A New Park

 Well, the park was at least new to me for a paint-out.  It's Burke Heritage Park in Alhambra, next to the Alhambra Historical Society.  I've driven by it many times.  But what always caught my eye was the block of "picturesque" tanks next door.  Maybe water tanks.  Usually some kind of construction seemed to be going on there.  Since I really enjoy industrial subjects like utility poles and storage tanks, I had wondered about painting there sometime, but considering that it's fenced I didn't think it would happen.  But our wonderful paint-out organizer scheduled the park next to the tanks.  It's a mostly green grass park with a small garden, and tanks across the street.  But from where I was I didn't see a good view of the tanks to paint.  Maybe next time.  I did like the view to the east which had some palms and utility poles.

Watercolor 5" x 7"

    

 

Saturday Sketches

I've been enjoying doing some sketches at some of our Saturday paint-outs.  I use a variety of pens to draw the scene.  Then I like to add some watercolor.  I've never been good at keeping a sketchbook so I'm happy to work some sketching into my artwork.

5" x 7" Sketch at Grant Park

5" x 7" Sketch at Singer Park

Potting and Bird Seed table at Darryl's

Two Parks

Recently I've painted at two parks where I haven't painted before.  Just yesterday the Saturday paint-out group visited Almansor Park in Alhambra.  I've driven by many times but never visited or painted there.  It was really wonderful to be there to paint between the rainstorms we've been having.  There is a duck pond which was full of mud hens (coots).  There also were some wigeon ducks and loud Canada geese.

In November we painted at Oak Grove Park in Pasadena.  I've been driving through this park to get to the lower Hahamongna Park but this time we stayed in Oak Grove.  These parks are busy on weekends but I was able to find a great view of the mountains and distant homes.  It would be fun to try these pieces again.  There's always something to fix or try another approach.

5" x 7" Watercolor

5" x 7" Watercolor

Geraniums!

The weather for our paint-out last Saturday turned out to be overcast.  In Southern California we usually have May Gray days and in June, it's June Gloom.  We painted at Alhambra Park where it was sunny on our previous visit, Alhambra Park.  One very bright spot at the park was a beautiful planting of geraniums surrounding the Veterans Memorial...appropriate for this Memorial Day weekend post.

7" x 5" Watercolor

Alhambra Park

I almost forgot about this watercolor I painted at Alhambra Park last fall.  Sometimes a piece gets set aside when I can't decide if it's finished yet.  On my previous visit I painted a smaller piece, Across From The Park.  Alhambra Park is a nice size and includes a pool, lots of grass, covered picnic tables, and even an amphitheater.  So far, I've only painted views at the north end of it.  This time I chose another view which includes the homes on the east side of the park.  The cast shadows from the trees were especially pretty that morning.  

8" x 10" Watercolor

  

Festive piñata waiting for party guests

  

Twohey's

Twohey's, a landmark coffee shop in my neighborhood is closing January 31.  It's been a local favorite for 75 years.  "The Home of Little Stinko" opened in 1943 and featured car hop service.  It was a very special place to go when I was a little kid.  It's been remodeled several times over the years.  No more car service of course.  And now they will be reopening in another location...soon we hope.

Besides the onion rings and hot fudge sundaes, the distinctive neon sign of Little Stinko (with a clothespin on his nose) has contributed to its popularity.  On our recent Saturday paint-out at Twohey's I wanted to include the sign.  I sat by a traffic-signal box across the street where I had a nice view of Twohey's and the mountains.  

I'm surprised to note that this is my 500th blog post!

7" x 5" Watercolor

My painting friend Pete Morris waiting to cross the street.

Across from the Park

We haven't had a paint-out at Alhambra Park for about four years.  My Alhambra Pool watercolor was done there then, four years ago.  The park is very close to where I live in South Pasadena and has some nice features as well as interesting surrounding areas.  Anyone seeing some of my paintings has probably noticed I like to include utility poles.  It turns out that across the street on the east side of the park is the Alhambra section of our main electric power distribution system.  There were some substantial utility poles I hoped to include in my landscape painting.  It turned out to be a smaller, quicker watercolor so, only one pole.  Always a fun morning painting with friends in the park.    

5" x 7" Watercolor

No Chickens...

We painted the chickens at Darryl's house over two years ago and I posted my watercolor in Chickens!  Darryl and his wife generously invited us back to paint in his backyard which is a lovely, calm spot to spend the morning.  The patio area and garden are just beautiful.  Besides the plants, there is a fish pond with trickling water, bird feeders, and Darryl's beautiful daughter and grandson posed by the pond for us.  Unfortunately, there are only two chickens left and they were very shy when we visited.  Some great colors really caught my eye.  There were lots of greens of course, plus a Japanese Red Maple, and the yellow stucco of the house made a great color combination.  I tried a gouache piece this time, and look forward to another paint-out at Darryl's.

7" x 5" Gouache

Chickens!

Our Saturday paint-out yesterday was lots of fun.  One of the artists in our group has mentioned that he and his wife have chickens and we were welcome to paint at his house.  I've really been looking forward to it happening and it finally did!

I've been painting gouache pieces lately because of the colder winter weather.  It was beautiful and sunny so I thought I'd get back to a plein air watercolor piece.  Well, you know chickens don't hold still.  Maybe they pose for a few seconds but that's it.  They are so much fun to watch.  I wish I had some chickens!    

8 x 10" watercolor

Artists' Alley

Our wonderful Saturday plein air paint-out group visited Champion Place last weekend.  In Alhambra, California, just a few miles from where I live, an artist's colony flourished in the 1920's and 1930's.  It was mainly situated along Champion Place, only a block or so long.  It's a narrow, unassuming street, but it's very picturesque, overlooking an arroyo with many large eucalyptus trees.  The founders of the small creative and supportive group attracted a lot of other well-known artists and famous personalities.  In 1915, one of the founders, Victor Clyde Forsythe, became unknown illustrator Norman Rockwell's mentor.  Years later in 1929, Rockwell visited Forsythe at Champion Place and met his second wife there.  The Rockwells visited Alhambra often from New York, sometimes staying the whole summer.  Norman Rockwell was seen bicycling daily around Alhambra, and he sought out local faces for his illustrations.  

It was fun to visit narrow, historic Champion Place and find a view to paint.  While we were painting several homeowners stopped to ask us if we knew it used to be an artists' colony and that Norman Rockwell lived there.  I chose a rustic home with a bit of some commercial buildings showing in the background.  The homeowner arrived halfway through my watercolor, parking directly in front of what I was painting.  He kindly volunteered to move his car.  I'll enjoy giving him a print of my painting.    

  

The Cyclone

I painted this gouache piece in July at the Saturday paint-out location in Alhambra, CA.  It's an old industrial area which is being demolished.  We painted here once before and I posted that painting in Industrial Decay.  We painters in the group seem to love this type of subject.  This device, the Cyclone, collects sawdust from the air at a cabinet factory.  It's an old, out of date one, not current with clean air regulations.  It's rusty and I thought it looked great in the early light.   

As it happened, in the online watercolor workshop given by Vinita Pappas, Create 38, the August Challenge is titled Pretty Ugly.  We are to paint something that at first might appear ugly or unsightly, finding the hidden beauty in it for our painting.  My gouache of the cyclone was perfect for the challenge!  Another plein air piece that would qualify is my The Power Plant watercolor.  I'm attracted to these subjects it seems.

5 x 7"

This is in the same block as the photo above.  Next time!

Of course it can also happen that the painting itself doesn't go as we had hoped and might turn out to be unattractive, maybe "ugly".  I attended a demo yesterday given by Kathleen Conover at the National Watercolor Society headquarters.  Kathleen has a use for unsuccessful paintings.  She paints over them and turns them into her amazing, personal pieces.  When I saw one of her paintings in person I had no idea how she achieved her beautifully textured surfaces.  I signed up for her demo and I'm so happy I did.  Kathleen showed us how she works, painting over other paintings in several steps.  The process Kathleen developed has many possibilities and it was terrific to be able to see how she paints.  My favorite series of hers is titled Industrial Evolution.  In the photo below Kathleen is showing the finished second stage, a painted-over painting with calligraphic marks.  Next she paints her composition over this while letting the background show through in areas.

Alhambra Pool

We had a beautiful morning for our paint-out at Alhambra Park.  It's an old park that I've driven by for many years.  One thing that has always caught my eye is the swimming pool which can be seen while driving past.  The park is hilly and the pool is on top of a hill.  It usually looks lovely and blue, but sometimes it's empty.  I had decided to try painting the pool before I arrived at the park and fortunately it was filled.  It wasn't until after I had finished my painting and walked over to where my friends were still finishing up that I saw a street vendor.  The man was circling the park with his push cart, selling ice creams and paletas.  The paleta man would have been a nice addition to my watercolor.  Next time!

   

8x10" watercolor

Industrial Decay

I know, it doesn't sound like a fabulous title for an art blog.  But one of the things I love about the Saturday paint-out group is the variety of painting locations and a recent one was definitely "industrial decay".  The group's organizer is a wonderful like-minded artist, Barbara Field.  Since I found out about the group last year we've been to quite a few unusual, maybe even offbeat places to paint.  A terrific thing!   

A few weeks ago we had Industrial Decay in Alhambra as the location.  This was something I thought would be interesting to paint.  Behind a very busy street lined with chain stores, is an old area of huge warehouses and structures used for metal working and fabricating.  The buildings and hangars are deserted now and beautifully rusty.  I had been taking photos through the chain link fences of the old, crumbling structures.  But the day we met to paint, there was a DEMO notice on the fence.  The fence had a new liner so it was hard to see the buildings and the demolition had already started.  We heard a new mall is going in the space.  We'll see.  

At one end of the block Alhambra Foundry is still in business and I found a view to paint there.  They've been fabricating steel and making manhole covers since 1923.  Another exciting location!

8x10" watercolor