Morning at Willow Creek

We gathered at Willow Creek, a nice shady spot on a predicted hot day in Davis, CA.  The creek is dry but has this  bridge over it with plenty of rocks where the water runs when wet after a rain.  The area is without bugs.  It is just beside a bike path and there were plenty of bikes.  

Morning in the Redwoods

This Wednesday our plein air group went to the UC Davis Arboretum.  It was very windy but deep on the floor of the Redwood section we were sheltered from it.  There are many redwoods and they grow quite close to each other.  There are breaks and light comes through.  I tried to capture this as the streaks come and go.  It gets darker in the distance with light at the top.  I've tried to handle this with a lighter green background as well as thickness of the tree trunks.  I put a couple of figures in black to give an idea of proportion.  

Patchwork Farm Lavender

With temperatures reaching triple digits, the lavender crop was ready early. We went out to beautiful Capay Valley to take it in and paint. Things were buzzing with the pickers ranch hands. The fields appear to have a lavender cloud over them with the green base. It brought me back to years being in southern France seeing and smelling the field of lavender. It was a bit difficult to find shade for painting but the setting is so nice with the blue sky and Capay hills in the background. Thank you to the people of Patchwork Farm.

Morning Stroll

During the quarantine I've been trying several ways of showing the arboretum. For a couple months I have painted all over the paths that wind through the beautiful plants and trees. I do not want a realistic painting of them. What first calls to me are the shadows and the lights created by all of the vegetation, so that is what I emphasize in this painting.

Gilligan's Return

The morning plain air painting was again at the arboretum on the UCDavis Campus. Davis has had black bear sightings on two consecutive days and named the bear(s) Gilligan. Not sure he was here today but was on my mind. There is so much material on the campus for painters. We have a huge Veterinary school and hospital next to the arboretum at one end. They ofter have exotic animals in the yard. I really don't have an excuse for putting the bear in the painting. It does strengthen the value and depth.

Painting on the UCDavis Arboretum

It is Wednesday which is about the only day that is different for me. We have a small group that goes plein air painting on Wed. For the past month we have explored many areas of the beautiful arboretum on the UCDavis Campus. We freely park and move about and then join up to show our paintings. It is a group that has been together for a long time. We keep our social distance and were face covers when together. Today we were in the Redwood section. The sun was out for awhile with a chill in the air. We have been in the 90's over the past week. I paint quickly and have been experimenting with rather abstract landscapes. I do not bone out details of branches, leaves or most shrubs. My second painting was rather blah when I looked at it so I used gouache on the two foreground trees. I like the result although I only have the 3 primary colors in gouache and find mixing difficult. I doubt I will be using it for entire paintings anytime soon.

UCDavis Arboretum

. Our plein air painters have been enjoying the sights at the UCDavis Arboretum. We have traveled the length of it finding things to paint or sketch. It is an amazing place with no traffic and very few people. My watercolors are all quick sketches wet into wet. The opportunity to do this is so therapeutic with all the sheltering involving the rest of the week. I used a yellow sky and bright red spot to contrast with all of the greens present. Reminds me of children who always put the sky in the corner of their drawings. One painting is a spillway that runs down the hill into the pond. Right now it was dry. I find the outings an opportunity to do some fun experiments.