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"

    

 

Yellow!

 One of the painting challenges for our Saturday Painting group was "Yellow".   Since yellow is an energetic warm color, it's thought that it might help the viewer feel more optimistic and cheerful.  Sunshine and sunflowers.  Yellow definitely has an impact in paintings but it's usually used sparingly.  It was fun to do a painting with emphasis on one color...yellow!  I had recently taken a photo of some yellow flowers contrasting with big blue water valves.  Perfect!

5" x 7" Watercolor

Water Tower 2

It's been two months since my last blog post.  I've been painting as usual, so I guess it's time to post some of the paintings.

The Saturday paint-out group recently visited one of my favorite places to paint, Pasadena Water and Power.  I decided to try the view I painted on my previous visit, Water Tower, but this time using gouache.  My small area of shade seemed to diminish even faster than it did last time so I painted quickly.  There are so many interesting views, and it's a nice, quiet place to paint.

Gouache 5" x 7"

Looking through the fence

Water Tower

The Saturday paint-out group was back at the Pasadena Power Plant recently, a favorite location for me.  On my previous visit I painted State Street, a watercolor.  I didn't know what would appeal to try for a painting this time.  But a couple fellow painters were sitting in a tiny triangle of shade from a wall on the north side of State Street.  I like to paint with other painters and there was just enough room in the shade for me and my materials.   My view across the street was of the hillside we usually paint from so it was neat to try a new vantage point.  And the white water tower is such a wonderful feature.   Of course I originally made the sky behind the white tower too light.  Another, darker, blue wash really helped, and I always love utility poles.  Our bit of shade vanished pretty quickly so this piece went quickly as well.

8" x 10" Watercolor

Our bit of shade kept shrinking.

 

State Street

I'm always excited to see what I can find to paint when we meet at the Pasadena Water & Power plant. The entrance is on State Street behind the main structures.  State is sort of a dead end street so there isn't much traffic, and there's a wild hillside for artists to paint from.  On our last visit I painted a gouache piece while I sat at the base of the hill, West On State.  I wanted to try the same view in watercolor.  This time I added the utility poles I left out on the gouache painting.  The plant is still undergoing construction to update.  I hope some of the characteristic buildings will remain.  It's been a prominent feature in Pasadena for so long.  I'm looking forward to painting more views. 

8" x 10" Watercolor

East on State Street

The view from farther up on the hillside.

Virtual Paintout - Scotland!

The Virtual Paintout location for January 2016 was Scotland.  Bill Guffey chooses the monthly location for artists to virtually find their view to paint using Google Street View.  I really enjoy looking around cities and countries that I'll never be able to visit in person.  The areas I saw of Scotland looked beautiful.  What a charming place to visit.  It was definitely quite a change from the past several month's paint-outs in Ecuador, Istanbul, and the Philippines.  Amazing!  I like to use the virtual paint-outs as practice for the local ones I go on.  Brush miles are always a good thing.

5" x 7" watercolor

5" x 7" watercolor

  

West on State

I can't believe it's been over a year since we met to paint at the Pasadena power plant.  On that paint-out I tried a gouache piece, Power Plant Gouache.  This plant has been sort of a landmark for years to anyone getting on or off the end of the Pasadena freeway.  The plant has been undergoing a big update and it seems that more of the old structures disappear weekly.  

For some reason I really like these industrial subjects and hoped we would be back to paint there even with all the construction going on.  The main entrance is at the "back" of the plant on State Street that doesn't have any homes or businesses.  There is a wild hillside opposite the plant which is a nice place from which to paint.  Looking west, I really liked the view of an old brick building, some power poles and lines (which I left out), and the two main towers.  I probably should have painted the older plant structures that may have been demolished already and I should return to try a watercolor piece. 

5" x 7" Gouache

I painted by this tree...Laurel and Darryl below

      

Virtual Paintout - Greenland!

I love participating in the Virtual Paintout each month.  Bill Guffey hosts and chooses the monthly location based on cities the Google Street View vehicles have covered.  Bill posts the submissions on his blog and on Facebook.  For March 2015 we traveled to Greenland for our paint-out views.  Another place I will never see in person!  The world's largest island, Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark.  Under 60 thousand people live there.  As much as I had time to look around, I didn't see any trees or animals.  According to Wikipedia the most significant inhabitant is the group of microbes that colonize cryoconite (windblown dust) that contributes to rapid glacial melting.  Hmmm.  Of course there were some beautiful views of the ocean, islands, and several harbors.  I had no trouble finding two subjects to paint.  

5 x 7" Watercolor

5 x 7" Gouache

Ready Mix

Last week a paint-out group met at Pasadena Lumber, owned by one of the painters.  I was really looking forward to this different painting location.  The lumber and milling business has been there since 1903 and there were some neat old buildings on the property.  I spotted Robertson's Ready Mix next door and couldn't resist trying my version through the fence.  I love industrial subjects for some reason so I was happy for this opportunity.  The red cement trucks kept arriving to fill up and one was fun to add.  The group is looking forward to next time, and I'm glad to know about the services offered at Pasadena Lumber.

8 x 10" Watercolor

Shot through the fence

Hillside View

I recently ran across a watercolor I painted about a year ago that I hadn't quite finished.  One thing that sometimes happens with plein air painting is that I can't finish my painting completely.  So, in August 2013 the Saturday paint-out group went to Elysian Park.  It's a central Los Angeles park where Dodger Stadium is located.  We weren't near there at all, but were on a hillside on the east side which has some great LA views.  The morning we painted, there was a nice haze blurring the mountains.  I liked all the industrial buildings and city yards as I looked across the LA River over the Gold Line rail yard.  The pretty North Broadway bridge is in the vista a little to the south but I didn't find any shade to paint that view.  When I recently ran across this piece I saw I hadn't added the yellow/orange trucks yet.  Finally finished!  I just returned from a workshop with the wonderful David Taylor (which I'll post about next) and wonder how I would paint this now after my two workshops this summer.  It does take awhile for new information to make it to the paper...

8 x 10" watercolor

  

Power Plant Gouache

As I mentioned in my last posting of my Pasadena Water and Power watercolor, Return to the Power Plant, I started a smaller gouache piece that day.  Everyone was leaving and I didn't want to stay and paint by myself there so I didn't finish my painting.  Luckily the power plant was soon on the Saturday paint-out schedule again and I was looking forward to finishing my gouache.  I ended up pretty much almost starting over but that's okay and really doable with gouache.  I'm already looking forward to next time and don't know if I'll try transparent watercolor or the opaque gouache.  Oh!, this is my 200th post! 

5 x 7" Gouache

Return to the Power Plant!

It's been a month or so since we were at the Pasadena Water and Power plant.  I started a gouache piece that day that I haven't finished.  But the Saturday group is returning this week so I'll post my watercolor from our recent paint-out there, and I'm looking forward to finishing the gouache.  

This was my second time painting from the cul-de-sac, and I posted that first watercolor in The Power Plant.  I really like this type of industrial subject to paint.  I was apprehensive on my first visit about painting the complicated looking structures but thought I'd better give it a try this time.  I've been including figures in my pieces where I can but a figure in this watercolor didn't seem to fit.  There were no pedestrians around.  A project is underway for which the plant will be remodeled, reconfigured, and updated.  Plus, it also appears that they want to close the cul-de-sac which is so convenient for plein-air painters.  I'm looking forward to our paint-out this weekend!

8 x 10" Watercolor

      

Virtual Paintout Iceland!

It was Iceland for the November 2013 Virtual Paintout.  I really enjoy participating in the Virtual Paintout each month.  I'm sure I'll never get to see Iceland in person, so I can at least see some of it with Google Street View which artists use to find their virtual location to paint.  Last month in Lima, Peru, I enjoyed painting some grand official-looking buildings and looked for a "capitol" area in Reykjavik but didn't find it.  I'm sure with devoting more time to browsing I would find what I was looking for.  One waterfront tourist area with whale watching tours caught my eye and I kept going back, even though on the day the Google car was there it was very overcast.  I tried that view in gouache.  I finally found some sun in another area for my second painting.  One thing I've noticed from browsing around cities for the Virtual Paintout challenge is the graffiti.  It's pervasive, spread throughout the world, even Iceland, which surprises me.  Looking forward to the location for December!

5 x 7" watercolor

5" x 7" gouache

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.