Last Paintout in 2021

 Our final paintout in December 2021 was at Arlington Garden.  It's always one of my favorite places to visit and to paint.  There are always wonderful views new to me to paint even though I've been there many times.  On this visit we were excited to see some beautiful fall colors.  And there is always something about the winter light through the trees that I really enjoy seeing and painting.  

Wishing you a very happy 2022!

6" x 8" Watercolor

The Wishing Trees

A new entrance for the garden

 

Succulents!

 Succulents have been an interest of mine for many years.  It seems that they are more popular than ever now because of their relatively easy care and drought tolerance.  Of course they are also beautiful and have an amazing variety of shapes.  

I have two gouache pieces to post.  When we started painting together again I tried the wonderful fountain of succulents at Arlington Garden.  During our painting at home time I did a gouache piece of one of my aloe plants.  The challenge was a "close-up".  The aloes display some wonderful shapes and shadows for that theme.

7" x 5" Gouache

Succulent fountain past the Wishing Trees

7" x 5" Gouache

Last Summer~

Remembering two visits to one of my favorite gardens last summer.  It's always fun for me to visit Arlington Garden with a paint-out group.  Although the garden is relatively small, there are always so many views to paint.  There are flowers to paint close-up or more distant views.  I always seem to choose the more distant views.  Trying a more close-up floral is something I want to paint.  A branch of spring flowers would be perfect.

8" x 10" Watercolor

7" x 5" Watercolor

These wild parrots entertained us while we painted.

Amaryllis belladonna

The Wishing Trees

The New Fountain

Arlington Garden is one of my favorite places to paint.  As a bonus, it's just a few miles from home.  There is always something blooming or perfect to paint there too.  So the 15 year old garden's addition of new fountain was a special event.  The custom Batchelder tile fountain was dedicated to the garden's founders.  It was fun to paint it since it isn't the usual style fountain, very unusual.  I'm also including my watercolor from my most recent visit to the garden.  There is always a nice view to find for a painting.

5" x 7" Watercolor

5" x 7" Watercolor

Abutilon

A Favorite Garden

Arlington Garden is such a wonderful place to visit, and to do some plein air painting.  I'm very lucky it's close to home, and I've done many blog posts of watercolors painted there.  The local paint-out groups regularly schedule visits, and no matter what the season we are always treated with beautiful blooming plants or changing leaves.  The garden varies with each visit, so I am always looking forward to the next.

Watercolor 10" x 8"

Watercolor, 10"x 8"

The Wishing Trees

Two Gardens

The flowers in Southern California have been spectacular this year due to the high rainfall totals we've had.  Flowers always bring out the plein air painters.  I'm looking forward to more paint-outs at local parks and gardens this season.

Arlington Garden, Watercolor 5" x 7"

Wrigley Rose Garden, Watercolor 5" x 7"

Eucalyptus Ptychocarpa

Azalea and Jade

Since it's spring, I've felt like trying some paintings of flowers...a closer view instead of my usual landscapes.

The azaleas below were painted at our local Arboretum last week.  The cafe there, the Peacock Cafe, had a peacock appropriately posing for photos on the sign.  At Arlington Garden I tried a potted "sunset" variegated jade plant which was such a bright yellow that I couldn't resist.  And last Saturday I sketched my friend Barbara's potted porch plants.  I've found that I need much more practice on flowers!  That does sound like a fun goal.

7" x 5" Watercolor

7" x 5" Watercolor

 

Stabilo and Micron pens

Fall Leaves

As mentioned in my previous blog post I returned to Arlington Garden for another paint-out.  I was very surprised to see how much the leaves had changed colors in just a few weeks.  The trees surrounding one of the Garden's main terraces had been green.  In fact I've only seen green leaves on these trees.  But today it was a little shocking to see the changes in the leaves on the whole ring of trees.  The leaves had suddenly and beautifully turned to bright fall reds, oranges and yellows.  Beautiful!

7" x 5" Gouache

The Wishing Trees