Barn at Chowdown Farm

Another hot day coming up but it is not hot at 8AM.  Our Yolo ArtAg farm for this month's paintout is the Chowdown Farm in Esparto.  I found my way around to the back of the barn because the sun was there.  It is a great old barn that stands in the weeds and is still used.  This side of the barn is pretty much boarded up.  I like the finding of reddish boards used to close the openings.  It was a wonderful morning of painting except for the disturbing gun shots that continued all morning.  I later found out that the sounds are played from a recording to keep birds out of the orchard.

I painted under an umbrella that has a solar shield.  I need to get used to it's effect on my color since the reds came out much redder than they appeared on wet paper.  All in all, a wonderful morning of painting.  Eventually, the flies found me and kept pestering.  It always takes awhile but when you are found they don't quit, so I quit.

Path Along Putah Creek

It is going to be hot today.  I was up and out early to do some painting.  I even arrived before the summer campers.  They did eventually trail along this path several times to go for a swim and I got lots of nice comments on my work.  The Creek is down the bank on the right.
I mixed several greens to get some value changes.  The darkest greens were distant and the closer greens had more yellow.  They cast very strong shadows.  I was very content to be there painting and staying cool.

Old Woman

Ran across a film featuring faces of women from India living in the Himalayas and marveled at their faces.  I tried a sketch and then decided to paint it with acrylics.  The weathered face and wrinkles were prominent in my attempt.  I will have to give some more thought to painting such fascinating faces.  I vacillated between realism and adding some gesture painting.  The painting needs to go one way or the other.

River Launch

I have painted this several times, even using it for a demonstration in my senior watercolor class.  I just saw it today and decided to do it again with more contrast.  The effect is to bring out the people around the boat.  The darkest darks and the lightest lights bring this into direct view.

Sutter Buttes

We painted in Colusa, CA at a city park on the Sacramento River.  Looking down the river you could see the Sutter Buttes, the world's smallest mountain range.  It was a warm day and it was only morning. It gets very hot in Colusa during the summer.  We were finished shortly after noontime.  At this time in June, there is plenty of water in the river but it will dwindle due to our severe drought.

This is an acrylic painting done from two watercolors that I did on location.

The 'Hood'

Got back to my acrylic paints this morning.  After being away for two weeks and doing little painting and sketching it felt good to do a quick acrylic painting.  The dicipline of daily painting is important to move on.  I have not tried a painting a day, but can see the benefit, particularly, if you do the same subject for a week.
It is summer here in terms of tree foliage and warm temperatures.  This should get me out to doing more plein air work.