June 2014

A few months ago, I painted a creek scene from a photo taken on our sierra camping trip last summer. The painting was not too bad, but I wasn't very satisfied with it and thought I could it better. I don't usually like to re-do a painting. It feels like too much work. A lot of artists do repeat the same idea, trying to get the most out of it. Georgia O'Keefe comes to mind and her series of Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers. In that case, her paintings became increasingly abstract as she zoomed in on the essence of the idea. But that kind of thing is way beyond my reach.

I didn't get off to a very good start with this one. I was in too much of a hurry, and I put down masking fluid over some already painted areas before they were completely dry. When I pulled off the mask, a lot of the color came with it, leaving splotchy areas. I was able to patch them up pretty well and I think it ended up pretty good. I did the whole thing pretty fast, and maybe it would have been better to spend more time on it, but I like the looseness of it too.

A couple of months ago I went hiking in Bishop Ranch Regional Open Space in the hills west of San Ramon. I took a bunch of photos, but I thought one of an oak tree trunk and log would work best for a painting. I liked the sun and shadow on the foreground grass combined with a distant view. Like the previous painting, I feel like I rushed this one a bit, but I like it pretty well.

I was thinking that I'd like to do something with some water in a creek, and looking through some older photos, I came across one of a group of us crossing a creek on horseback. This was from a 2011 weekend horse camping trip to Rancho del Oso Horse Camp, part of Big Basin State Park. The photo wasn't a very good one, just a quick shot behind my back as my horse, Rio, was still climbing the bank, but I figured that a blurry photo wouldn't matter too much for a watercolor painting. The scene brings back some bittersweet memories, because Eddy, the second horse in line in the painting, is gone now. He passed away in his early thirties, so he had a full life.

May 2014

My watercolor class finished its spring session last week, so I'm on my own again until next fall (assuming that I'll take the class again, which I probably will). Although I missed a class when we spent a few days in Big Sur, I still managed to do a couple more class projects.

 

 This was another exercise in masking. We used a sponge to apply masking fluid to create blossoms in a tree. I wish I had stamped out more blossoms, but my masking fluid is nearly white so it is hard to see what I am doing. Ron's demonstration used all warm colors -- lots of pinks and oranges. As he was doing it, I commented that fall colors didn't quite go with blossoms on the trees. I was just joking but he seemed to take it more seriously and the following week he brought in a photo of a springtime sunset scene with all warm colors just to show that it was possible. As you can see, I stuck with colors that I thought fit the season. Several people commented that they liked what I had done, but to me it is just OK. I didn't put too much effort into it anyway.

This is our last class project, a cafe scene in New Orleans from one of Ron's photos. I got more involved in this than the previous project. I liked the building and the people presented a bit of challenge. I think it came out pretty good. I like the challenge of trying to keep it kind of loose but putting in enough detail that it has a bit of realism.

 

One day I did a fairly challenging hike to the Knobcone Point area of Mount Diablo. It was a beautiful hike and when I got home I wanted to paint something that showed the varied terrain of the area -- rocky chaparral, oak woodland and grassland. I used a photo from my iPhone, with a little fudging with the composition. It's not exactly what I had hoped for, but overall, I think it is pretty good. I especially like the cloud shadows on the peak of Mt. Diablo in the background.

One day after watching my grandson, Zachary, play baseball, we stopped by at the San Leandro Cherry Festival. We've lived in the area for a very long time, but we had never been to this festival, which celebrates the cherry orchards that once covered the area but which have been long paved over. I took a picture with my iPhone to get the contrast between the colorful crowds and the rather austere looking Saint Leander's church behind them. Once again, the people were a challenge, but as you can see, I didn't try too hard for a lot of small detail. It came out OK, and it was fun to do.

Recently, I found something that may influence the direction of my painting. I went to the new Kaiser San Leandro Medical Center for an echocardiogram, and there in the cardiology waiting room, were a couple of very beautiful watercolors. I always like seeing other painters work, and I am usually quite impressed by it, but these were really exceptional. The painter is Dan Petersen, who lives in the central valley and is retired after teaching for many years at Modesto Junior College. His landscapes have a lot of sharp detail, with a lot of beautiful flowing lines and vibrant colors. I looked him up online (petersenwatercolor.com), and found that he had made a DVD demonstrating his techniques. I ordered a copy, and found a lot of useful ideas on it. I'm going to try to incorporate some of what I learned in my future painting, but probably won't try to copy all of his methods. He uses a lot of masking, adding washes over and over again, and spends way more time on each painting than most watercolorists do. I probably don't have that much patience, but it will be good to know that the possibility is there if I ever feel like working that hard on a painting.