While spending a week soaking up the sun, making new friends and eating sparsely from my ice chest, I also painted at the San Onofre surf beach. I want to share one of the images here called “Two for the Show.” When I asked Jack, my VW man what year the red bus was, he says “Its obviously a 71, you got it all there.” The blue one is mine, which is a 77. Fun times spent at San Onofre.
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The Ventura County chapter of the California Art Club hosted their monthly paint-out at El Matador State Beach this morning. I know… its LA County, but whateveh! I think I was the first one there at 9am, but soon there were about 15 of along the beach and up and down the cliff-side. When I arrived at the beach, there was already one occupant… a yoga instructor shooting a series of videos doing her poses. She continued as I set up. Once we both got into our own rhythms, we were able to focus on our own tasks, but it was nice to have someone on the beach with me.
After the painting was finished, I hauled my gear back up the cliffside and had lunch with several other artists. As a special bonus, Sharon Kaiser was available to critique people’s paintings during the lunch hour. It is always good to get feedback from other esteemed artists. Thanks all for a great morning. I needed that. Below are a couple more views…
So, I had a very nice week to paint in and around San Luis Obispo with a few artists from the California Art Club. The weather was nice, but scattered showers caused the fair weather artists to stay indoors. I did a total of 5 plein air studies and a still life. I stayed with Mom for the week. When I called her a few weeks ago to see if she was going to be around during this week, she asked me if I could come up there because she had a one week vacation scheduled. Perfect timing. I love it when that happens… synchronicity. So, I got some painting in, did some chores around the house for her, and visited with family. All in all, it was a very wonderfully relaxing week for me. I pushed off a lot of business until this coming week, so I will be working full-bore to catch up, but it was def worth it.
So, what I got here now, is the still life I did for my sister. She has been asking to paint her a “flower painting” for many years. Well, I don’t do flowers, but her birthday is next week, and outdoor painting was rainy, so… I did this for her. I added a cup and saucer that was painted by great-grandma Dee around 1900. Click HERE for a large close-up of the tea cup.
I think I might be on to something new for me. Still life paintings from heirlooms. I brought home some trinkets from around Mom’s house that I will be painting in the weeks and months ahead. I have not done many still lifes. This intrigues me. So, since I did a lot of duck hunting with my Dad growing up, I have some things that will do nicely as a memento to this; A set of duck calls, shot gun shells, his favorite hunting hat which still has some tail feathers from a drake mallard, and a wooden duck decoy. I also from my mom, I have an old candy dish from her grandmother, a small metal metal bank in the shape of an elephant and some old marbles. Then there is an old deep-sea fishing reel, some old fishing lures and a fillet knife. Some great raw-material for summer studies in the studio.
So, I took an old plein air painting I did at Leo Carillo a couple years ago, and redid it. I was not happy the first time anyway, so it was a good opportunity to try some new paint out. You can see the change from the first go, to the new version below.
So, now that I am back, I can post some photos of my last three days of painting with Ryan Wurmser and a few new friends. Each day Ryan started with his demo as we watched, learned and took notes… mental or otherwise. Then after lunch we would be off on our own to apply what we gleaned. Our first day was Malibu Creek State Park. Beautiful and sunny. Secondly we went to my favorite beach to paint at, Leo Carrillo. There is PLENTY to paint. The same scene changes so quickly throughout the day. To watch the changes in the water is fascinating. Then the third day we were off to Peter Strauss Ranch.
Each location had its challenges to overcome. Wonderful light that moved across the sky on one day turned into a sun that played peek-a-boo behind the clouds another. I have never posted any location photos, but I do so here to share some things. First, look at the photos of the knoll in the first set. Notice how much the light has changed in the three hours from the beginning and end of my painting time. Its impossible to paint so quickly in such a complicated scene. So, you must pick out parts to highlight and hold on to the values in your head… which I had a problem with.
For me, the take-away to this weekend was a stronger sense of composition. Ryan showed us many sketches of various compositional possibilities in the same scene. He would ask “What’s the story here” and then show how each sketch had something different to say about the scene. Good work Ryan!! So, here are my sketches.
Click the first image to start the slide show…
Today I got a new studio easel. It is by “BEST” and its the “O’Connell” model. I took a nice drive out to Continental Art Supplies on Reseda Blvd. in the VW Beetle. I was only planning on getting a couple of new brushes and some of new tubes of paint that is missing on my palate. I ended up with this beauty. The only problem was that it would NO WAY fit in my little car. Steve Aufhäuser, the owner, was giving me a tour of the store, and showing me this easel, when he discovered that it would not fit. Hmmm… I said “Do you deliver?” he smiled and said… “I’ll do anything for a beer” we laughed and I told him that I had a couple of bottles in the fridge waiting for him. So, he said he could stop and deliver it to my home in Camarillo on his “way home.” I can’t suggest that he would do it again to anyone that asked, but I was sure grateful that I got to start working on it tonight.
He ended up staying around for about an hour while we talked about brushes, gesso and what is best to use to clean out your oil brush… his suggestion… boiled linseed oil that you can get at any hardware store. Just make sure to rag out as much of it as you can when its all cleaned out. Solvents are much too harsh.
I also picked up a couple of new smallish filberts from a brand I never even heard of… Escoda, from Spain. They have been around for 75 years. Steve says that they are one of his favorites. I got a couple #8’s and #2’s of the no-frills model “Natural” a non nickel-plated brass ferrule.
I will be testing them out this week. {smiling} I will be in a three-day plein air workshop with Ryan Wurmser. I am so looking forward to this. We will be talking about composing light and natural form outdoors. Looks like we have three beautiful days in a row, all sun and about 70 degrees. I hope to come home with a few new paintings from Malibu Creek Canyon, El Matador State Beach, and one other location.
Today the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival closes. I had the three paintings below in the event, plus one that was offered up for the “Painting in the Streets” event. I love
Central Ducks, Always Welcome, Triangle Sun
Lucy and this guy
So, on Friday (June 19th) I will be leaving the daily grind to be a gypsy artist for a week. I will take my newly gesso-ed birch panels with me to San Onofre Beach where it will be my outpost for the week. San Clemente hosts a week long Plein Air competition and I will be taking the entire week to get some sun and painting done. I always look forward to my little trips about once a year… usually alone. It is a necessary thing for me to be in solitude. Distance from the stuff of daily life has a way of giving a new perspective. Interestingly, Saturday evening will be Summer Solstice. I do not necessarily “celebrate” this, but it offers a reminder that seasons do change and life goes on even after drastic life changes happen to us. There are these threshold moments in our lives that we can look back on and see where everything became different. We can not prepare for everything that lies in the path of our future, but we can know that the trail that we have been on so far has brought us to where we are now.
My artist friend Michael Pearce has a spool of shoelace material. Stitched into the lace is the word “Solitude” which is a word that I cherish. It is idealistic of me to think that I can have solitude in the chaos of my life, but I try to be reminded of its value. In the book “The Way of the Heart” Henri Nouwen has an entire chapter talking of the importance of solitude in our busy lives. It is a way to spiritually re-charge. It is infact the first step on a path that he describes as the way of the heart. (the next steps are silence and prayer) Of solitude he says “Solitude is the furnace of transformation.” He goes on to say in another book “In solitude we discover that life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.” It is there, in solitude that I do recharge my gift. I am able to go back to the daily life of family, work, community and share the gift of life. I am truly looking forward to filling up with grace and the suns vitamin D boost as I paint along the coast next week.
So the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival is coming to an end this week and today I delivered the three paintings that I felt were my best efforts. The first two I have already posted, and below is my third effort that was entered into competition. Being nearly alone on the beach, away form the day-to-day life with a book and the sun, I call this “Solitude“. Thanks to Teresa for being a good sport and enduring the sun and a good book for over three hours while I worked this all out. I added the pattern on her bikini after the white underpainting had dried which did not take long because of the Cobalt Dryer I used. That was nice because I was able to rag out the lines in the brown patch on the right hip.
So, there I was, really enjoying painting the trunk of this fat fruitless Mulberry. I had the blue brush in my hand when I reached to the ground to get more red paint when I noticed that my brush hit “something” as I reached over to the ground. I paused and took a deep breath and slowly looked over to my freshly painted trunk, and as you see here, there was a long blue stripe across it. Not just any blue mind you, but PHTHALO blue. This particular blue is only good for doing blue awnings and boat covers, and also for that rich gem-like water that needs to pop. When mixed with anything, it kills it. I have to keep it far away from anything, then I go and stripe my tree. <DOH!!>
I slowly wiped it off with a fresh paper towel, and then re-painted the missing bits back in. I will finish up some of the details in the harbor in the background tomorrow, and I will post the rest of the painting then.
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