A Visit to the Davis Train Station

. Returning from a vacation means getting restarted. There are always many things to attend to and they always assume priority. In order to jump start my painting, there is my muse, the train station. I paint it often and it works. We have recently had plenty of rain, so I photographed this between rain showers and waited for the sun. It was on and off with the black clouds but the sun did appear briefly and I caught it. The painting was done in my studio. I did exaggerate values, painted no black thunderheads and I like it.

Puerta Vallarta Old Town

Just returned from Mexico and am 6 lbs heavier. Great all inclusive place that means you are never without something to eat or drink. Reality is going to Old Town. Plenty of trinkets and taco stands. It was hot with lots of people milling around. A tour group even stopped and took pictures of me. I found this alleyway down to the beach. Set up in some shade and quickly painted this. I couldn't finish it as it got very busy and my shade was gone. It is a reminder of an exciting place.

Solitude

. A friend just returned from Aruba. His wife took a photo of him on this very sandy beach just gazing out to sea. The clouds did look somewhat stormy. I painted from the photo adding a lot of light along with editing the original lineup of chairs. By putting the subject in the white chair and showing his head and arm backlit, I found a focal point. I also made the cast shadows from palm trees point to the focal area. I love the softness of the clouds and think that this is only possible with watercolor.

The Sketch Crawl

It was a chilly Wed morning so we did a sketch crawl through South Davis. Each stop was 20 min. These are 3 of the 6 sketches I did. The others had no color so were not included. The few chickens in one painting represented probably 50-100 that thought we were going to feed them. The tractor was in a yard with a very angry dog that would not stop barking. (20 min. is a long time to bark.) The painting with 2 trucks was near a pasture with 20-30 cattle. The cattle quickly moved off to a very distant green field as soon as I started sketching. None the less, it was a good day. Quick sketching results in surprising things; quick decisions on colors, edits, composition and missing cattle. I need more workouts to pick up speed.

Birches and Snow

I attended a presentation by the Daniel Smith Watercolor representative and given the colors to test, I did a birch tree in snow. The Daniel Smith colors are very nice but I wondered how the colors on my palate would compare. One gets used to making colors by mixes so I tried a full scene.That is what you see here. Birches are like soccer balls in terms of contrasting values and easily become a focus. Snow is white paper where the sun hits and shades of blue where shadows or contours occur. I do see a difference in the water. This is a stream and should be very cold, hence, dark blue. I'm not sure that I captured that as well as the Daniel Smith color of Mayan Blue did. I can tweak it some more.

On the Beach

Went to Troncones Mexico for a week. What was different was my timing as I have gone to this area for the past 20 or more years. No-one was there. The beach was empty and we had it all. Oh, at 7-9AM a couple of surfers show up and do their thing. That is it. The restaurants are open and everyone is readying for the Christmas crowd. That used to be me and my family. The paintings were done plein air and it was hot. I even painted with salt water, as I carried everything out to my spot. The tree painting fascinated me with its tortuous 'trunk' that supplied a healthy canopy of leaves. It went down into the sand and split into many cords which twisted as it supported the leaves. It is a great time to be on the beach.

Before the Storm

There is a big storm brewing and whether it will land or go out to sea is a risk for this swimmer. The man in the water gives the painting an estimate of how big the storm clouds are. It also is a focal point because of the color.I had fun playing with lost edges and muted color. I couldn't decide whether to place a swimmer or boater to create the enormity of the clouds.