Burney Falls, plein air pencil sketch

I guess I have been a little obsessed with waterfalls, but spring time is the best time for it. I have had McArthur-Burney Falls on my bucket list since first moving to Northern California over 25 years ago, and finally last weekend, I was able to see them. It was worth the wait. It is quite a phenomenal waterfall with water not only coming over the top of the cliff, but from inside the cliff as well due to an underwater river within the volcanic rock surronding the area. Here is my attempt to sketch the falls from the vista point above the falls.

trees

I first started this "creative journey" of mine back in 2012, and every once in a while, I like going back and looking at some of my older work to see my progress. I came across my painting of "trees" in one of my friends' living room. He had purchased it from a silent auction that I had donated it to. I had never blogged on this painting, but I remember it well. I painted this in February 2013 plein air along the American River. It was a quiet spot at a bend in the channel by the islands near Rio American HS. (Right around the corner from where I had painted plein air painting small rapids almost a year later, one of my favorite areas along the river!)

My friend had told me he had felt a connection to this painting because another friend of his had created a similar watercolor, based on a poem that he had written. Here is the poem that my friend had written:

And here is the painting that his poem inspired:

Round Mound and Nevada Beach

So I decided to find a spot without the crowds..a tough thing to do anywhere along Lake Tahoe. I went for a walk starting at Lakeside Beach and went past the No Trespassing signs (with fine print that says "ok to pass at waters edge"). I found a nice shady spot under a tree, and started to paint Round Mound...yes, that's the official name, I looked it up.  My main focus of this painting was the clouds (but I did get caught in the trees). The thunderheads were building quick, and you can tell by the how dark it got that I finished just in time.

Plain air painting at Lakeside Beach

Trying to escape the heat, my family headed up to South Lake Tahoe. The scenery up there never disappoints. One of our favorite beaches is Lakeside Beach. Although the beach can get pretty crowded, if you get there before noon, it's not to bad. I scoped out a spot back among the trees to avoid getting any more sunburned than I had the day before and started to paint. Already the sunbathers were out and I had to determine how many of them would make it into my painting.
I narrowed it down to three although my original sketch had 5. Painting subjects while they are moving around is quite a challenge, and although these sunbathers didn't move around too much, it was enough. I'm not sure I'm happy with the composition of the painting. I need to crop out some of the sand. The focus of the painting is also unclear: the lake and mountains, the sailboat, the sunbathers, the clouds?

Wild irises along the river, plein air

A beautiful spring day along the American River, I went out to enjoy the river and sun with some friends. Of course I was inspired to do some painting, with the wild irises all in bloom along the banks.
Why do I paint? I paint because it allows me to escape from work and go within to find joy. Painting creates an intimate connection with my subject, in this case, my favorite model, Mother Earth. This plein air painting done at William B. Pond is a perfect spot for demonstrating this: a quiet spot away from the bustle of the city where I can reconnect with nature.

I actually painted this same tree cluster a couple of years ago as one of my first plein air paintings, but from a different angle, William B Pond.  It is amazing to see how much my painting style has improved over the last couple of years.

gristmill plein air reworked

Sometimes after letting a painting sit for a while, I will go back and see if I can improve on it.  Usually it doesn't take a month before I do this, but in the case of my Gristmill Plein Air painting, it has been longer than that.
It did not seem quite finished but I could not quite figure out what it needed.  I decided to post it onto a facebook paged where fellow artists critique your work.  Wow, talk about putting myself out there! There was lots of input as to how to improve it.  One of the comments was that the waterline cut the picture right in half, it looked like two different paintings put together, and there was no point of focus.
So I decided to just go for it, and try to apply some of the ideas that had been thrown out there.  I raised the waterline and broke it up with some grasses. I lightened the foreground a bit and darkened the background to try to create more depth in the painting. And I added a point of interest, the fisherman. I rarely put people in my plein aire paintings so this was a big challenge. He looks a little stiff but I think it works.

 

Before

After

American river plein aire, Untitled

Many artists that I have talked to do value studies with a quick pencil sketch before they start a painting. I usually just throw a couple of pencil lines down on my watercolor paper to help with placement but don't really think a whole lot about values. So I decided to give value studies a try to decide if it is a value-able use of time and effort :) 

This pencil sketch only took 5 minutes and I can see how important it would be if I was going to take the painting back to the studio to work on it. Instead, I finished painting all on location and found that it was easier just to refer back to the real scene than my sketch. I did find that some of my artistic choices were thought out ahead of time with the sketch instead of while I was painting.

Since I was experimenting with value studies, I decided to do another sketch that I will take back to the studio and see how that works out...

Gristmill plein air watercolor

The weather here in California is just too nice to paint inside, so I took advantage of a warm February afternoon to head down to the river. My plein air supplies are pretty simple: a pad of watercolor paper, a pencil, a few brushes, my paint palette, and a cup to hold my water. I also grabbed a blanket from the trunk of my car since I forgot my folding chair I usually carry. I found a nice sunny spot on a log near the American River and started to paint. I love the little rapids flowing over the rocks but I am still trying to figure out how to convey that in the painting.

Mt. Tallac in watercolor, Plein air

An iconic feature of South Lake Tahoe, Mt. Tallac can be seen from most anywhere in town. It is quickly recognized by the snow in the shape of a cross.  This snow used to be there year round but recently has started to melt more in the summer...global warming? In my painting, I was generous with the snow in the cross.

In the late afternoon, my family went down to the lake, specifically the west end of Kiva Beach, and while they played on the beach, I painted. The afternoon sun tends to shade a lot of the peak, so the colors are a little darker than they would have been in the morning.
I started out with a quick pencil sketch as I usually do, then added in the sky and clouds (since they move so quickly!)  and continued working down adding in the foreground trees last. When I was finished, I kind of wished I had made the piece vertical so that I could have included Taylor Creek in the foreground.

Reference photo...before the clouds floated away

Pencil sketch

Finished painting drying on easel

Next time...vertical format including Taylor Creek. (Clouds are already gone...)

Finished painting