Ward Ranch in January

My first try at a plein air gouache piece was in December 2012, blog post Ward Ranch, a very dreary and rainy day.  We're having summer-like weather in January so I was looking forward to another paint-out at the E. Waldo Ward Ranch in Sierra Madre.  This time I painted a transparent watercolor piece.  

The morning was gorgeous and this small 1891 ranch and orchard is so charming.  It's also a canning operation.  The gift shop sells wonderful jams, jellies, and other goodies.  There are the fruit trees, an old barn, lots of rusty old equipment, and a beautiful yellow house.  I settled on a view from under a tree of some of the fruit trees, a stone building, and a birdhouse which is a small version of the old barn.  It's great to have permission to paint at the ranch and see such a large turn-out of painters.    

8 x 10" watercolor

Brenda Swenson leading the crit after painting.

Saturday in the Park

It was a busy Saturday!  I didn't want to miss the Saturday paint-out group's morning at Arlington Garden in Pasadena.  Some varieties of the spring flowers there are fading already.  Also taking place on Saturday was the ninth annual "Saturday in the Park with the Masters" event.  The Mid-Valley Arts League puts on this lovely event with a dozen invited oil and watercolor master painters.  It takes place in a gorgeous setting in Pasadena.  Anyone can paint there if they want to, or they can walk around and watch some favorite artists paint in plein air.    

I decided to do a small (5x7") gouache at Arlington Garden to try to capture the feeling of the red and orange poppies blooming.  Then I'd go to the Masters event which was close-by.  The umbrella in the view I chose at the garden was actually white with blue stripes, but I had to change it to red.  I thought of adding a figure in the distance but the piece is small with enough going on.  Next time I'll plan better.  I've painted there a few times before, noted in this post Saturday Paint-Out.  

The Masters event was a lot of fun.  The grounds are beautiful with grand old structures, streams, waterfalls, and koi ponds.  Nothing better than being able to watch artists I admire do a painting to see their choices first-hand.  Looking forward to next year!         

5 x 7" gouache

Pete Morris in the foreground.

Brenda Swenson and Chuck Kovacic painting one of the models.

Tom Fong at a koi pond.

Frank Eber and Jose De Juan.

My 100th Post!

It really is my 100th blog post!  It's quite a surprise to me that I started this blog last July.  Must say I'm having fun posting watercolors and photos of my views while out plein air painting.   

My new-to-me journey in non-commercial watercolor artwork for the most part started in 2011 with Vinita Pappas's first online instructional website.  I initially "met" Vinita on eBay where she was posting ACEO/ATC size (2.5"x 3.5") watercolors!  Vinita's first demos that I tried kind of gave me the confidence to sign up for some local workshops.  I had so much fun taking workshops from some wonderful artists.  It was in a workshop in 2012 given by Brenda Swenson on Negative Painting (which I blogged about in "Leaves and Berries") where she mentioned a local plein air painting group.  Wow, the group has been just what I was wishing to find for years.  Since then I've found two more plein air groups that I enjoy so much.

Vinita has a new version of her inspiring and instructional website, Create 38, which I love.  Below I'm posting my versions of her February demos which were about painting water and boats.  Both paintings were from a classmate's photos.  One is of Greek fishermen and the other is a cold looking harbor in the Netherlands.  I had fun trying these and I certainly need practice with boats and water.  I'm also posting the very first piece I painted from one of Vinita's first demos, a barn, and I learned so much. 

      

No cake, balloons, or prizes but a big Thank You to all who have subscribed, visited, and commented.  I really appreciate your time, interest, and feedback.  

8x10" watercolor

8x10" watercolor

Descanso Gardens

While noticing I had a few paintings for my last post, "Chinese Themes", I also noticed a few with Japanese themes.  Two of these are subjects from Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, CA.  It's a gorgeous public garden, or rather a collection of gardens.  There is a Camellia Collection, Japanese Garden and tea house, Rose Garden, as well as woodlands, fountains and ponds.  Lots of squirrels, ducks, turtles, frogs, and I saw a family of Canada Geese on my last visit...photo below.

The first small painting of a Japanese stone lantern was done for the online watercolor class instructed by Vinita Pappas in 2011.  The lesson was about mixing neutral colors and I thought the gray stone would be good to try.  I always take a photo of this lantern sitting in the dappled shade in a big patch of mondo grass.

This piece was also painted  for Vinita's online class.  She put together a video for Earth Day of paintings that we submitted.  I painted my piece from a photo I took while walking through the shaded woodland area.  I always like greens and purples together it seems.
The video is available to see on YouTube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=357jY5vt1z0

The next painting was done when the plein air group went to Descanso in May.  This is the tea house.  There is a relaxing koi pond surrounded by Japanese maples and huge oaks.  It was very peaceful painting on a Thursday morning until bus-loads of pre-schoolers arrived.  I had fun answering their questions which were pretty cute.

I always like to take a photo of our big friendly plein air group.  This view shows most of the painters that day.  Brenda Swenson is talking about the watercolors.

It's the Canada Goose family crossing a bridge over one of the steams!  I heard about them from people all morning and was so happy to see them coming my way.  Painters, tourists, birders, and pre-schoolers didn't seem to bother them at all.

Plein Air

I've been loving my recent plein air paint-outs so much that I started thinking about it a little.  My first experience with painting on location was way back in art school...a lot of years ago.  I had a watercolor landscape painting class on Fridays.  We met at various locations around the Los Angeles area from the mountains, to downtown, to the ocean.  I enjoyed painting outdoors a lot.  Over the years I tried to find out about local paint-outs but was unsuccessful until I took a workshop from Brenda Swenson.  She mentioned the group that I'm now joining on Thursdays.  What a revelation it was to me!  I was so excited to go painting with the group.  It turns out they've been meeting since 1991.  I'm a little late but enthusiastic! 

In March I met the group for my first plein air painting experience since the art school class many years ago.  The location was a private home overlooking the arroyo in Pasadena.  Oh My.  It was a beautiful day and view.  "The View" is of two well-known Pasadena landmarks, the Colorado Street Bridge and the Vista Del Arroyo Hotel, photo below.  Being my first paint-out experience in a long time I was overwhelmed with the view and didn't know how I would paint it.  So, I chose a view of of the neighbor's house which had some gorgeous shadows and trees.  Here is my painting, my view, The View, and some of the group I was so excited to finally find out about.

Below is the view I'll try next time!

This group gets many artists attending, painting in both watercolor and oil.

Just a few of the pieces from the day.

Leaves and Berries

How about a change from greens!  Last fall when the online class I was taking ended and I was ready to learn from some other watercolor instructors, an annual art trade show came around.  It's a "Learning and Product Expo" that is held at a convention center only a few miles away from home.  The Expo has been going on for over 20 years and I never checked it out.  But in 2011 I noticed some artists whose work I was getting to know on Facebook were teaching workshops at the Expo.  I signed up.  One class I was interested in was Negative Painting with Brenda Swenson.  Brenda is the expert at negative painting and does such gorgeous watercolors using the technique.  I had to find out how to go about it.  Unfortunately, most Expo classes are only 3 hours long which isn't really enough time.  So, with Brenda's workshop we only got into doing black and white versions.  She had many of her beautiful and colorful pieces posted on the walls for us to see.  With the start I got in the 3 hours I had to try a piece in color on my own.  I chose a photo for reference of leaves and berries from the Paint My Photo website.  Of course this negative painting technique is useful in other types of pieces - landscapes and still lifes.