At one time most of my work was done on hot press watercolor, but I stay away from it now. It is so difficult to do even washes on hot press paper.
This is another of my Winters' Plein Air paintings done last week. I am not sure how retired this barn is since it had a well worn path to the front. The hills in the background create a nice value in contrast to the warm notes of the grasses. I had plenty of visitors while painting and the sun was warm. The light was almost overhead.
This is a painting of Cantelow Road which is the best backroad I can ever imagine. I found this place last year while painting in Winters CA. I have now painted it several times. Each time it is awesome. You can see the Sacramento Valley and almost to the Sierra Mountains from atop the road. The other side of the hill offers a view of Pleasant Valley which I want to paint the next time I am there. The painting sold before the reception for the Winters Plein Air Festival. It was fun painting it and meeting the new owner.
This was the 2nd annual paint in which lasted 6 days. Some days were very windy and even cold. I got over to Winters for 3 half days and one full one. It is a wonderful spot for painters with barns, valleys and mountains. I painted at the end of town in my attempt to shield myself from a gusting wind. It was done on 300lb Arches watercolor paper which was previously adhered to quarter inch foam core. This allowed me to use gel and then varnish. I then put it into a float frame that we came up with. Looks like an oil and there is no glass. I was worried that it would turn out 'crafty appearing', but I like it. Anyway, I have this and two others in the show with a reception tonight.
This steep hill leads to some of the finest restaurants around Zihuatanejo. You do have to drive almost out of town to circle back to go over the hill. It is a hot day and nobody is climbing the hill. Of course, I can sit under the shade of a big tree and paint the hill from across the canal. There is also plenty of cold beer nearby to help the imagination. At night the area becomes a beehive of activity.
This is one of the many water towers on the vineyard next to us in Napa. I teach a watercolor class on Friday morning to about 20 budding artists. So often I hear, "If I try this, I'll probably ruin my picture". Todays' exercise was to banish this timidity. I did a demo that included a sky, mountain, water tower, and front green. I then asked them to add details to their painting. Here are my quick details.
My muse is the Davis Train Station. I have painted it so many times plein air, that I can put a painting together in 20 minutes and it is fun. I tried a yellow, red and blue sky to indicate the rising sun and gave the people long shadows. I have painted the station in the early morning and that is the east where the sun comes up. Because I wanted a tall exaggerated front of the station I painted it on the vertical. Most of my work (99%) is done on a half sheet (15x23") and when I frame, it has a 3.5" mat around it. They are all for sale.
Birch trees are fun to paint and I had fun doing this one. My mountains are a bit heavy handed but my water is definitely cold looking. I am happy to only think about this scene as I really, really hate to be in cold weather. It may come from my days growing up and attending school in New England. I never want to be that cold again.
Completed this painting the other day. I was so pleased with the sky. It is stormy looking with nice soft edges. The painting was done on 300lb rough Arches watercolor paper. I painted the sky in solid and then ran water down the paper through the sky, jiggling it back and forth to avoid hard edges. I always paint with my paper vertical, so in doing this the paper does need to lay flat once you are happy with the edges. One advantage to painting on Cape Cod is the dampness in the air. I am not used to it with most of my work done in California and Mexico, but it does allow longer times to manipulate the water/color mix.