Plein air painting at the pond fountain at Land Park

So I finally get outside to do some plain air painting with our Plein Air Meetup group, and its 106 degrees out! I wonder why only a couple of us showed up? It actually didn't feel too bad in the shade next to the water. I was working with some new paints today that are much better quality than the $5 set of twelve tubes I was working with before. The tricky part is that there are only 5 colors...it just lends for more practice color-blending. They are made with a honey base so they have more brilliant color and don't dry as fast on the palette ( that was particularly important on a hot day like today).
I'm still trying to figure out the reflection and ripple effect that is created by water, so I keep challenging myself with it. My last attempt was at Hagan Park and today I'm at Land Park.  I started at the top with the sky and worked my way down with the trees and grass, and finishing with the pond.  I "cheated" a little bit because I used white paint to create the water spray (most watercolorists would say to use the white of the paper instead but without masking fluid, it just wasn't going to work). Although there were a couple other people painting, I was so totally focused, I probably wasn't very good company.

Watercolor of the sea and sky

So being summertime, I thought I would be out plein air painting regularly. But when it's 100 degrees outside, I find myself hiding inside finding art to "copy" in my own style. Here is my most recent imitation.

 "Plage de la Fontaine" (2013)
Original Watercolor by Alisa Laporte
Size 9 1/2 in by 3 7/8 in

Starry night

We were at a friend's house trying to figure out a Sip & Paint class...Drink & Draw?  Painting & Partaking? Anyways, we were deciding on a painting to create with non- artist type people that were there just to have fun and we decided on Van Gogh's Starry Night. Although it looks simple enough, and was very fun to paint for me, it is very complex. The impasto brush strokes, those small and short ones throughout the painting are very difficult too duplicate.  And then to complicate things even more, I was working with acrylic paint, which I rarely do...but the wine helped :) My favorite part was actually the little town.

Here is Van Gogh's original Starry Night:

My preliminary watercolor sketch:

And my acrylic rendition:

And the one my friend Rhonda did (still not quite complete):

Chinese style painting

I saw this art hanging on the wall at P F Changs and really liked the look of it so I thought I would recreate it myself.

So I used only black watercolor, instead of ink, to create the waterfall scene. As I painted, the scene developed into something quite different that the original picture. The original picture had more than just black ...but I decided to keep to just the monochromatic theme. I couldn't figure out how to put blossoms on the tree so it just looks like a dead tree.  The placement of the tree seemed so effortless in the original picture, but in mine it seems a little awkward. I added a mountain and a second waterfall to fill in the background.  And then trying to capture the movement of the water was a challenge, but overall I think it turned out well, but definitely with my own flare!

A bridge at Hagan Park

So while I was plein air painting the pond at Hagan Park, I decided to take some pictures to see if I could be further inspired later on. The idea of taking a picture and then going home and painting inside, like most painters do, has always been a struggle for me. Why? I don't know, but there is something about painting a scene that is right in front of you that always seems to inspire me...especially in this beautiful Sacramento weather we are having! So this was painted entirely inside. The biggest advantage that I found to painting inside from a photograph is that I don't having a rushed feeling, leaving more time to let things dry. This has always been a problem for me...having the patience to let one area dry before going to the next.

I really worked on leaving negative spaces on this piece...no masking fluid used (I still have to get some of that so I can figure it out). The bridge kind of reminds me of  Monet's Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies.

Plein air painting at the pond in Hagan Park, Rancho Cordova

I was out at Hagan Park this week, looking for some insiration to paint, with my new stool and easle that I had gotten for my birthday. Whenever I am here I always think about the large pond but never made the time to sit down and paint it, until now! The pond is always smooth and reflective, so I challenged myself with treating the reflction a little different than I  usually do when I am out painting the river. I quite like the texture that it created in the painting! The idea of painting vertically instead of having the painting pad on my lap was tricky to get use to.  It is suppose to help the paint flow better, but I guess it takes some getting use to.

It's kind of intimidating looking at the photograph right next to my painting, but I think I did a pretty good representation of the scene.

Old pencil drawings from my sketchbook

Here are some old drawings I had found in my sketchbook.  The first one is somewhere in the mountains above Los Angeles. I must have done it about 25 years ago! I think my original plan was to re-do it in pastel.

A little more recently, 2007, is a sketch of American Canyon Falls, outside of Cool, CA. I guess I was wrong in my Black Hole of Calcutta Falls blog entry when I said I had never drawn a waterfall before...