Plein air in old town Fair Oaks

June 22, 2015 in plein air

It finally happened. It fiiiiinally happened...I went out to paint. I spent some quality time with my painting tools and myself. It was nice. I forgot how nice it can be to stand for hours in the same spot, in solitude (not counting the curious passersby here). To slow down and breathe. To really look.

11 x 15" watercolor on hot press paper. Click on the picture to buy.

Sometimes, I paint fast. I become hyper-alert and decisive and just slap it on. But this time, I was in the mood for some observation and for slow pen lines. I felt refreshed, even though I got very little sleep the night before. In short, I want more!

Maybe I will do the Plein Air at the (California State) Fair this year, now that I'm in Sacramento and all. I did one at the county fair a couple of years ago and it was fun (albeit not very competitive). I even got a first place ribbon and a symbolic monetary award, which almost covered my entry and parking fees.

San Bernardino county fair. Watercolor on paper, not available.

Day 24 - Casa Del Desierto (Barstow Harvey House)

January 24, 2014 in step by step, plein air

Finally done with this painting! I started it on a plein air outing over a week ago and worked on it in tiny pieces of time since. It even went through an ugly stage (which is normal, particularly for paintings done in multiple sessions) and through a husband-critique stage (that's how you know it's getting serious ;) ). I

Watercolor and ink on hot press paper. Original sold. Prints and cards available.

A few progress photos:

First step: completed drawing at the plein air session. By the time I was done drawing, it was getting close to sunset and windy, so I decided to do the painting part at home.

Here, I am beginning to lay first washes. The paper is hot press, so I'm getting some nice blooms!

I have some white areas left here but most of the painting has a layer of paint. Evaluating if the contrast between the white columns and dark spaces between them is too dark. So it is. Also, not crazy about the foreground.

One step further: I toned down the white areas and lightened up the shadows between columns. I also decided to separate the far right side of the building from the background by darkening the tree area. The foreground got another wash of gray-blue to tone it down and ground the building. Brick detail on the left side and a bit of cleaning up in the shape of the columns and bottom of the building.

At this point, I got a feeling that my problem with the foreground might be because it was also too large. I began thinking about the best way to crop it.

Final, cropped version. The foreground is significantly darker and quieter. I took off some of the paint first, by wetting the area with a soft brush (to agitate the paint and make it liftable without damaging the paper) and blotting with soft tissue paper (like Kleenex). I repeated the process once or twice. Then, I covered the area with a fairly uniform wash of mixed gray (French Ultramarine + Quinacridone Red + Quinacridone Gold).

And that's the story :). I think I've lived in the desert for too long (4 years!), because I am beginning to find cool things about it and even like some of them...

If you would like to see an excellent virtual tour of the Barstow Harvey House, watch this:

Day 6 - Plein air by the Mojave River

January 06, 2014 in plein air

Today, I went on a plein air paintout with a couple of local artists. I chose a location fairly close to home, where Highway 66 crosses the Mojave River. Beautiful place with a lot of different subject matter. I spent most of my time painting the view below, though the resulting painting is "unblogably bad." I don't have much plein air experience (at least, compared to my in-studio experience) and still get easily distracted and overwhelmed with visual information when I paint outdoors. However, I keep trying and I'm sure I will be making blogable plein air paintings more often :)

Another view I painted was of a couple of Yuccas. If you don't live in the desert, chances are, you don't know what those are. I didn't. These are also called Spanish Dagger, which adds a touch of drama...The painting below is not completely finished (I added light background wash at home but didn't take a picture of it yet). I spent maybe 15-20 minutes on it and was a lot happier with it than my first painting, which took 1.5-2 hours.

22 x 15" Watercolor on hot press watercolor paper.

....And I also dropped my pastels and, when I was about to pick them up, I noticed that they looked all nice and colorful, randomly arranged on top of the gravel, almost like an idea for an abstract, and I had to take a picture. So there you go :)

Day 9 - A Landscape with a bit of Fauve

September 09, 2013 in plein air

First of all, a note to my blog subscribers. I had several people unsubscribe in the last week, most likely because they don't like getting an email from me every single day. If that is the case with you, please let me know before you unsubscribe. I can change the frequency of the updates you would receive. So, if daily dose of me is too much, but you would still like to hear form me once a week or once a month, just say so!

Also, once the current 30 Paintings in 30 Days project is over, I will definitely not blog every day. So hang in there :)

Untitled. 15 x 11" Watercolor on paper. Sold. Buy prints here.

This colorful landscape (or abstract?) is another fruit of my outing yesterday. I'm not sure what to call it yet.. . I feel that the better I get at expressing things visually, the worse my verbal ability gets. Or maybe it's about using up too much creativity on painting and not having anything left when it's time to choose a title :). Who knows? Anyway, I'm looking for your suggestions and impressions! Thanks in advance.

Day 8 - Under the Fig Tree Plein Air Watercolor Painting

September 08, 2013 in plein air

I went to the University of California Riverside Botanic Gardens to get some plein air time this morning. It's a bit of a drive for me (everything is a drive when you live in the middle of nowhere...) and it was hot. I was exhausted after just three hours. But I do like painting from life (as opposed to painting from photos) and most of the time, it's worth the drive and the discomfort. I had another artist with me, Barbara Parish, and we had a good time chatting and learning about each other. Barbara and I met through my High Desert Art Meetup group.

"Under the Fig Tree" - 11 x 15" Watercolor on paper. $95. Buy here.

I spent the first hour figuring the place out and walking the trails (which get pretty steep, by the way!) And looking for a nice shaded place with a view. This area with large leafy trees fit the bill, so I set up my easel and got to work. The painting above was the second one I did at that location. I will post the first one tomorrow.

Plein Air Paint Outs

August 01, 2013 in sketchbook, plein air

Plein air, in case you aren't in the secret circle of those who know, is a fancy (French) way of saying "outdoors" - as it relates to painting. In the last five months (right before I found out I was pregnant - though I haven't made the connection until now) I've been a lot more proactive about getting out of the house and going somewhere to make art. I started a Facebook group and, recently, a Meetup.org group to involve other local artists. It also led to an ongoing series of figure drawing sessions at the Burning House Art Studio in Apple Valley - but that's another topic worth a few more blog posts :).

While I am not new to plein air painting, it has been a long time since I pursued it with any intensity. Even now, doing it a couple of times a month is not really that intense - but I am enjoying it a lot and want to do more. I'm hoping it's possible with three little kids...we'll see. The projected arrival of kid #3 in early November has given me the momentum to start the groups and organize events. Probably because I know it will be tough to do anything for quite a while after the baby is born. So...the plan is to have fun and wear myself out so that I'm sick of art and am ready for a break from it. Or something along those lines :)

I wrote about our first, Oro Grande Sketch-out before. After that, we went to the Buddhist temple in Adelanto. The place is in the middle of nowhere (as is anything here, I suppose...this IS the middle of nowhere ;)) and it surprised me with beautiful architecture, a sculpture garden and what seemed like hundreds of birds (see video below and listen...it's beautiful).

At the same sketch-out, I met Kate of Katesfolkart , a wonderful local artists who paints scenes from the middle-of-nowhere I mentioned above and makes it look good :) She is now one of my most consistent sketch-out buddies.

I'll try to write a bit about every sketch-out we've had so far, so keep an eye out for more reports :). For now, some of my sketches from the Buddhist temple outing:

Oro Grande Antique Shops Route 66 Sketch Watercolor

Oro Grande Antique Shops Sketch-out

March 18, 2013 in sketchbook, plein air

I recently created a Facebook group to help local artists to organize meetups and get together (High Desert Art Meetup). On Saturday, we had our first sketch-out! I chose the location on Route 66, around the local antique shops. The place turned out to be a gold mine of things to sketch! Everyone enjoyed the outing.

I was pleasantly surprised when five people (not counting me) showed up. When I moved to the high desert three years ago, I was quite disappointed with the apparent lack of culture or any interest in art here. Since then, I have discovered a small community of people who share my passion. Some of the discoveries came though the Eclipse Art Gallery (which I watched develop and grow by leaps since it opened in 2010). Some people found me through the classes I teach in Apple Valley and now, Helendale.

I got to use my brand new handmade (by me!) watercolor sketchbook. It was fairly easy to make and performed beautifully. I might write another post just about the making of the sketchbook - meanwhile, help yourself to this video on coptic stitch that I learned from.

We spent about two hours walking around the place and sketching. Some people took photos. The weather was pretty close to perfect, and after the sketching session, we went to a nearby pizza restaurant for lunch. I was hoping to sketch the outside view of the restaurant itself (it has a colorful uhm...statue of a cow on its roof) but ran out of time while trying to take in as much of the antiques place as possible.

Overall, the sketch-out was a success! I'm happy that I went ahead and organized it and I was glad to spend some time doing what I love with (or, rather, in proximity of :)) people who share my passion for art. I hope we will do it again soon!

En Plein Air Pro Portable Watercolor Easel Review

December 27, 2011 in art tips, plein air, reviews

I have been using En Plein Air Pro Watercolor Easel for half a year now. I still love it almost as much as I did on the day it arrived but I have a bit more perspective on its advantages, disadvantages and uses. So here we go:

Pros:

Very lightweight (the easel proper, not counting tripod and shelf, is 1lb. 5oz)
Extremely quick and easy to set up
Fits onto any tripod via a standard tripod mount
Thanks to that, you can manipulate the angle of the board any way you like

You can buy the whole package with the easel, tripod, palette shelf, and carrying bag, or pick and choose among any of these. Since I already had a decent tripod (Slik Heavy-Duty Tripod with 3-Way Fluid-Effect Head and Built-In Bubble Level), I bought the easel attachment and the shelf.

john pikes palette on en plein air pro easel

Fits into most backpacks, which means that your entire plein air setup can be carried in one backpack (the tripod can either go inside the backpack or be attached with straps outside).
Both the easel and the shelf have holes for holding your brushes

Despite being so thin and lightweight, the easel is actually relatively sturdy. It is made out of ABS plastic, which you can bend a little - but so far, it has stayed flat and straight.
Has a lip on the bottom, so you can just prop up a sketchbook or sheet of paper against it without attaching it to the board
Has a hook for hanging a water container - nice idea, but this is also going to the "cons" section below
Compared to the heavy french easels with all of their paraphernalia, En Plein Air Pro just looks cool. Anytime I paint outside with some new people, somebody asks me about the easel.

Cons:

The above mentioned hook for the water container is on the bottom right, which makes the easel board bend and lean that way whenever a normal size water bucket (like the popular collapsible water jar) is hanging from it. I usually just put the water container in the middle of my John Pike Watercolor Palette - 15 x 10.5 which sits on the shelf. It looks like the Original Series easel has the hook in the middle. I'm guessing, the hanging water container was interfering with the user's ability to reach into the back of the shelf/palette, so they moved the hook to the side. The new Advanced Series Plein Air Pro palette shelf lets you put the water under the shelf, so you don't have to worry about those hooks at all.
Since this is a portable easel, you should probably expect to be limited in your choice of painting surface sizes. In the case of this easel, anything taller than 16-17 inches feels too big. It is definitely awkward to work on something like a vertical 16x20 piece.
Because of the angle of the tripod legs, the shelf is tilted back, towards the center of the tripod, when all three legs are extended the same amount. To correct that, I make the rear leg longer, so that the whole tripod is leaning forward. This makes the shelf level but at the expense of shifting the tripod balance. I have had it topple over at the slightest touch of my 2-year-old. (Tip. Keep those toddlers away from your easels...especially if there is something on the easels that you care about). It looks like the Advanced Series palette shelf also fixes the tilting issue by introducing adjustable tabs.
Umbrellas for plein air are not likely to work with this kind of setup. It would just be too heavy and throw the balance to the wind. But then, I don't even own an umbrella.

As with most portable setups, you have to watch out for that wind I just mentioned and weigh the tripod down. You also need to tighten the tripod mount screw quite well before attaching the easel to the tripod - otherwise, the board develops the tendency to slowly but surely rotate counterclockwise.

Because of the portability and flexibility, I use En Plein Air Pro more than my studio easel. I take it outside, I bring it to my classes, and I paint on it at home. If I didn't already have a large palette, I would likely get the Advanced palette shelf.