We've been having a heat wave in Southern California. But we feel lucky since the first part of the summer had below average temperatures. When a recent paint-out was to be at the Meso-American Plaza at the Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills location, we were hoping for some shade. It turned out that the small plaza, or garden, had perfect trees to paint under.
The small hill top area features sculptures by an artist from Guadalajara, Mexico. He worked Mexican stone into exactly scaled, and detailed, replicas of artifacts from ancient Mexican civilizations. The stone sculptures are set off among some mature cacti and succulents, and lovely palo verde trees.
The day was going to be hot but it wasn't too bad yet in the morning. And it was so much fun to chat with the group of about a dozen painters. Just the right amount of shade for us. I did a pretty quick gouache piece of the Jaguar hiding in the cacti. I put off trying to paint the stone jaguar until the last, not sure how to do it. But I like the way gouache is a little easier to work with, painting in the reverse way I would with transparent watercolor. I did the Jaguar's dark values first and a lighter, drier layer on top. Fun to try!
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| 5 x 7" Gouache |
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| Teotihuacan bas relief |
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| Olmecan head.......Chuck Kovacic |
Nice Sherry as your paintings of your local area always are. I think the weather is a bit confused because we have just come out of winter into Spring and we have had some quite hot days and then back to winter!
ReplyDeleteThank you Lorraine! Weather behaving strangely...
DeleteSeems like a difficult subject to tackle, Sherry - you made it look easy. Gouache is so much for forgiving, it appears to me, and gives you more freedom. I don't know how easy this would have been with regular watercolor. Beautifully rendered!
ReplyDeleteThanks Terry! Absolutely, I think this was easier in gouache. It would have been negative painting the darks around the jaguar with transparent watercolor.
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