Napa Valley Vineyard

It was a glorious day last Thursday. Perfect for painting and the mustard was in full bloom between the rows of vines. This is a worm's eye view of the the rows as I painted it from the ditch running in front. There were a few people on this very back road in the heart of grape country. What a great day to be out and painting.

My aim was to compose a different perspective on the vineyard and try to avoid the repartition which is so monotonous. So, nothing is really defined except the posts in the foreground.

Today's class

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.