Painting Challenge

Many of you probably subscribe to Gurney Journey, the daily blog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney.  It's for all types of artists, animators, illustrators, and plein air painters.  I think James Gurney is an amazing person and he shares so many art-related tips and insights on his blog.  In conjunction with the release of his gouache tutorial DVD, "Gouache in the Wild", he announced an online challenge.  Anyone could enter and paint a gas station, on location, using only black and white gouache.  Somehow I missed the announcement until the evening the entries were due!  I would have loved to try that...oh well.  Then a few days later he said many people had asked for another opportunity.  I wouldn't miss this one!

The next challenge was to paint an outdoor market, on location, using a limited palette of only three gouache colors (our choice) plus white.  We needed to include a photo of our set-up showing the painting underway and the view.  I was anxious to try this.  There is a lovely weekly farmer's market in South Pasadena, my opportunity to try a painting on a day that wasn't too hot yet for August in Southern California.  As the market was setting up, I found an unobtrusive spot under a tree and taped off the other colors in my gouache palette leaving Ultramarine, Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow, and white.  It took awhile to get used to just the three colors but I enjoyed the challenge.  A container of beautiful sunflowers said it all..."Let's Do This"!              

7" x 5" Gouache

I was sitting under that large pine tree.

Dragon fruit

Figs