Nola's Iris Garden

Who knew there were so many colors of Iris? At Prevost Ranch and Gardens there were beautiful Irises, sunshine and tremendous sweeping views, all up in the hills of East San Jose. We had a wonderful day out.
It was the hottest day of the year so far I think and boy did my allergies kick in. I sneezed, and sneezed, and sneezed, and when I wasn't sneezing I was sniffing - not much fun to be around! I remembered why I don't garden! Nuff said on that. I started my painting session with a little view of the hills - it looked so pretty, but the "pretty" somehow got stuck in my head and didn't make it on to my paper. That's one for the bin ('cept its on the back of something else in my sketchbook!) I think I do better with a closeup image - the grand view is just too overwhelming.
I wandered around some and found a gorgeous Iris that spoke to me, so I painted that. I started with a fairly detailed pen drawing then splashed some color on the wet paper for a wet in wet background. By lunchtime I had painted the budding flower at the top and an initial wash on the lower flower. Of course after lunch I went back and the light had changed completely. I sensibly thought about leaving it there and finishing it from a photo - but sense went out the window and I carried on where I left off. Stupid. I quickly realized it wasn't working the way I wanted. Ah well, live and learn. I don't hate it, but it was going to be so much better.
I did a couple of brush pen sketches later - all I could summon up energy for after all the sneezing. I do like using those brush pens - they're quick and fun.

Monte Bello sunshine

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!
Finally, some wonderful weather after the weeks of rain - and just in time for our Hike and Sketch at Monte Bello. There were seven hikers, and three non hikers who remained behind to continue painting the gorgeous views not far from the car park. We painted here for half an hour, enjoying the grassy rolling hills dotted with oaks and evergreens, and Mount Umunhum off in the hazy blue distance. I've been working on a plan for our upcoming "Introduction to Plein Air Painting" and, aware that I should look like I know what I'm doing, I tried to consciously plan my sketches a bit more than usual. Or course, that wore off by the time I got to sketch #2! There isn't much time for thinking in a 1/2 hour sketch! View of Mt Umunhum

We had a circular route planned out and off we trotted down the hill on a tiny little path. The size of the path should have given us a clue that we were going the wrong way- but giddy with sunshine and beauty we were oblivious. We paused some way down the hill to sketch moss draped oaks, then continued along the path...until it ended at the creek. With calf muscles complaining we had to retrace our steps back up the hill.
Mossy oak

Eventually we did find the right path and stopped for lunch beside a sag pond. This is a depression created by a fault line and filled in with water and plants. This one was home to an abundance of cattails, and some frogs who gave us a little chorus as we painted.
Sag Pond along the San Andreas Fault

After lunch our little group finally set out on the trail we originally intended using. We crossed the creek several times on bridges admiring little waterfalls and cataracts along the way. We stopped once more to sketch a view of the pathway and some trees.

Wooded path, brushpens in my sketchbook

Further along the trail we came across a little garter snake out for a midday adventure of his own. One of our party (who hates snakes!) screamed like a banshee and ran in the opposite direction! Here we branched off the main trail to take a shortcut back to the carpark. Once again our path was blocked by the stream. This time most of our intrepid hikers stomped into the water and, negotiating the slippery rocks, clambered to the path on the other side. Two of us remained on the bank. Not wanting to get our feet wet, we chickened out and went back to the main trail while the brave ones continued on. The route Jenny and I took seemed steep and long in the afternoon heat, so we rested and chatted for a good while under the shade of an oak tree. On the final part of the trail there were wonderful views of the bay, but we were too tired to sketch. Much later than anticipated we returned to the carpark to find that the gentleman of our party was waiting for us. He had been waiting an hour to ensure we got back safely. Thanks Brad!
All in all a good day out - I'm only sorry we didn't all get to see everyone's paintings and sketches.

Spring blossom

Gorgeous! - that was the day - rather than my artwork! After a bit of a hiatus (due to vacations and colds!) I'm back to painting. Today we visited the Sunnyvale Heritage Museum and Orchard. The planets must have aligned just so for today to be so perfect. The trees were in blossom, the mustard glowed yellow around the base of the gnarled tree trunks, and the sun shone intermittently between colorful clouds. The orchard was such an appealing view - unfortunately my painting does not do it justice. After a chatty lunch with other plein air painters I did a quick sketch of the gray barn, then went into the museum. I don't normally bother with guided tours, preferring to make my own way around museums. However, this time I got chatting to one of the docents, Jim, and he gave me a wonderful tour and potted history of the Murphy family and Sunnyvale. I learned a lot and Jim did a great job of answering my questions and pointing out items of particular interest to me. Its a great little museum in a lovely setting.

Picchetti Winery

Picchetti Winery barns and farmhouse
View of a distant vineyard in fall colors
This week's sketches are from our Hike and Sketch up at Picchetti Winery. There is a little hiking trail from behind the winery, out along the hillside, with great views of the surrounding hills. The day was perfect - a little cool in the shade, but lovely in the sunshine.Bridge over a dry streambed
Foggy view of the distant Almaden hills



Picchetti Farmhouse

Asilomar, Sept 23rd

The CA coast is gorgeous at this time of year. Today's visit to the Point Pinos area of Monterey was a fun day of painting and enjoying the spectacular scenery. It can be intimidating to paint huge panoramas, so I started with some little brush pen sketches to get a feel for the place.

We set up on the beach and looked out over the sea. On turning round I was grabbed by a view of some ice plants cascading down over the rocks. Above was a beautiful blue sky with the occasional seagull hovering in the sea breeze. I thought it would make an interesting painting, but of course the seagulls don't hang around so it will have to be a studio painting. I did some sketches of the idea and took photos of the birds.

We lunched overlooking the golf course, then moved up to the Point Pinos Lighthouse. This quaint little building looked very paintable, but as I started my composition sketch I quickly realized I was way too close to the building. The dark green rectangle was supposed to contain the whole lighthouse! Feeling overwhelmed by the task, I moved on to a cute little shed behind the lighthouse which nestled amongst some interesting trees. I was conscious of making the shed (my focal point) slightly off to one side, but the shed had other ideas when I started drawing and plonked itself right in the center of the paper. Darn! Despite this I was really pleased with the way it came out (see top of page).

Later we moved further along the coast to where a sea lion had spent the day sunbathing on a big rock out at sea. It seemed like a picture perfect opportunity, but he was quite far away. I did two sketches, the second using binoculars. My last painting was an attempt at the crazy rocks which line the coast here. Rocks are quite a challenge!

The Presidio, September 19th

Last week we had an impromptu trip up to San Francisco. The idea was to sketch the views at the Presidio and visit the CA Watercolor Assoc. exhibition at the Officers Club. The Presidio was a bit fog bound when we got there, so the views were not extensive! However, we were undeterred and found plenty to paint. The exhibition was very instructive. We had fun critiquing all the paintings and picking out our favorites.

Villa Montalvo

The plein air painting has been sadly neglected of late, and I only have one painting and a sketch from this week. Despite early fog on my side of the valley, Villa Montalvo had glorious sunshine and blue skies. I've painted the house before so I wandered down to a new area - a little cactus garden. A small group of children were painting in the area too and had wonderful big sheets of paper and watercolors to play with. They spent more time wandering around than painting, but they were quite enthusiastic. One young lady looked at my painting and said "its coming together nicely"! She may be right, but I had to leave before it was complete and now I must finish it as "homework" i.e. it will stay in its present state forever! I liked my quick brushpen sketch more.