San Juan Bautista

Great time painting today in San Juan Bautista. 18 painters and 2 spouses. We had quite a crew! Great weather and so much to paint in every direction. Here's my acrylic. If it looks familiar, that's because I painted a similar scene about 3 months ago in gouache.

What if you really hate your painting?

Took the Burlingame Plein Air Painters to Fort Baker - Point Cavallo today. Had a lovely day painting. And the icing on the cake was my sister, Jan, joining us to paint for her first time in 30  some odd years and first time in acrylics and first time outdoors (pretty much). She enjoyed it mightily and outdid me in quality painting too!

My pochade box slide froze again and I couldn't get to most of my painting supplies. Very frustrating, but in reality, it's not a good excuse for a mediocre painting.

Anyway, here it is:

Montara Redux

Back to Montara Light House with the group today. Large fun group, great scenery, but didn't like my painting. Had wanted to do another scene entirely. Given that it was on a cliff side with heavy winds, I didn't feel safe enough spreading out to paint from there. So I repeated a scene from 2 years ago; last time in watercolor (liked it better), this time in acrylic. It is what it is.....

Paddling with Kunal

Had a nice morning paddle with my old kayaking buddy, Kunal. We haven't paddled together in a year or more (he says two) and we're both out of practice and shape. But nice to get out on the water.

Was testing my new Blackbolt timelapse rotator with the Gopro. Worked as expected, except that my mistake was using a tether on the camera, which stalled the rotation at 200 degree or so. Won't make that mistake next time. Also using Power Director to do the vids, which has lots of special effects, some better than others, but having trouble getting it to output regular HD 1080 quality. Otherwise, not bad at all.

Wonderful Wunderlich Park

We had a great time in very warm weather in the woods at Wunderlich Park stables today. Almost 20 people! Lots of good painting going on. Mine didn't turn out too bad, but again, the photo distorts the color into the blue range and I'm not able to totally fix it in Photoshop (at least not without spending hours more on fixing than on the actual painting!)

Painting the Hole in the Rock

Out at Pescadero today with the painters doing the Hole in the Rock. Painted this same scene 35+ years ago. Not really sure this one came out better, but at least the color is more saturated. Not sure why I overpainted the brighter colors, though, and that was a mistake. Ah well. Good day anyway.

Eh

Not very happy with this one. Not enough time after museum visit at the Legion to see the end of the Bonnard exhibit. Great exhibit, though.

Painting rushed and more from my head didn't work as well. Using Turner Acryl Gouache for third time, but much preferred my rendition of San Juan Buatista. In that case, was working from real life and taking my time to work the medium. This time really just slapped this together.

Ah well, they can't all be masterpieces.... LOL

Return to Portola Vineyards - Spring Has Sprung!

Had a blast today in 80 degree spring weather with the Burlingame Plein Air Painters. Returned to the private Portola Vineyard for painting and wine tasting. Very good wines, BTW! Picked up Almendral, their version of an almond liqueur. Painted this view back toward the gardens, rather than the vines, which were barely in leaf.

Good Painting Day -- Mediocre Scans

Down the highway at Mission San Juan Buatista on the way to Monterey for a conference. Had some good hours painting, first of an historic house in pen and watercolor pencil, then of the mission church using acrylic gouache (a new medium for me).

Another Try at Princeton Harbor

Back at the HMB Princeton Harbor site with the painting group. Very large bunch today. Not a bad attempt; looks better in person.

Tall Ships Not a Tall Order....

Was supposed to paint today at Redwood City Harbor, but rain was getting in the way. Sent out a belated "cancel" message to the painting group, but went anyway to see the tall ships. Turns out that the rain held off and 7 of us painted anyway. BTW, tall ships are fun, virtually free to visit, and there through next Sunday - a must for kids!
Here's the result of my quick sketching:

Coyote Hills Regional Park

Who knew that there were hills this high in the Bay? Unfortunately, they were so high compared with the visitor parking, that it was too high to hike up for better views of the rocks and the Bay vistas. But the views of the marshland were pretty good anyway.

Out painting at last!

At long last, we got a clear day for painting. Sure, cold and windy at Treasure Island, but at least no rain. Was totally dissatisfied with my picture and almost threw it away. Turns out everyone was frustrated trying to paint the marina, and most simply skipped it or painted over it. I kept mine. Boats in a marina are too complicated - too many lines and angles. But it was good to at least get out there again and paint. The flash washed out the center of the image, BTW.

Urban Painting

Yesterday we gathered at Courthouse Square to paint an urban setting. It was collllllddddd! Got a decent pic, but it feels sort of empty to me. No people (there weren't any at the time I painted to model). All Chroma Atelier Interactive paints in this one.

Some Pix of Me Painting

Chilly in them thar hills!

Meetup painters out in the Purissima Creek Redwood forest preserve on a very cold and damp morning. Not the best, but it does work (and the scans and pix taken by my cellphone have a tendency toward blue and washing out yellow, so color is inaccurate.) Having trouble with greens, as most painters seem to do. A bit of impasto here that you cannot see.

In fact, I didn't notice until cleaning up that my fingertips were numb! 

BTW, both my scanner and my cell phone camera, which is where I start to upload, have a blue tint bias. That means that yellows are washed out and I can only compensate so much in Photoshop for that. What's odd is that I'm always painting outside where the light is naturally bluish most of the time. For all I know about color, it makes it very hard for me to demonstrate online so far the actual value, hue and chroma range of my painting, which is frustrating. Equally so, when I take them indoors, the color shift under artificial light of almost any kind is frustrating.

Portola Vineyards

We had a great time today painting the turning leaves on the vines at Portola Vineyards. Lovely little organic winery with some good wines to boot; wine tasting of course! Great spot to return in Spring, when the leaving begins amidst the flowers.
For some reason neither my scanner nor my Android phone gets the colors quite right, but at least here's the result for today:

The Holy Land and the Middle East

Back from our trip to Israel and Jordan. Had a good time and connected with some realities of the region. Didn't have enough time or inspiration in the right places to paint as much as I had expected, but got in these four anyway:

church at Old Jaffa

impression of Old Jaffa covered alley

Jerusalem stone

Jerusalem street scene from our hotel 

Israel was not what I expected at all. Despite 200,000 years of human habitation and an incredible amount of human history, almost all of what I saw was basically either modern (mid-20th century) or modern mixed in with some older structures, with the exception of the Old City in Jerusalem. Yes, we did visit Caesaria Roman ruined port city and the Crusader castle in Acre (Akko), plus Safed (Tsfat). But even with that said, this is a modern country that felt closer to the US than even to Europe. In fact, cousin Yossi says they are the "51st State", and he may have a point there.

Cannot tell you how impressed I am now with the achievement of the Jewish state. What they have built and pioneered in less than a century is nothing less than a miracle. They have truly made a desert bloom in so many ways. And their industrial base (read more tech than manufacturing) is the envy of every nation that isn't prejudiced against them. They are leaders, and in those ways we would be wise to take a lesson.

Our experience of Israelis in the US has often been "pushy". We didn't experience them that way at all in their home country. Friendly and relaxed, but taking care of business in a way that wasn't obsessive (vs. the US and German style).

For some reason, Israelis don't seem to take to their train system, which is basically along the coast and to Jerusalem, though it's as good as anything in Europe in standard trains. They go for their buses or mini-bus "sherut" system. It all works, and it proved much easier to navigate once there than we were able to find out from the States. So you don't need a car, but the roads are excellent if you want to drive anyway.

Food was off the charts! The few Middle Eastern dishes we had were always a revelation compared to their US imitations (falafel, hummus, etc.) You can get pretty much anything you want from any cuisine there and it's all good and ridiculously ample. Portions were always at least double what we would have expected. Two people can share any dish! 

As to the rougher side of the Middle East, it's amazing how close together and knit together the Arab/Palestinians and Israelis are. We felt safe there, despite the troubles. The Israeli police and IDF presence was really strong due to the random violence while we were there, though. We both felt bad for the average Palestinian (or anyone looking Arab, even if Israeli citizens). They get treated to suspicion and hassle, and you can see how it contributes to their frustration. However, the Israelis are in a tough spot where they cannot let down their guard for long and are portrayed improperly as oppressors, when all they're trying to do is be safe among their neighbors who are definitely desirous of having them leave the area altogether. And you can see how uneven the treatment by the UN and the Arab nations/peoples are with regard to Jewish worship places. I'm not agreeing with right wingers like Netanyahu, of course, but do see how difficult this is.

Tel Aviv was Miami Beach/Miami Dade in the 70s to me. Couldn't have imitated it better if they had tried. Not much to recommend there and Old Jaffa is so small and limited as an attraction.

Jerusalem felt like a beautiful city and peaceful by comparison, but it does shut down a lot for Shabbat.

Safed was a fun little hill town with some real art among the many tourist oriented places. We felt very much at peace there.

Roman Jerash in Jordan was well worth the trip as was spectacular Petra, though the bus rides were interminable to get there. I saw nothing else to recommend Jordan, including ugly Amman.

Not much else to say other than that we were both glad we finally went. Loved spending time with relatives in their true home, and whenever anyone found out we were Jewish, they usually said, "Welcome home."

Bedwell Bayfront Park painting

A little fun in the early Fall sun with the painters today. Bedwell Bayfront Park is little known, but really quite nice. Rolling hills with tree variety and fences, salt ponds and Bay all around it, then the mountains ringing the Bay. Lots to choose from.
The cell pic (like my scans) does not do the color justice, but this is close enough.

Pumpkin Patch

Went back with the painters to "R Road" in Half Moon Bay. Flower fields, but more pumpkin fields now. Not a bad day painting, though the weather turned cold and almost rainy!