The Soaring Teapot!

It's a new landmark in Temple City...the Soaring Teapot!  A very creative sculptural fountain where a huge soaring teapot pours water into a cup below.  We met there today to paint the giant teapot.  It's also the first day of the Lunar Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dog.  While driving to the paint-out I spotted a New Year float, featuring a big dog, heading to L.A. Chinatown for the afternoon parade.  The teapot is located in an outdoor shopping mall which was decorated with many red lanterns.  I wanted to include them in my gouache piece.  We had to paint quickly as the shade we had was shrinking fast.  A fun morning of painting with friends as always.  

7" x 5" Gouache

Colorful Chinatown

The month of June in Southern California usually has overcast mornings, known as "June Gloom".  Because of this I thought I might start June with a bright, colorful painting!  A recent Saturday paint-out was at Chinatown.  I've painted there quite a few times now and posted my previous watercolor in Busy Chinatown.  I always enjoy my visits there and have many childhood memories of how it "used to be".  There have been many changes over the years of course, but Chinatown still retains its special character and ambiance.  I just love the dragon roofs and especially the distinctive pink building.  It's next to a lovely meditation pond with a bright aqua tiled bottom, surrounded by wonderful bright red railings.  There also were some shiny gold lanterns decorating a balcony above.  I gave this scene a try in gouache, and some sun peeked out about noon.        

7" x 5" Gouache

Virtual Paintout - Philadelphia!

I love participating in the Virtual Paintout each month.  For January 2015, the location was Philadelphia, PA, chosen by Bill Guffey, creator and leader of the Virtual Paintout.  It seems there is never enough time to virtually look around the chosen city or country.  The Philadelphia area had many cites and different types of scenery.  Lots of good subjects.  I found an industrial location with tanks and stacks that I like to paint but I kept looking for something more descriptive of the city.  I happened upon Philadelphia's Chinatown which had a beautiful, ornate gateway.  It reminded me of the one I painted for the Virtual Paintout in Washington D.C. of the Chinatown gateway there.  I like to try two pieces, one watercolor and one gouache.  Looking forward to next month as always.

7" x 5" Gouache

7" x 5" Watercolor

Busy Chinatown

A week ago I was able to paint in Chinatown again.  It's been over a year since I painted there and posted that watercolor in Chinatown!.  Such a fun place to visit and an exciting paint-out location.  Unfortunately there usually seem to be changes that aren't always for the best.  I was shocked to see a favorite and colorful shop was closed for good.  

I used "Busy" in the title of this post because of its multiple meanings.  Not only is our downtown Chinatown busy with people - regulars, painters, and tourists - but it also showcases some very busy architecture.  In the 1930s the central plaza was developed to look like Shanghai by Hollywood film set designers.  They did a great Hollywoodized version, complete with dragon roofs and lots of neon.  For me, it's always been a special place to visit.  I had an enjoyable morning painting this watercolor.  Love the ornate pink building with a yellow tile roof.  And I had many observers stopping by to ask what I was doing.   

8 x 10" Watercolor

Virtual Paintout - Kinmen Island!

Just when I thought I had run out of time to check out the August 2014 Virtual Paintout, I saw the location was Kinmen Island.  Kinmen is an outlying island of Taiwan, but is actually very close to mainland China.  I was curious to look around there.  It turned out to be easy to find areas of ancient, traditional Chinese houses with swallowtail roofs which looked to be terra cotta.  These compounds were like a maze to look around using Google Street View.  Very easy to get lost!  Beautiful and so interesting.  Around every corner, there seemed to be construction going on, making repairs to crumbling structures.  The many motor scooters caught my eye so I included them in my paintings.  

5 x 7" Watercolor

5 x 7" Gouache

   

Virtual Paintout Washington D.C.!

February 2014 was the 5th anniversary of the Virtual Paintout, created and hosted by Bill Guffey.  This was the 19th Virtual Paintout I've participated in.  The location was Washington D.C. and it was such a fun place to look around using Google Street View.  As always, it's hard to stop browsing and decide on a couple views to paint.  Washington D.C. has so many varied areas from government buildings to charming old neighborhoods.  A hard decision!  And there was also a gorgeous Chinatown gateway I had to try when I saw it.  In my other piece I included a bicycle leaning against a sign post...my first bike. 

5 x 7" Gouache

5 x 7" Watercolor

There is more to my Washington D.C. Virtual Paintout post.  I subscribe to the SHORPY blog, the 100-Year-Old Photo Blog.  Today's (April 8, 2014) email photo from the Historical Photo Archive is of this same building and alley, photographed in 1952, that I chose above from Google Street View in Februrary!  This is the strangest coincidence!
    

Hibbs Building 15th St. & Pennsylvania Avenue

Google Street View I used for my painting.

Chinatown!

Our Saturday plein air group returned to paint at L.A.'s Chinatown recently.  This is my previous post on Chinatown LA!  There is a smaller plaza across Hill Street where we met this time.  The buildings aren't as ornate but it still has a neat Chinatown feel.  Chung King Road is the main pedestrian street featuring specialty shops, art importers, and art galleries.  Art galleries moved in when storefronts were sitting unused several years ago.  It was very quiet on Saturday morning with only a small grocery store open. 

One of our painters, Pete Morris, suggested this area of Chinatown since he had spotted a narrow alley with stairs on both sides which he wanted to paint.  We all thought the alley was terrific and would be fun to try.  But there was no shade at the south end where Pete was painting.  He had a spot in a parking lot on blacktop which was already heating up.  I had to find another view to paint.  Looking down the alley from the north end, which had shade, was interesting but it was pretty smelly in the morning.  We saw several alley cats too.  I finally chose a view looking north along Chung King Road with the festive red lanterns I love to add.  The shops were just starting to open when we finished painting about noon.  I'm looking forward to our next paint-out there!

There is Pete painting at the other end!

Chinatown LA!

I've visited Chinatown in downtown Los Angeles for as long as I can remember.  It's a memorable place when you're a child.  There was even an organ grinder with a monkey that collected money, and there still is a big wishing well.  The current location was built in the 1930s and Hollywood film set designers had a hand in the design.  It was seen as a tourist attraction, a Hollywood version of Shanghai.  The buildings have been kept up with their neon edged dragon roofs, and it's very festive year round with many red lanterns.  Of course Chinese New Year is a big event there.  

I've taken photos many times over the years in Chinatown and when I started plein air painting I hoped to paint there with a group.  It turned out that last month two paint-out groups had Chinatown as our location.  I was so happy to finally have the opportunity.

Since it's pretty hectic at Chinatown, or at least there is so much to see, that I thought I would just do a small gouache both days instead of trying a watercolor too.  It turned out that on the Thursday we painted there, they were pressure washing the streets and sidewalks.  The Chinatown streets have been closed to cars for years but there was a power washing crew and truck parked in front of the colorful buildings.  Oh well, inconveniences are part of plein air painting.  We worked around the crew, but our painting time was even shorter.  The noise was awful so it was such a relief when they finished.  Some of the group had a Chinese lunch after painting.  Maybe next time!

The pink building was Hong Kong restaurant. 

Zinnia!

There is a favorite local craft store and gallery named Zinnia, "A space for contagious creativity".   http://www.zinnia.biz,  http://zinnia4crafts.blogspot.com
It's by far the most fun store to visit and shop at in South Pasadena.  Its owner is wonderful and creative, and she has artistic, amazing employees who contribute so much.  I've taken a couple of inspiring, crafty, classes there.  They also have a store cat named Alley!  I had been planning to do a blog post about this terrific store.  I mentioned it in my post "The 350 Project".  Today I received an email from Zinnia announcing that they are moving to a different location which isn't such happy news to me.  I hope their new location will not be too far away.  Well, what an opportune day to finally get to that blog post!

Zinnia is a special store because they also have a small gallery space where they've hosted some really wonderful and popular shows.  I've participated in each one since I wanted to support them all I could.  I'll post the pieces I've painted for their shows here.  All are ACEOs or ATCs which are always 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" and can be in any medium.  These shows were when I was illustrating commercial greeting cards so I tried to have fun with my pieces for Zinnia.

The first show was in 2008, The Bee Cause: a Group Show Dedicated to the Honey Bee.  It was a benefit to bring attention to the honey bee crisis and Colony Collapse Disorder.  I donated my piece and it sold so I was happy!

 Their next show, in 2009, was the Tattered and Tangled Garden Party.  The opening was in conjunction with South Pasadena's Art Walk.  So much fun to stop by.

Zinnia's 2010 show was The Kitchen Show, anything kitchen inspired, whatever that meant to us artists.  There were fun pieces made from kitchen utensils, cups and plates, and artwork featuring food.

The Cirque de Bizarre show in 2010 was Zinnia's most ambitious show, meant to coincide with Halloween.  The opening was on Art Walk night again and what a great turnout they had - artists, art lovers and friends.  I'm going to miss Zinnia and hope they will relocate soon!

Chinese Themes

I noticed a Flickr member clicked to "favorite" a couple of  my watercolors.  They were both sort of Chinese themed paintings.  I must say these are a favorite of mine to paint.  There are many exotic and beautiful subjects of course.  I'll share three paintings here.

The first is of some bamboo in an old green glazed Chinese pottery ginger jar.  This was a still life I put together for the second lesson in an online watercolor class which Vinita Pappas taught in 2011.  I really enjoyed painting this piece.  The brush manipulation for the bamboo was fun to try.    

 This piece was painted for Vinita's 7 Days in May project for the class.  I chose a Chinese teacup and a Japanese teacup for my still life.  Another fun painting.  It's small, 6" x 8".

This last watercolor was painted for a monthly challenge in a Facebook group.  The challenge was to use neutral colors with some reds.  I chose a photo from the Paint My Photo website of an ancient "water village" near Shanghai, China.  I would love to see one of these villages in person.