Natural Surroundings

Today was the Yolo Ag plein air paintout. The location was on the outskirts of Winters CA. A long dirt path led to his setup on a hill. Steve has a plan to keep the area natural and was so happy for us to be there. We had to stick to a narrow path because of tics and rattle snakes. (No snakes were seen.) It was hot and only 8:30AM. I set up my umbrella with my easel and did a value sketch. Suddenly, a burst of 9 wild boars came running by and there were many hawks sailing the updrafts looking for a meal. The land is dry and hardened as I found hammering in my umbrella. The hills are magnificent with shrubs and dry grains. The two large eucalyptus trees were together in a valley. One cast a partial shadow over the other so it was somewhat of a problem to completely separate them with light and value. This painting could easily be done using only yellow and green, but I love the challenge of mixing greens.

Suisun CA

Our plein air outing was to the city of Suisun which has a marina. The weather predicted to be very hot in California but not here. The wind were strong and cooled everything down. I had to put on a sweatshirt. You could sell anyone on Suisun living if the wind wasn't blowing. This is the origin of the delta breeze that keeps us all cool during the summer months. The country side if pocked with wind turbines. We had a couple of hours to paint and I chose a complex scene of boats. My plan was to stick to symbols and not bone out boat details. I used a staccato of spots of dark paint and a few bright warm colors. It is tempting to keep adding detail but I stopped and went to lunch at a wonderful Greek restaurant on the water.

2nd and G Streets

Natives know that the corner of 2nd and G Streets is a very busy place but not today. I was out early with my sketch pad and camera. The students are finished with school and Davis is a quiet place...no lines at the market, plenty of parking spaces and no or few speeding bikes. Summer is here and this happens downtown. I brought my sketches home and painted the scene. The trees are always a challenge with distant, middle and foreground ones. By making the foreground tree a warm green it comes forward and the middle tree is dark and has shade so it becomes the darkest.I did not sketch out shapes of leaves but left values to differentiate them. My focus area is the figures and car. I feel caught between painting foliage as a silhouette or fussing with edges and shapes. I suppose there is a time for each.

Yolo Bypass Marsh

Early on Wednesday, before it was too hot, our plein air group went to the Yolo Bypass. We have visited and painted here many times and it changes quite drastically with the seasons. It is a flyway and many birds find it during migrations. Several painters in the group are birders and never complain about this venue. To me it is a marsh and without the birds, I find difficulty in choosing something. In this painting there are different colors to the reeds growing. A breeze swept the waters out and I included that to pull things together. The water is very shallow in the foreground seeming to be more mud than clear water. Everyone found something they liked and there were some very nice paintings.

Mad Dogs and Watercolorists

Looking for a scene to paint is sometimes compromised by conditions. It was shady on the hill across from the parking lot where I did some sketches. There was no place that looked more accommodating so I continued right where I started. I took a photo after painting to show how I edited the scene. The challenge is to mix up lots of different greens. Everything is green. The water feature on the green belt is also green with algae but I cleaned it up in my painting. Even in the shade it still was very hot but no bugs and no-one out walking. I guess all the dogs are exercised early on these kind of days. "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun".

Good Morning Lake Solano

We gathered at Lake Solano in Winters, CA this morning. Perfect weather. A slight breeze interrupted the cast reflections of the trees and vegetation on the bank. At times there were ducks and two beavers swimming. It was a good day for everybody.

Nothing Like a Tree to Paint

Painted 3 watercolor scenes with different trees. Just when you think that you have it, you run into difficulty with trees. This is what I found when out plein air painting this past week. There is so much foliage. These leafy things are so vibrant in the spring yet, it is a challenge to separate them when you want to paint groupings. Early spring still shows a skeleton that is a great help but then they mesh together and form forests. The scene of 3 on the bridge was from a sketch I did of 3 generations crabbing in a stream. They use chicken parts and net the crabs. The little ones love it.