Gilligan's Return

The morning plain air painting was again at the arboretum on the UCDavis Campus. Davis has had black bear sightings on two consecutive days and named the bear(s) Gilligan. Not sure he was here today but was on my mind. There is so much material on the campus for painters. We have a huge Veterinary school and hospital next to the arboretum at one end. They ofter have exotic animals in the yard. I really don't have an excuse for putting the bear in the painting. It does strengthen the value and depth.

Painting on the UCDavis Arboretum

It is Wednesday which is about the only day that is different for me. We have a small group that goes plein air painting on Wed. For the past month we have explored many areas of the beautiful arboretum on the UCDavis Campus. We freely park and move about and then join up to show our paintings. It is a group that has been together for a long time. We keep our social distance and were face covers when together. Today we were in the Redwood section. The sun was out for awhile with a chill in the air. We have been in the 90's over the past week. I paint quickly and have been experimenting with rather abstract landscapes. I do not bone out details of branches, leaves or most shrubs. My second painting was rather blah when I looked at it so I used gouache on the two foreground trees. I like the result although I only have the 3 primary colors in gouache and find mixing difficult. I doubt I will be using it for entire paintings anytime soon.

UCDavis Arboretum

. Our plein air painters have been enjoying the sights at the UCDavis Arboretum. We have traveled the length of it finding things to paint or sketch. It is an amazing place with no traffic and very few people. My watercolors are all quick sketches wet into wet. The opportunity to do this is so therapeutic with all the sheltering involving the rest of the week. I used a yellow sky and bright red spot to contrast with all of the greens present. Reminds me of children who always put the sky in the corner of their drawings. One painting is a spillway that runs down the hill into the pond. Right now it was dry. I find the outings an opportunity to do some fun experiments.