MORNING IN THE NORTHWEST

These water tower converstion houses popup everywhere in wine country and along the north coast.  I love putting them into my paintings along with other farm equipment.  I presented this structure to a large class of watercolor painters that I teach.  They did some wonderful things with it.  Introduced fog, hills with grape vines, telephone poles, and fences.  We had fun with it.

Cold, Wet and Grey Day

This is California.  It's not supposed to be this cold and damp.  Went painting yesterday morning and it was grey.  The plein air session lasted only 2 hours and I quit.  Nothing was drying.  The sun did not come out.  I tried to capture the kind of day/landscape by using a lot of greys which I made from various combinations of primary colors.  I am a firm believer in saving shadows for the finish of the painting.  There were few if any shadows to paint.  Some puddles had reflections but that was all. 
When there is no sun, no cast shadow and you are uncomfortably cold, it is very challenging to paint watercolor landscapes.

Vanishing Crew

While sketching along San Francisco Bay I was fascinated by a crew working on a pile driver.  The engine was cranking away, making a racket.  I did several sketches and, then decided to get out the paints.  My paints were back in my parked car.  When I returned, the entire rig with crane was headed out to sea with a motor boat pushing from behind.  I wound bet that it hadn't moved for over a year and, just when I wanted to paint, it was gone. 

I ran across my sketches the other day and tried another time to paint it. The tall crane and reflection lends itself nicely to a vertical format.

Converted Water Tower

Exercise in 3/4 side lighting on shade and projected shadows.  Total imaginary scene for teaching.  Kept it simple and stressed value, graded wash, shadow. 

Abandoned Housing

Way out, on the back forty of the campus, there exists a group of old houses that are not maintained and belong to the University. Most likely housed faculty a long time ago.  The buildings are clustered around some large shade trees.  Plenty of squirrels and other critters became frantic on our arrival.  Their routine  was interrupted by of a bunch of artists setting up to paint.  What a great spot for a studio.

This morning was very sunny and I tried to capture the intense cast shadows on the structures.  They changed quickly as the morning moved on.  I had several sketches to mark the shading and cast shadows and this was a great help.  I will be back.