Zots!

The painting group gathered at "Zots", the Alpine Inn in Portola Valley. Nice day, good weather, not bad light (though not great either). Lots of interpretations on the theme of the historic building amid the trees. We had fun.

Chilly January Paddle

The weather people predicted 68 degrees. Not quite! At 10 AM it was still around 51, warmed a bit, then a light breeze chilled it all off again. Still, bright sun and no real wind made for the best paddle I've had in months. Wait....the only paddle I've had in months! Was joined by one other person from Kayaker's Alliance, which has grown sort of dormant of late. I got to try out my new Railblaza mounting system at last. Got it for my birthday, but haven't had warm enough weather to want to go out in the boat. It works very well and exactly as advertised. Now that's a nice surprise! Beats the Gopro mounting systems and my DIY stuff. I'm still learning how to use it, but it's quite versatile. I was shy of drilling holes in my boat, but this makes for a more secure system, which is what I've needed. Allows me to get angles and change them pretty much at will, without worrying about losing the camera. So I'm happy with that. However, I cannot say that paddling in Foster City is making for dramatically different scenes. Ah well, I wasn't going to the Oscars anyway.

San Gregorio

Well, better than the last time we were at San Gregorio. Here's the old broken down road house/gas station:

Really big show!

A crowd of 21 painters signed up for today's painting meetup at Princeton Harbor! Not all showed, but some who didn't register did, so the group was large. Though some peeled off before our lunch debrief, all seemed very occupied with the variable lighting. An odd winter day, sort of warm mostly, cloudy, then sunny.
At acrylics again. Honestly, I used to work very well in acrylics, but am not at all satisfied with my work in that medium of late. Seem to have more trouble with thick paint, compared to the watercolor I've been doing mostly for a couple of decades now.
Well, here's the result anyway:

San Gregorio General Store

Large group of painters today. Slow signing up, but got 8 by Saturday morning, and 12 actually showed! Quite a group. Had much fun together and gathered for chat, snacks and music afterwards in the store, which has always been a highlight of the coast for me.
Great place to paint. Aside from the obvious advantages of food, parking and bathrooms, there are numerous great landscape views, farm buildings galore, historic buildings, and people (this is a favorite stop with bikers and motorcyclists, plus car clubs.
I was trying out my new acrylic paint setup: Guerilla Painter 9x12 box on a tripod. Figuring out how to position my gear, etc. But that all worked fine.
What didn't work so fine was my poor attempt to capture a complex subject that has always interested me: the old crumbling gas station and road house. Too many lines, too many windows. Those who chose the easier side view of that same building did much better. I saw that too, but was too ambitious for my own good.
I'm having a harder time handling heavy body paints again. Hadn't done much if any acrylics for over 30 years until recently. Getting back to body paints after decades of thin fluid watercolor has been a painful learning experience. I'll get there, I'm sure, because I used to be proficient in acrylics and I like them much better than oils. With today's mediums acrylics can imitate anything possible in oil, no need to fuss with turps, slow drying, etc. They're handy, versatile, permanent and fast drying.
Just my sense of the thick paint isn't what I remember. Much harder to "draw" than it used to be. I'll get there, I suppose.
Here's the latest and don't laugh:

Painting Oyster Point

Small group today to paint out at Oyster Point Marina. But we had fun. Clear winter day with temps cold enough to be a bit challenging to paint. Not a bad result: acrylic.

Ne pleure jamais sur le vin renversé!

The painting group returned to La Nebbia Winery in Half Moon Bay today. We braved the potential rain and were rewarded with a lovely, though overcast, day.
I pulled out my 46 year old acrylic painting kit and took a whack at it. Not bad, not great.

Ridiculously Late!

Well, I was really surprised when I was clearing out my old Gopro to find that I had lots of somewhat usable (if boringly long) footage from last Summer's Bodega bike weekend. I recalled thinking I got nothing but junk, because the handlebar mount had slipped on Dave Levy's bike.

 (Dave was running the video for me, as I no longer risk riding since the bike accident.)

Quote of the trip:
       Jerry O to his Siri enabled dashboard: "Siri, direct me to this restaurant in Sebastopol."
       Siri to the car full: "Jerry, I DON'T have a map of the Ukraine."

I won't say this is the best video I've ever done, and it certainly didn't turn out the way I had anticipated. But just for fun I edited it into this ditty:

Foggy Funday

Not a bad day at all. Only 4 painters, and foggy as all get out, but we all got our paintings and had a good lunch to boot. San Gregorio State Beach south of Half Moon Bay.

These are two pastel pencil sketches, each on a different colored ground.

This one is Intense watercolor pencil, watercolor and ink.

Another No Pix Paddle

Thought I was being so clever, DIYing a Gopro pole to mount on the kayak. All kinds of plans for neat angles. Got a rotating mount to attach it to. Unfortunately, not quite stable enough to risk a $400 camera on!

So no go today for that one.

Meantime, Kunal and I had a very pretty November paddle anyway. Clear, calm water, bright sun and reasonably warm (better than predicted.) And for him, at least, an opportunity to sleep in. That never works for me. Ah Pacific Standard Time....Fall back.

So after 6 miles of 4 m.p.h. straight aerobic workout, Kunal says, "Time for our last sprint for exercise." I just laughed and explained that it wasn't in the cards for me. Four m.p.h. is almost the theoretical maximum hull speed for my boat, while his is between 7 and 8 m.p.h. He said, "You're trying to tell me that I have to be paddling at twice your speed?" No. It means that no matter how hard I paddle, I'm not going to sprint any faster than I've already been traveling.

Easy peezy paddle

Finally got off my duff and connected with paddling buddy, Kunal. What a gorgeous morning on the canals! Warm and light winds, bright October sky. Folks out in all kinds of craft. Ducks and geese.
Good speed and a very good workout. It's been a while since we did 6 miles and Kunal pushed a sprint into some headwinds at mile 4.
At the end, he said he really felt it. So did I, but glad to have done it.
Only fly in the ointment was that I forgot to charge up the Gopro, so no pix.
Have been working on a couple of creative kayak mounts to get better shots with the Gopro. First was a 2 axis gimbal to take the wobbling horizon effect out. Didn't work as planned and stopped trying to fix it.
Second was a DIY extension pole and that worked out very well. Idea is to mount this to front or back of the deck for elevated shots over my shoulder or looking down, plus good for side shots swung out from the bow/stern. We'll see how that works in practice.
Nothing to show for today but well worked muscles and satisfaction. That should be enough!

Painting Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Just 3 of us today at Pigeon Point from the painters' group. Ironically, we were in total fog and wind the whole day while the Bay sweltered in ninety degree heat! Painted one in pastel pencil, the other in Intense and watercolor. Opposite sides of the Point, BTW.
Good day out! I may even have some video, once edited.

Super Moon ("Corn Moon", "Harvest Moon") Over Foster City

Well, we had a blast! Great weather and great viewing over the canals last night.
A Kayakers Alliance meetup group of 12 met up and paddled the Foster City lagoon system to watch the sunset, then the moonrise.
We even had a basset hound all decked out in his own deck lights riding the front of one of the kayaks! He did not bay at the moon. (We did!)
Good fun.

Painting Port of Redwood City

Well, this one looks better at home than it did in the field. Still very frustrating working in oil paint. Almost said to hell with it!

Ardenwood Farm

Just 3 of us in the hot sun being over-run by a wedding party today. But I'm getting more of the hang of oil painting. Can't say that I like it as yet, though.

Promoting Samaritan House

Pen Voice - 145 - Bart Charlow from Peninsula TV on Vimeo.

Jack in a 'Yak!

Jack went for his first paddle in my kayak, Goldie. He had a blast!
At one point he decided that he was "catching a fish." When I asked where the fish was, he said, "Swimming away." Yeah, sure, the one that got away...
Row, row, row your boat.

Full Moon's A-risin' Over Foster City

This year is supposed to be the big year for moon gazing, as there will be 4 or more "super moons", when the moon is brightest since it's closest to earth.
Kunal and I took a kayak paddle at sunset in Foster City to catch the moon rising over the lagoons.
We waited....and waited....and waited....and got bored and docked. As soon as we were on land, lo and behold, the moon rose!

100 pictures?????

My painting friend, Rebecca told me that it takes 100 pictures before you feel like you're getting somewhere with oils. I can't wait for 100 pix! That's not my style.
Mark Monserrat (our "ringer") who is clearly an Impressionist pro, gave me some good pointers.
But overall, though we had some good times painting the flower fields in Half Moon Bay today with some old and new painters to the group, I'm not really satisfied with my work so far in oils.
OK, so it's only 2. But 98 more? No way!
And to make it worse (insult to injury), the cell phone photo below is a very bad representation of a mediocre painting....

What's Old Is New Again

I have stayed away from oil paints. Never took to them the few times I used them. But recently in decorating my new office I found that one painting I'd done 15 years ago looked good enough to frame and hang. Plus, many of my painting group do oils. So I thought I'd try once again. Something new to play with.

Bought a student grade wooden box and a tripod. Needed a handy friend to rig it up to work the way it should (which it now does), because this was the $60 version of a $160 kit. Took out the old water mixable oils.

Went out for a "test drive" on the oil kit yesterday. The setup worked fine. Takes a little time getting it all set up (and take down), but works as expected.

As to oil painting, I have a ways to go!

As usual with a new medium the first couple of times, it came out a bit naive to my eyes, though others liked it. Found that I need to learn how to handle the medium and water (this is mixable oil) better. Paints were also old, so not as buttery as expected.

And handling the wet painting at the end, it fell into dirt twice, and as I tried to brush it off I only destroyed some nice brush strokes! I need to figure out a lot here.

But I suppose it will all come together, as the other mediums did pretty quickly. Anyway, the ice is broken.

Let's see where this goes.

Vincent, you have nothing to fear from me.....yet!