Ardenwood Historical Farm

Ardenwood Pumpkins

I got a late start to the day due to a blinding headache, but I was glad I went up to Ardenwood Farm today. The pumpkins looked suitably plump and orangey, the animals were all in fine voice and a fair few children were having fun learning about farming. I had to paint the field of pumpkins - the lines of orange looked great disappearing off into the distance and right on the horizon were some lovely trees turning color. It was baking hot sat out in the sun though, so I made two quick sketches. This one is my second and has the better color.

1920's Washing Machine

Sue was drawing an old 1920's washing machine behind the house and we started discussing abstraction. Abstraction is hard to do when you are looking at reality - the temptation is to include everything you see. The machine itself was a marvelous study of aged wood and corrugated metal with lovely twirly keys to adjust the spring tension on the mangle rollers. I started a paint sketch of some of the elements. Unfortunately my sketching was interrupted by lunch and I never got back to it.

Catch up!

Wow, I can't believe its 2 months since I last posted on here! Getting lazy in my old age. Well here's come catchup pieces to bring us back up to date.

Eagle Rock, Alum Rock Park

Hangar at Moffatt Field

Moffatt Field

Lovers Point, Pacific Grove

Coyote Point Hike and Sketch

Mission San Jose, Fremont

In the Cemetery

This is a lovely mission church with a small garden and cemetery. There are views of the hills behind. I sketched in the cemetery area first the brush pen sketch below, then the painting above. I tried hard not to mix very wet paint into my washes and avoided the backruns. I was quite pleased with some of my greens - remembering to add some reds in there. There are times when I think I might be getting the hang of watercolor.
After lunch a few of us went into the Olive Hyde Art Gallery and saw the juried show on display. There were some beautiful watercolors by Michelle Goll-Smith, Janice Shafir and Robin Worthington. It was interesting to note that the only two pieces that sold were small, traditional, oil landscapes - they were lovely though.

Brush Pen Sketch of the Mission Tower

Later I tried a full view of the mission, but it didn't work out well at all. My values were all off so that one's for the bin.

Villa Maria, Stevens Creek Park

I was all excited over the Hawk last week so I forgot to post my Villa Maria paintings. Anyway here they are. I did another little postcard - not quite as nice as the one I did of the Five Wounds.
Then I tried a little jumble of fallen limbs against a backdrop of Eucalyptus and foliage. I often get impatient and go back into my washes before they are dry and this was a typical case where I ended up with backruns. I had a stab at correcting it at home, which I something I never normally do.

The Successful Hunt

Our resident Juvenile Red Tailed Hawk proved his hunting prowess today. He perched on a post with a bird he had caught. Tearing it to bits between talons and beak, the victim was consumed in less than 15 minutes. The hawk accidentally dropped a portion of the entrails onto a lower part of the post and took a minute to figure out how to hop down there to scavenge it without falling. He also spent some time scraping all the crevices of the post to ensure that every scrap was eaten. The only parts discarded were some of the feathers that were plucked off and tossed into the wind. He stayed on the post for over an hour preening and, no doubt, digesting.
This sketch was done from my photos. I started with the watercolor pencils, then added some paint.

New neighbor on the block

Juvenile Red Tail, Colored Pencil

My neighbors are fun to watch, I have my binoculars out all the time. No, don't go rushing off to call the police - I'm talking about wildlife! My immediate neighborhood is blessed with all kinds of animal residents. We have a doe and fawn that live under our deck. There are also four young bucks which we see roaming around. Birds are here in abundance. We have four or five hummingbirds, with one male who has claimed our feeder and defends it against all comers with typical fiestiness. The Orioles also like the feeder. We have a scrub jay to likes to bathe in our fountain.

Hawk sketch with water added

Over the last few days we've been hearing a hawk squawking up and down the valley. I spotted it on a telegraph pole outside our dining room window, so I snapped some photos of it before a mockingbird drove it away. Hawks are never welcome guests and mockingbirds especially go to great lengths to harass them until they leave. This was a juvenile Red Tail and I'm guessing it's squawking was to attract the attention of its parents and get some food. My photos came out well so I might compose a painting from them. For starters I did a sketch. I found some soluble colored pencils when cleaning up my studio, so I tried them out on this drawing. The first image is the pencil sketch, the second is after I put some clean water on it to see what would happen. Interesting. The colors are very limited, but they might be nice to sketch landscapes with.

My other sketches are of the doe relaxing in our mulch.

Five Wounds Church, Alum Rock

Today's challenge was the beautiful Portugese Catholic church on East Santa Clara St. It is a replica of the Braga Church in Portugal, completed in 1919 and built in the style of Baroque Revival architecture. My knowledge of architecture is minimal so I'm not sure what that means. Suffice to say it is a gorgeous white church with tall arched towers capped by red domes, lots of wild perspective, and enough twiddly bits to drive you crazy! We had a good turnout again (13 people) which is amazing considering we had to sit on the street and contend with the traffic whizzing by and regular buses belching their exhausts next to us!
My first sketch was done on the edge of the sidewalk so that I could direct artists to the parking when they arrived. I selected a spot where most of the church was hidden behind a tree (a cunning plan!). I wasn't paying 100% attention to what I was doing but I think it worked out well enough for all that!
Next I went across the road to get a better view of the whole building and decided to paint on a postcard. I bought this little pad of postcards at the weekend when I visited the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento (love this art museum). Anyway, the postcard worked out pretty well. It must be the smallest thing I have ever painted - although strictly speaking it is more of a drawing with a little paint daubed on it!
Feeling pleased with my drawing I then moved on to draw the L & F Fish Market at the junction with 101. Then after lunch I moved to the other side of the intersection and sketched the 101 on ramp.