Milk Farm

On a sunny fall day last fall, I went on a plein aire meet-up hosted by David Peterson.  The subject of the meet-up was the Milk Farm sign in Dixon, CA.  We always drive by it on the way to the Bay Area at 70 mph, and wonder why it’s there.  There used to be a restaurant built in the 1920’s where they would have milk chugging contests, all-the-milk-you-could-drink for 10 cents, and a record holder wall for those who drank the most!   It closed in 1986 due to damage from a wind storm and never reopened.  Residents of Dixon wanted to save it as a historical landmark, but all that remains today is the sign in a weed infested parking lot.  Even the sign is showing signs of dilapidation.

So after squeezing through a hole in the fence surrounding it, I set up my chair and pulled out my sketch pad.  I usually just start sketching right onto the watercolor paper, but since I had a sketch pad with me, I decided to use it.  The interesting thing is that I found I had more freedom knowing it was just on the sketch pad and if I messed up, no big deal.  After I finished my sketch, I thought I would add a little color with a quick wash of blue in the sky.  Well, the sketch pad didn’t take water very well, just pencil next time. Onto the watercolor paper…

I actually liked the outline sketch better on my sketch pad.  The one was a little stiffer. Is that because I was a little more worried about not erasing on the water color paper? Probably. I have noticed that too much heavy erasing affects the absorbency of the paper. 

The lettering on the sign had to be the trickiest part for me.  The first part was just to have a steady hand.  The other part was the spacing and centering. “Milk” and “Farm” was easy enough with only 4 letters but when I got to “Restaurant”, I actually started by putting the “au” in the middle and worked out from there.  Still there was still extra space on the right side.

David Peterson Painting the Milk Farm Sign

The great thing about this meet-up was that there were 3 or 4 other artists there that were very friendly and supportive. David Peterson, the host of this particular gathering, has always impressed me with his wet on wet style...very loose but somehow incorporates the details as well.  He says his secret is the Expo dry erase pens: they don't bleed with water.  I'll have to try that next time.

Another artist that was there was Linda Hao.  She doesn't usually work in watercolor but I thought her watercolor style looked similar to mine.  What do you think? 

Watercolor by Linda Hao