San Francisco Summer

Next May marks the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. I love painting it from the Sausalito side and looking up from underneath at Fort Baker. Summer in San Francisco has a lot of fog which rolls in off the Pacific Ocean and eventually occludes the Golden Gate. It is pretty much a daily occurrence. The bridge and city are scoured and cleansed so that it can sparkle. There is a small light house under the bridge which I put in this painting. While the breaking fog covers the bridge and city, the east side of the bay including Sausalito, Tiburon, etc are spared until the very end.

Some Still Life Painting

Spent a couple of Friday mornings painting at the Senior Center Watercolor Class. I do not usually get excited with still life but wanted to help out . This first one was a flower pot next to a Kleenex box with some limes in a dish. The scale is right (three different sizes) but have to question the unity of the composition. I guess anything goes when painting a still life. I remember many paintings with pomegranates and fish pairings in the European galleries.

The other still life painting was a grouping of organic vegies. (In Davis, organic is preferred.) This was a quick 20 minute painting. The lighting is poor at the center with overhead fluorescent bulbs. I had to create some shadows in order to sit the items on the table.

Sunny but Windy on the Backroads

It was a cold, windy morning last Wednesday but I was out painting first thing. Found some trees to get behind. I think that wind is the single most difficult element to deal with when painting plein air.
The structure is the Plainfield Station. It was once a fire station and now serves up burgers and soups...pretty good. There are some rousing parties there and the bikers love the place. It is on the backroads of Davis.

WELCOME

I have not blogged for the past month. Lots of travels, some computer glitches and other priorities. I have been painting and they have accumulated so I will post some this month. I'm on my Davis patch on the west coast. There is quite the contrast with life on Cape Cod. The tempo here is much more upbeat with students buzzing around and keeping the downtown busy. It feels energizing compared with the slow shuffle of the Cape. Both places work for me but I do like to be warm, so this is right for me now.

Cat Boat Under Sail

My preoccupation with Cape Cod Cat Boats had me sketching out different sized ones. I used Google to find a dealer who had pictures and specs on several models of boats. We have only the larger ones moored out on the river.
This is from a sketch of a small cat boat and I imagined the feel of sailing by the fish shack. When I sail small boats, the pilings and wharfs seem so daunting and overwhelming. That is what I was aiming for in this painting.

Cape Cod Catboat

Cutting across the Herring River on a very hazy day is a typical boat found here on Cape Cod. It is called a Catboat. It is gaff-rigged with a single sail. There is a wide beam and flat bottom with a center board. This makes it very stable and comfortable. It also has a barndoor rudder. Quite a sight to see under sail and there are many of them here on Cape Cod. The haze wore off as I painted and why are there so many sea gulls on these hazy days? Anyway, a fun subject.

Cape Cod Fish Shack

This is a favorite spot for painting. I was out early and met only a few fishermen on this beautiful morning. The shack is for sale as indicated by the sign in front. It does lean back with its pilings all leaning toward the Herring River. Great location but has to be a 'teardown'. Over the years the shack has been modified and its tall superstructure for unloading fish is gone along with a ramp that went all the way around the side.
Today, there were lots of clouds forming but the sun stayed out as the clouds moved on. It was ideal for painting.