Pleasants Valley, Winters

Another wonderful day of plein air painting in Winters, CA.  We met at the coffee shop and went out early to Pleasants Valley where we enjoyed the warm summer-like morning temperatures.  It is so quiet out here, that it seems you can hear someone speak from miles away.  There are deer and other critters scurrying around.  It is a communion with nature.

I have found many new greens from mixing pthalo-blue with raw sienna, new gamboge, or burnt sienna.  The green shades are always a challenge and it is mixing that makes the different ones.  Once they are down I sometimes add more blue while they are still wet to create darker shades.  Adding red to them creates almost a black for cast shadows.

Winters' Watering Hole

I was up early to catch the eastern light.  It was a beautiful day in downtown Winters.  This is the Buckhorn Restaurant which is not open in the morning so I added some patrons.  The light was perfect with the west all in dark shade with cast shadow.  The breakfast smells of bacon, eggs and pancakes were driving me crazy.  They were coming from the crowd at the Putah Creek Cafe.  This is across the street and where I was painting.  It is getting warm in California.

Cantelow Road

The Winters' Plein Air week has started. There are wonderful places for painting, wherever you turn.  Out in back of the lake there is a favorite route for bicycles and they go over Cantelow Road.  The vista to the east is spectacular.  On a clear day you can see the buildings of downtown Sacramento.  The view to the west is this valley with undulant hills and small farms.  While I painted, the bikes came speeding down the hill and at first, sounded like cars.  While I was not at the top, the bike riders managed to get up a lot of speed.  The road is a single lane and has some rough spots.
 
The red roofed farm below has a pond behind it and a long field of mustard trailing back up the hill.  There was mist in the valley beyond which separated the tall mountain.  It was a beautiful day for painting.

The Fields of Winters Calif

This painting was done in the late afternoon during the Winters Paint the Town event last week.  I wasn't sure whether the cloud cover would break.  I settled on this rural road.  Signs kept telling me 'No Outlet' but I did get enough height to look over the valley and the cloud cover started to break up.  There were cast shadows on the fields from the clouds.  The color was exceptionally vivid.  I'm glad that I waited around.

ALLEY II (WINTERS)

This is Paint the Town week in Winters, CA.  I started by trying to dodge the windy conditions and found an alley to paint in.  This allowed some wind protection.  When I returned the following day, the wind was still blowing so I found another alley.  There are plenty in this town.  I think that the most difficult condition for painting is wind.

Alleys have so much stuff.  A lot of it has to be eliminated in the painting. There are too many trash bins, fences and traffic markers.  I was impressed with all of the power lines that criss-cross the alley. 

The weather has improved and I have been back painting the hills and valleys of this pretty town. 

Morning Meetup

A couple of weeks ago, I was out early to paint in Winters, CA.  I wanted to catch the morning sunlight on the downtown but when I arrived the wind started blowing and the gusts kept intensifying.  I got behind a large tree and painted fast.  Nothing is more annoying than wind.  I really like the result of the early morning sunlight on the building with the color bleached out due to the brightness.  Good things happen when painting fast with gay abandon and not overworking it.  You take risks, are bold and get a good result.

Spring Around the Corner

This is one of my favorite paintings of the plein air week in Winters. I have painted this alley several times before, but always from the street. This time I went up the alley and looked out at the street. The light was perfect. There were three different colors of brick in the wall. The yellow is an old painted sign on the side of the building. The bottom is pink brick. Lots of power lines are winding around poles and buildings. After my success with this alley, I went around and looked at some of the other alleyways in Winters. They are possibilities. I got the brick colors by starting with raw sienna and then adding alizerin crimson over in streaks and while still wet added cobalt blue to the darkest red. The direct glazing technique gets amazing color that just pops. Once it dries, add the shadows to define structure.

Contented Cows

What a wonderful week of weather for plein air painting. I was across the highway from this barn. I originally went to the house on the side but no one but a dog was home. So, rather than stay there with the dog barking, I moved across the road. A couple of years ago, a dog, out of sight, barked as I sketched and got ready to paint. All of a sudden, an angry pit bull came racing at me dragging his chain...never finished the scene. There is always a curious cow that gets a close view of you by standing and staring. As I said, in a previous post, the grass is very, very green do to weeks of rain. I toned it down a bit.
The Winters Plein Air Festival ends today with a gallery show. Winters is buzzing today with tents set up for wine tasters and the usual breakfasters. The week always ends with a 'quick draw' in which you start and finish a painting between 9AM and noon. Part of the allure of plein air painting is listening to all the sounds, talk and enjoying the aromas from big breakfasts. Winters is the place for breakfast.