January First!

January 1, 2013 and I'm excited to be posting on this blog!  Being lucky enough to join some plein air groups, I've met so many new friends in the past year.  It's been a wonderful experience to have these opportunities to paint in new places with supportive artists.  It always helps motivate to have someone else going out too!  

I'm posting a few vintage New Year bridge tallies from the 1920's.  The beautiful graphics on tallies of this era led me to searching for them a few years ago.  They are an off-shoot from greeting cards.  The two ladies were published by Gibson, an old card company now owned by American Greetings, and the baby is by Hallmark.  

Thank you all for visiting my blog.  All the best to you, as I'm sure 2013 will be full of new challenges.  

Ward Ranch

A recent plein air paint-out was at the E. Waldo Ward Ranch in Sierra Madre.  The property started off as an orange grove in 1891.  Mr. Ward's plan was to produce marmalade which he perfected in 1918.  In 1902 he built a large home and barn which are still in use.  Behind the home is a small canning factory which makes marmalades as well as many other preserves and jellies.

It had rained the night before the group planned to paint at the Ward Ranch and I was sure no one would be there to paint.  The morning looked rainy but then the sun came out slightly.  Maybe a few painters would be there after all!  I was going to arrive at the location so late that I decided to take my gouache (which dries faster than transparent watercolor) and paint a small 5"x7" piece.  We had a turnout of about 10 people and had a lot of fun.  It's a pretty location.  We shopped in the store, each coming out with jars of goodies.  The afternoon rain held off until we were finished with our casual discussion of the paintings.  

5 x 7" gouache

The Power Plant

The Pasadena Water and Power plant was our plein air painting location on a recent Saturday.  Reading the century-long history of Pasadena's water and power is interesting but turbines and generators just aren't my area and I wish I knew what all is going on there.  It's definitely an exciting and terrific-looking industrial location to an artist's eye.  I was really looking forward to the morning of painting there, and the dreary day cleared up a little to add some shadows.  

It's quite a large property with many wonderful structures and views to paint, including a beautiful 1938 street corner fountain.  Conveniently there is a short cul-de-sac offering perfect places to sit and paint the variety of buildings and smoke stacks.  I'm sure the security cameras were watching every brush stroke.  

The power station building in the view I chose had some steam coming out so that was exciting, but I ended up not adding that since my sky dried lighter than I'd hoped.  I also wanted to include the water tower.  The photo below of the tall structures with the pipes, tanks, and ladders was just to the left of my view.  In the light, it had some neat pastel colors and shadows but I didn't think I could do justice to all that was happening in those buildings.  The Gold Line light rail goes past where we were painting so I had to take a photo, below.   

I'm also adding a shot of the deco-style tiled fountain.  When we visited Disney's California Adventure park at Disneyland about a week later, we noticed that the new fountain at the new Carthay Circle looks like a sister to the Pasadena fountain and I've added its photo.  There are several "vintage" elements at the new park that seem to have originated in the Pasadena area.

Fair Oaks and Glenarm in Pasadena, CA

Disney's California Adventure Park

 

Christmas 2012!

My blog's first Christmas!  Last December I would never have thought I'd be posting on my own blog so this is pretty exciting!

I have to share that in 1995 I planned to paint a watercolor of some vintage Christmas ornaments in their box with the tissue around them.  I took some snapshots at the local flea market for reference and inspiration.  The painting never happened but I have hundreds of wonderful Christmas snapshots which I enjoy adding to each year.  Of course I branched out from snapping just ornaments in boxes.  There are some funky flea market Christmas items out there.  Over the years it's been interesting to see the changes in what is available at the flea market and in stores.  The photos are still inspiring so maybe I'll actually do that painting sometime. 

So here are a few photos from a couple years ago to help in wishing you all the best Christmas and 2013.

          

Holiday Paint-out!

Last Saturday we painted at Barbara Field's home.  She organizes the plein air group and also writes a wonderful blog at  http://whatisee-baf.blogspot.com.  Barbara generously invited us to paint at her house.  It was definitely a special holiday get-together.  

Barbara's house is a charming craftsman style bungalow.  I love the pleasing details in craftsman homes, a really cozy and beautiful style.  The backyard at Barbara's was also special since it had a Monarch butterfly habitat.  Wow!  The butterflies like milkweed plants and Barbara has many.  It was fascinating to see many Monarch caterpillars, cocoons, and also milkweed bugs in all sizes. Barbara gave me some milkweed seeds to plant and hopefully attract some butterflies.

The front of the house was decorated with some Christmas wreaths and lights.  It looked so festive that I had to try painting it.  This is a 5" x 7" gouache since I didn't think I would have much time for painting after such a terrific morning visit at Barbara's. 

  

The First Day of Winter

December 21, the first day of winter, the winter solstice.  It's cold, even here in Southern California.  Since I posted some autumn watercolors for the first day of fall, I wanted to post a favorite winter piece for the winter solstice.

Last December, on the Paint My Photo website the challenge for the month was a relaxing end of the year "non-challenge".  The assignment was to just choose a photo from the thousands on the website and paint something seasonal that could possibly be used for a holiday card if the artist wanted to.  In Southern California we have our seasons but usually no snow in the Los Angeles area in December so I was inspired to try painting some snow.  I looked at many terrific photos on the website of wintery scenes and finally decided on a beautiful shot of two women in the snow feeding ducks and Canada Geese beside a lake.  I painted this before any of the plein air pieces I've been painting recently so to me it has a different look and mood.  The photo is by Roy Simmons and is gorgeous.

Ginkgo!

I have found a group of artists who go out plein air painting on Fridays!  Another wonderful group of new friends and another day to paint.  Maybe I'll improve with all this painting.  

We met at Descanso Gardens where I painted once before with the Thursday group and blogged about in my post titled "Descanso Gardens".  Someone said the Ginkgo trees' leaves were changing and were really beautiful.  So true!  The trees were near the entrance and their leaves were a shockingly bright yellow.  They were the main attraction that day and people were taking photos, and some women were gathering the fallen ginkgo nuts.  They are used in Chinese cooking.  The trees are the national tree of China and the official tree of Tokyo.  Of course they have those gorgeous and distinctive fan shaped leaves.       

I chose a view from a little distance away.  Trying to convey the brightness of the ginkgo leaves is a challenge in watercolor so I tried to have some other points of interest in my piece.