I was quite inspired by all that we saw at the Chico Snow Goose Festival -- the countless birds, the Sacramento Valley landscape, and the changing light as each day progressed, and I took lots of photos. In choosing images to paint, naturally at least one had to include the festival's namesake, the Snow Geese. We got to see lots of them, usually in tightly crowded flocks on the ground. We saw this flock as we slowly drove around the several mile loop at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. Most of the way, you are not allowed to get out of the car because it disturbs the birds, so I was shooting through the car window. Something caused the birds to fly off, and I got a shot just as they were starting to leave. I had thought about trying to blur the birds in the air to show their motion, but I couldn't figure out how to do that and still have them look like geese. I like my painting anyway.
Barns always seem to make good subjects for painting. I found this one on a hike in the Hayward hills. The Ukraina Trail in Garin Regional Park starts next to Stonebrae Elementary School and runs for a couple of miles into the hills next to the Stonebrae golf course. On the way it passes the site of the farm of Agapius Honcharenko, a Ukrainian priest who spent half of his life in exile here in Hayward in the latter part of the nineteenth century. He was a very interesting character, and his fascinating story is worth looking up. This barn is next to a park residence and is unrelated to Honcharenko. I am quite pleased with my painting of it.
In my painting class, our assignment was a seascape based on a photo of the rocky shore of Pacific Grove. I got plenty of praise from the rest of my class, and I think I did pretty well too. As is often the case with watercolor painting, there was a good deal of luck involved. Some days my washes come out the way I want them too and some days they don't. When I'm lucky, a little touch-up is all it takes to make things look good.
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