Virtual Paintout - South Korea!

For May 2017 the Virtual Paintout was in South Korea.  It seems I never have enough time to thoroughly, virtually, look around the month's location.  I really enjoyed seeing what I could of South Korea.  The country looked like somewhere I would love to visit in person someday.  Thanks to the Virtual Paintout I was compelled to see a tidbit of such an interesting place.

5" x 7" Watercolor

5" x 7" Watercolor

Ice Cream!

We had another beautiful morning to paint at Echo Park.  With its lake, view of downtown, wildlife, and vintage boathouse/cafe, the park is one of the nicest in the Los Angeles area.  On our previous visit I painted Echo Park Neighborhood.  It seems I usually only have time to paint a small piece since I always spend too much time walking around the lake considering various views.  There were a few families of Canada geese with chicks...so sweet.  For my painting I settled on the busy man with the pushcart selling paletas and helados/ice cream.  It's always a fun day and I'm sure we'll return for lotus season.

5" x 7" Gouache

 

Filming~

One of the plein air groups recently returned to the landmark 1925 Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena.  On my previous visit in 2015 I tried a small gouache piece, The Rialto Revisited.  When we were there that day, renovations looked like they had started on the deteriorating theater.  From the outside, I haven't seen any further work being done, but read that a church has signed a lease to operate the venue so we'll see what's coming.

We were all surprised on our recent paint-out day to see a film crew setting up in the morning.  They had trucks and equipment on both sides of the theater so I went looking around the area for another subject to paint.  South Pasadena has some great looking alleys and there was a nice one just across the street.  There was sunlight on the garage roofs, utility poles, and another painter also set up there so I could include her in my watercolor.   I've learned to be flexible in changing what I had in mind as I leave home for plein air painting!

8" x 10" Watercolor

Provence?

One of the plein air painting groups returned to the Mater Dolorosa Monastery in Sierra Madre last month for the paint-out.  It was summer when we were there last and I painted this gouache piece, Local Monastery

The hillside monastery is on many acres but on this visit we all painted views nearby the parking lot, having a short time to paint.  Several of us noticed a lovely valley view to the south, the tile-roofed building, and bright flowers.  My fellow painters chose to leave out the utility poles and agreed the scene looked similar to what we might see in Provence.  Of course I like including power poles and lines so I guess my painting looks more like Sierra Madre!

5" x 7" Gouache 

The view west from my painting spot

   

The olive grove

Eclectic Music Festival!

The South Pasadena Eclectic Music Festival for 2017 was this past weekend.  I was honored to be invited by the Laurie Hendricks Gallery to be a part of "Paint the Music" at the gallery.  Artists were to bring a previously painted piece to hang in the gallery before the event last Saturday.  Then on the day of the event we painted our choice of the music venues or musicians.  Our hours to paint were before the music festival started.  Our finished pieces had to be framed and delivered to the gallery in a few hours.

The watercolor I took in to the gallery before the event was of a clarinet player that I painted a few years ago.  On the day of the festival, unfortunately our weather forecast was for some showers.  As predicted it was overcast, windy, with a few drizzles.  Wanting to paint something to do with the music festival, I chose to try the main stage.  Things were still being set up for the first band, scheduled to play at 4PM.  I really enjoyed listening to the group's sound checks as I painted.  As I was almost finished, more trucks arrived, parked in front of the stage and my view.  Our pieces from the paint-out needed to be turned in to the gallery so I had to leave, finish up a bit, and put the painting in a frame.  It was really fun to see the participating artists' paintings.  An exciting day!          

8" x 10" Watercolor

9" x 6.5" Watercolor

Arlington in April

Arlington Garden in Pasadena is so lovely during every season that we can always find something of interest to paint.  I had two visits very close to each other last month.  No problem.  Several of us chose some shade with a view of a table and chairs among the red poppies.  I painted this setting from a different angle in Lunch at Arlington.  Red poppy season is always special here!

7" x 5" Watercolor