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.

Got Any Bites?

This is an acrylic painting (18X24) done form my sketches this week.  I have noted before, my attraction to San Francisco Bay especially, at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I had this in mind for a painting when there, but is got so windy that I only did a sketch.  I think that wind is the most difficult condition to deal with when painting.

Fort Baker

Joined up yesterday with two painters on San Francisco Bay.  Finished some sketches of moored sailboats with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  When I was all set up to paint, the wind really started blowing.  I turned around and moved next to a building for shelter and quickly painted one of the old structures at Fort Baker.  This watercolor, (12X15) took about 30-45 min. to complete without a sketch.  It was fun to see what can happen without sketching and just letting go with the paint.

At one time, the military owned some of the best real estate in San Francisco and along the bay.  Fort Baker is in Sausalito and has been turned into a tourist destination with lodging in the old officer quarters and a fine restaurant.  There are some dynamite views of the city and bay and it is a wonderful place to do plein air painting.

Main Street HarwichPort

This painting was done from memory and I put the VW bus on the street because I like them.  The Main Street of HarwichPort is an active place during the summer.  The Kite Shoppe has everything a kid on vacation could want.  I have been dragged there many times by my grandkids.  On Wed nights during the summer the place is a mob scene with something called 'Music in the Port".  Even though it is a main traffic artery, very little gets through with 4 bands playing and all of the vendors selling their wares.  The population of this town goes from a year round 8000 to 56,000 during July and August.  That is when I am there and loving it.

Rose Garden

Sacramento has a park that is busting with blooming roses.  It is well cared for and the lawn paths between the different rose beds set off this riot of colors.  It was very challenging for me to paint.  Do I focus on the biggest cabbage type blooms or separate trellises?  I decided to put streaks of color after squinting at the site and how I would paint it.  It was a wonderful day to be painting.

Medium Rare

I painted this as a class project.  I found an 8 oz. glass Coke bottle to go along with the half eaten hamburger.  This was the size for soda bottles when I was a kid.  The painting is a large acrylic (18 X 24) done on canvas.  It is pop art and was fun to do.  It was this painting that I abstracted in an earlier blog posting.  Having fun with the acrylic paint.

Morning on the River

Spent the morning painting on the river.  It was a beautiful morning.  There were six of us painting along with an equal number of fishermen.  What a peaceful scene.  Warm, sunny with lots of chatter between painters.  A great way to begin the day.