The Little Dinghy

Out painting at Round Cove and there were plenty of boaters.  One brought in a nice catch of sea bass.  Wish I had some but had plenty last weekend.  I wasn't sure what the weather was up to.  There were sprinkles of rain and then the sun.  We then settled for overcast.  Round cove is a popular mooring and I met the owner of the dory.  He has lived here a long time and tells me that his dory is painted many times each year.  He found a painting of it while shopping in Providence.  He also owns two moorings.  These are prized and people get angry with him over it.  The popularity of the dory is its closeness to the pier.  If you looked to the left of this scene you would see probably 50 boats.

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.

If a Tree Falls...

In painting this I am reminded of that philosophical argument: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?". This is a study of textures with the rough outside of a fallen tree trunk and coarse cypress growth contrasted with the pillow-soft sails of the distant boats. There is no one around.
It's been a wonderful week of painting with the warm weather. I have lots of sketches to develop but while the weather is perfect, I will be painting on location.

Tidal Pools

The sun has not shown for the past 4 days in northern California and it is 25 degrees below normal. This means painting in the studio. This painting gave me a chance to paint some figure gestures and their reflections in the water. I played with a lot of things but was totally immersed in seeing what was developing. A painting paints itself if given the chance. My white edge to the rocks became driftwood pushed to the side of the beach.
Maybe tomorrow, there will be sunshine on my shoulder.