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

  

A Still Life

It's another busy month and I'm supposed to be working on our state sales tax return.  But I also need to do a blog post, which I'd much rather do.  

It seems as if I've been painting more gouache pieces lately.  I've had some short painting times at our plein air locations for one reason or another and gouache seems quicker to me.  And also, since taking the workshop given by Joseph Zbukvic my watercolor painting seems a bit confusing.  I'm still processing what I learned and trying to integrate it into my own way of painting.  As one friend said, maybe it's a little of right brain vs. left brain.  I think that sums it up perfectly.  

I've been inspired lately to try some still lifes.  I painted this gouache piece before the workshop, having in mind to add it to the show our paint-out group is having this month.  When I saw these onions at the local farmer's market with their long, dried stems I had to paint them.  More still lifes to come!

5 x 7"  Gouache

Paint-out at the Museum

The Saturday group of plein air painters recently met at the Autry Museum in Los Angeles.  The museum is located in Griffith Park, next to a golf course and across from the zoo.  A busy place on Saturday morning.  At the museum it was the opening day of a new art show, Masters of the American West.  An adult fitness "boot camp" had their activities set up on the big lawn.  There is also a farmer's market on Saturday mornings.  I wanted to check out the farmer's market since I hadn't seen it.  

The market had a nice selection of produce and also some live music.  One seller's veggies, in my photo below, were really beautiful.  I don't think of painting carrots and radishes too often but I'd like to try it sometime.  There were also quite a few sellers of pre-made foods, and also many foods to buy there to eat at nearby tables.  Since the museum building didn't appeal to me for a watercolor, I decided to try painting a bit of the farmer's market.  I sat on an out-of-the-way curb to paint some colorful umbrellas and the pretty aguas frescas containers, a popular street food combination of fruit blended with water and sugar.  Our group had some crepes for lunch after painting and I bought some hot sauce.  A nice way to spend the morning!        

8x10" watercolor

Farmer's Markets

Do you love farmer's markets?  I do, and we just returned from the Thursday South Pasadena market.  I get overwhelmed with all the wonderful produce choices.  I also love to take photos of all the colorful activity and unusual views.  I've painted two watercolors of farmer's markets that I'll share today.  I'm also posting a few favorite market photos that might inspire future paintings.

This piece was painted in the first watercolor workshop I took.  It was October 2011 and fabulous watercolor artist Andy Evansen was the instructor.  I would love to take another class from Andy now that I've had more practice.  This is the South Pasadena farmer's market.  Following the painting is a snapshot I took today at the same market.

I painted this watercolor in April for a challenge in a Facebook group I'm in.  The challenge theme was "edible".  My photo reference for this was taken at the Santa Barbara market in 1997.  So I never know when the opportunity to use a photo might come up!  This painting was certainly a challenge with the veggies, people, and perspective.  Below it is a photo from the same market that I took a few weeks ago.  I wish I could go to that spectacular market every week but it's 100 miles away.  Lastly is a photo from the Alhambra farmer's market that I AM able to go to every week!