more July 2015

In looking back through my photos for painting ideas, I found lots of nice shots from our trip to Utah and Colorado last summer, but one especially caught my eye. We had been exploring Dinosaur National Monument and had taken a side road where one of the features was a cliff face with some petroglyphs. I hiked up a short distance from the dirt road to see them, and noticed that the view across the little valley was quite pretty. The scene didn't all fit into a single photo, but one of the advantages of painting over photography is that is easy to rearrange a scene to fit the paper.

When I entered one of my paintings in the current show at the Hayward Foothill Gallery, it came as a surprise when they asked me to volunteer to sit in the gallery for a couple of shifts, but I agreed to do it anyway. I signed up for a couple of Thursday mornings, figuring that I could use the time to do some more painting. So I sat there painting at a small table and had practically no interruptions. I realized that showing my art at local galleries is not getting it seen by a lot of people. That's OK, I'm not in it for fame and fortune anyway. I chose another scene from the same day at Dinosaur. We hiked into Hog Canyon, a beautiful little box canyon which started out with meadows and flowers, and soon became a narrow slot in the cliffs.

For my second Thursday at the gallery, I chose another shot from last summer's trip. This one was on our way from the tiny town of Maybell, Colorado to the Sand Wash area to look for wild horses. The dark clouds became a downpour while we were exploring remote dirt roads, and we were lucky to get out of the area without getting stuck in the mud. I knew that the dark clouds were going to be challenging, which is one reason I chose to try. Much of the painting ended up overworked and muddy, but I like it pretty well anyway. It may be worthwhile trying it again some day.

July 2015

After painting the view from the Rocky Point Restaurant, I thought I would try another scene from the same time and place. After we were seated on the deck and served our margaritas, I had taken another photo with my phone of Maureen and the view. I usually avoid trying to paint people, but this time I figured that all I've got to lose is a piece of paper. On the left side of the photo there was a big umbrella that blocked much of the view, so I remade that part of the scene. I think it turned out pretty good. Of course, it doesn't really look much like Maureen, but then I didn't expect it to. She said it makes her look prettier than she is, and I replied "that's nothing to complain about".

I looked through recent photos for something to paint, and came across one of some rocks and trees at Jessica's place near Placerville. Not much of special interest in the photo, but I like the patterns of light and shadow. With any visual art, sometimes just the lines and shapes are enough to make a scene interesting without any special features. I like the way this one turned out, and when I stopped by the Foothill Gallery in Hayward and was reminded that a few days later they would be taking entries for a new show, I chose this one to enter. Hopefully, it will be shown there July 17 - Sept. 11.

June 2015

For the last painting of my class, we did a scene with a fly fisherman in a river with a fish on the line jumping. I was looking forward to working on it since it seemed that we would finally be doing something that was more in line with my interests. But I started on it without giving much thought to what I was going to do with it, and it quickly became a mess. Later, at home, I tried to patch it up and finish the painting, but with watercolor it is easy to go too far and ruin a painting, and any attempt to fix it just makes it worse. In the past, I have gone ahead and shown paintings like that here on my blog just to show some of the learning process, but now I feel that I don't need to show everything.

I guess I'm starting to take my painting more seriously. I'm starting to exhibit some of my work, and plan to try selling some of it soon. This spring the Sun Gallery here in Hayward showed six of my paintings, and right now I have two paintings showing at the Alameda County Fair. I also get a lot of praise for my work from the people in my class, and that is a big help to my self-confidence. Whenever I begin to feel swell-headed, all I need to do is look at the work of more experienced painters to see that I have a long way yet to go.

A couple of weeks ago, Maureen's riding teacher, Jessica, hosted a 5-day horsemanship clinic with Chris Ellsworth at her home on Jody Moran's ranch near Placerville. We trailered our two horses up there and set up our tent in the yard. It's a beautiful location in the foothills near the Cosumnes River, with lots of oaks and pines and big granite boulders. The weather was very hot, and the horses were a lot of hard work, but we had a great time anyway. Back home, I wanted to paint something from the trip, and I chose a photo from the first day of the clinic when they were still working on the ground. I wanted an overall view to show what the place was like. Not much detail shows on the people or horses, but that was not my intention anyway. While we were at the clinic, we gave Chris my painting of him at last year's cow-working clinic (see my post "more May 2015"), and he was very appreciative.

Last weekend, we spent five days at a friend's cabin near Big Sur. Maureen and I spent one day with just the two of us before we were joined by our two sons and their families. It got a bit wild at times with four kids and six adults in a tiny cabin, but we had a great time. That first evening, Maureen and I went out to dinner at the Rocky Point Restaurant to celebrate our anniversary (43 years). The food wasn't very special, but the setting is spectacular. This painting is based on a couple of photos from the restaurant.