Postcards!

Many artists have used this pandemic period to paint and send postcards to friends and relatives.  Since plein air painting with friends hasn't really started again, I've now painted and sent six postcards.  I posted two in Safer At Home Art.  One of my more recent postcards, using watercolor and pens,  was of a friend's mountain cabin.  And since Halloween is coming, I painted and mailed two Halloween 4"x6" postcards to my grandkids.  Always a fun, annual, thing for me!

4" x 6" Watercolor and pen postcard

4" x 6" Watercolor and pen postcards

Scarecrow!

I was happy to see a scarecrow in the orchard when we painted at the Waldo Ward Ranch in Sierra Madre.  And some pumpkins as well.  There is also a persimmon tree which had some pretty fall colored leaves.  At least I think it's a persimmon tree but I haven't seen its fruit.  It was fun to find a painting subject that felt like the end of October fall season.

5" x 7" Gouache

Lots of old rusty farm equipment at the ranch.

Halloween 2016!

Our spooky paint-out for this Halloween was a few days ago.  Last October we met at Mountain View Cemetery for James Gurney's October Graveyard Challenge, October Challenge.  Alegria Street in Sierra Madre has many neighborhood homes decorating for the holiday.  Some homeowners work for days on their decorations.  One owner even grows his own giant pumpkins to carve for his extravagant front yard display.  Most of our group chose to paint views of his decorations in progress for the 31st.  I tried a view in gouache.  A sweet, resident Halloween-colored calico cat was interested in our group for some petting.

7" x 5" Gouache

Homeowner with his pumpkin harvest to carve.

Reesie the kitty (for Reeses)

Thanksgiving 2015!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and a huge Thank You for visiting my blog and commenting.  I really appreciate it!  

I'm sharing a few of my vintage Thanksgiving themed place cards.  There are several older and newer Hallmark pieces as well as a few other makers.  It must have been fun to host a Thanksgiving dinner or holiday bridge party and have special place cards for each guest.  I wonder if anyone has time to do that in 2015!  

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

        

October Challenge!

I was happy that James Gurney offered another challenge this month, tying in with the autumn and Halloween season.  He started it off on his blog Gurney Journey October Graveyard Challenge.  We were to post our entries on the Facebook Event Page.  I participated in the previous challenge, painting an Outdoor Market on Location and posted about that piece in Painting Challenge.  It's part of the challenge to paint at the location using only three colors plus white.  

Barbara our Saturday paint-out group leader wanted to participate in the challenge so she had Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena on the schedule.  It opened in 1882 and we had a beautiful morning to paint there, interesting cemetery views, sun glancing through the beautiful trees.  Since I used gouache for the previous challenge, I wanted to try the limited palette three colors with watercolor this time.  I also had in mind to include some fall foliage.  And I noticed some palm trees which I thought would be a good Southern California element.  I chose Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Cadmium Yellow Pale for my three colors.  I used some egg tempera white with some of my mixes.  It's been really fun to see the entries from all over the world on the Facebook page.  The stories are great reading too.

          

8" x 10" Watercolor

We were to include a photo of painting on-site 

A photo of "trick perspective" that I didn't notice when I shot it.
There is a TINY Barbara on top of the center marker.

        

Giant Pumpkin

We were back in the city of Sierra Madre on the day before Halloween.  Our location for the paint-out was Alegria Street where there were many homes with decorations.  The most elaborately done house ended up being on TV that night.  While we were there a news crew arrived to film and interview the home owners.  They also interviewed some of the painters in our group but they didn't make the news.

I chose another, less colorful yard to try in gouache.  I loved all of the trees almost hiding the house at the back of the lot, and the chain-link fence in front.  There was also a giant pumpkin awaiting a face.  As it turned out, I left out most of the trees and the chain-link fence.  Maybe another time!  

Just a quick report on my substitute teaching gig at an adult education watercolor class.  It was a lot of fun of course, mostly because the people were so nice.  I took in paintings to show them as well as a still life set-up.  I thought we could all paint the still life and I could help with a tip or two.  Instead, they wanted to watch me paint the still life...my first "demo".  So I jumped in and started painting.  Luckily I've been painting regularly and it went OK!   

5 x 7" Gouache

6 x 8" Watercolor

The Haunted Yard!

We had such a fun and unusual paint-out today!  Something different...Halloween is coming soon.  We met in an Altadena neighborhood noted for its Halloween decorations where one house was the main attraction.  It was a bit of a puzzle for me, trying to chose what to paint.  I finally settled on a spot in the shade where I could see some interesting backlit zombies hanging from the beautiful sycamore trees behind a hand-painted metal fence.  The Haunted Yard opens for a few hours on October 31 and is free for brave visitors.  The highlight of our morning was a tour behind the fence given by the owner!  Wow.  He loves Halloween and since September he has spent a lot of time and money working on his annual showpiece.  It's so impressive that the thousands of people who come result in the street being closed on Halloween.  I think for me to see it during the daytime was scary enough.  This Haunting experience goes way beyond Jack-O-Lanterns! 

5 x7" Gouache

Just one view from inside the fence...