Fair Oaks

The Saturday paint-out group returned to the Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena yesterday, appropriate for Halloween weekend.  We were there two years ago to participate in James Gurney's October Graveyard Challenge, October Challenge!  That challenge was a lot of fun to try, and only three colors were allowed to be used.

No limits this time but I didn't necessarily want to paint the headstones and monuments even though they are old and beautiful at this cemetery.  I was hoping for a great view of the mountains and the low morning light was wonderful, but nothing appealed in that direction.  I walked around.  There are also many terrific old trees.  Across the street, some men were working on a billboard.  There was some nice light on one of the gate pillars, but it would change quickly.  Finally the verticals of the power poles and palm trees just across Fair Oaks Avenue caught my eye.  A very peaceful place to paint.

5" x 7" Watercolor

  

At The Library

Yesterday I returned to the South Pasadena Library with another paint-out group.  In August I painted the coffee house across the street, Corner Coffee.  On this visit I thought I would see how the library looked from the side, maybe even from across the street.  The west side didn't have any light on it and seemed too dark.  But the east side of the 1908 building had some nice, ever changing shadows from a tall pine tree.  The shadows really caught my eye... I found my view.  

8" x 10" Watercolor

Corner Coffee

In August the Saturday paint-out group met in South Pasadena at the library.  I sat next to a friend who was painting Kaldi, the coffee house across the street.  I painted a gouache piece of Kaldi a few years ago, Kaldi.  The historic 1908 library was designed by the same architectural firm as the Kaldi building, Marsh and Russell.  In 1904 the South Pasadena Bank, our first financial institution, opened in the building where Kaldi is today.  It's nice to see that some reminders of our city's history are still in use.  The sun and shadows caught my eye on the side of the early brick building so I gave it a try in watercolor.

8" x 10" Watercolor

My friend Barbara Field painting the library.

    

Something Different

Our quarterly planning meeting at the Arboretum was a couple weeks ago.  With the meeting, we have only short time to paint.  On my previous visit I painted a quick Arboretum Fountain.  This time I had some flowers in mind.  A favorite artist painted a watercolor of some orange flowers with a dark green background and I wanted to try something like that.  I painted some front yard iris flowers last April with a dark background which I enjoyed doing.  I looked around for quite awhile for what I had in mind and finally found some interesting orange flowers in various stages of bloom.  I also liked the bands of light on dark, and dark on light that I saw in the setting.  Next visit I'll see if there is a name plate for these flowers!

5" x 7" Watercolor

7" x 5" Watercolor 

New Group!

Well...a new-to-me group.  The paint-out group is active on Facebook and I've admired the artists' posts for many months.  Their weekend paint-outs are usually on Saturdays but I try to never miss painting with my long time Saturday friends.  Last weekend the group had a paint-out scheduled for Sunday.  The location was one I've driven past and wondered if it would be a good spot for painting.  Elephant Hill!  It's in the Monterey Hills, El Sereno area of Los Angeles.  The over 100 acres remain open green space despite being sought by developers for decades.

The group was a very welcoming to me and several others joining in for the first time.  We had a great view overlooking the Elephant Hill area.  I loved our hilltop vista of the homes and many trails criss-crossing the hills.

5" x 7" Gouache