Fall Colored Farmer Market Fruits

"Fall colored Farmer Market Fruits", 7"x 9 3/4", Gouache. 2012.


I ventured to the Palos Verdes Sunday farmers market to give painting on location another try.  I bought beautiful organic orange persimmons, a tasty bunch of purple grapes, a bright red pomegranate and a bunch of bright cheery yellow flowers and laid them out nicely on the table right next to the stands.  I brought my gouache paints again to capture the scene right at the market. I hope it inspired you to cook a holiday feast.

Plein air painting at the Yellow Vase.

"Some plein-air painters take considerable time to find just the right spot to paint before steeling down to work and others are painting in less than two minutes of arrival.  Often, it is the painter who sets up immediately who does the best work." ---Linda Blondheim

In the spirit of preparing for painting on location at coffee shops and restaurants of my choice, I enlisted once again the help of my artist friend Holly to join me in painting.  With only a about 2 hours before we had to leave we sat down and got to work.  Holly brought a photograph she had taken that she would paint from, and I came ready to paint whatever my eye was drawn to, to see how it would work out.

In the end Holly was able to finish her painting on location where I had to bring the half finished piece home to give it some final touches.  I loved painting at this site and would really love going back again and doing another painting inside or from photograph. I really can appreciate the challenges plein air painters face when coming to a new location. I will be more like Holly the next time I sit down to paint plein-air again.

Organic Apples! 5 different varieties.

"Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard"---Walt Whitman

After thinking about the last entry with the cupcake I realized it wasn't fair to completely shut out all hope for desserts in my life.  So here I went to Whole Foods today in preparation for a Thanksgiving full of gluten, dairy and sugar free recipe options.  What better time a year to come together and share a meal with family and friends and who says it has to be bad for you and put on the extra pounds and make you feel sick afterwards...the meal could be created with the freshest organic ingredients and reducing as much processed canned goods as possible.  That is my challenge for the next week to get ready for our firs all out healthy Thanksgiving meal.  

The first step was shopping for the organic apples today in preparation for the apple tart and apple stuffing recipes that will be made later in the week.  I found 5 varieties of Organic Apples: gala, mc intosh, braeburn, golden delicious and cameo.  I plan on peeling coring and slicing these apples up later in the week into thin slices and putting them in a pecan crusted apple tart or possibly the apple pie itself.  

I painted these bright healthy beautiful apples in gouache because I wanted to start getting the vibrancy that the watercolor doesn't always give me in a quicker time.  It was only one coat for the background bowl and a few coats for the foreground apples and they were done.  Much faster and the same ease as the watercolor.  The affect is much more opaque though so what do you think?  Delicious?  

Organic Apples, 5 different varieties, 7" x 9 3/4", Gouache.

Cupcake and Coffee.

"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love"....turkish proverb

After spending some time over at my sister's house, I realized that her living room is practically its own boutique.  It inspired me to take one of the cupcakes that Pam made for her baby shower, and a cup and saucer from her cabinet, and a blue runner from her wedding table and put it all together to replicate what it would be like to paint this same scene in a cafe on location.

Here are you can see the line drawing to complete painting all in a row.  I enjoyed painting the cupcake and coffee and look forward to painting in a cafe again soon.

Coffe and Cupcakes, 7"x 9 3/4", Watercolor.

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Fall Colored Flowers in mixed media

  "Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts." ---Dodinsky

On my search for something to brighten up the house for the fall,   I stumbled upon this lively bouquet at Trader Joes. I was immediately drawn to the bright fall colored palette with the canary yellow center of the group.   I brought the flowers home, put them in a vase and realized was taller than my eyes could see.  So I put it on the floor at eye level, soaking up its beauty, while I  brainstormed how I wanted to paint this piece.  

The intensity of the color of the flowers reminded me of another piece I did of a cactus flower with a blue sky.  I started that piece on a white bristol board with a watercolor wash for the bottom layer of the sky and the blossoms, and then went over it with colored pencil which really made the color pop. 

For this piece I decided to try this same mixed media affect with my Canson drawing paper pad and began sketching the preliminary drawing directly on the paper. I have done watercolor mixed media with colored pencils before but never with this brand of paper. 

The first photo is the start of the watercolor done on the drawing paper.  I used bright colors to bottom paint under where I wanted the flowers to be extra vibrant. 

The second photo is the completion of the prismacolor colored pencils layer on top of the watercolor. Colored pencils on top of white paper can take a while to get the intensity of color I was looking for.  I like the effect of the intensity of the color, but the canson paper tended to buckle up and bubble so if I were to do this again I would be tempted to try a bristol board or a heavier paper.

The third and fourth images of this mixed media piece I decided to come back in with pen and ink line drawings on top of the last image.  I have a complete shot and a somewhat close-up of the center flowers.  I hope you like it and can't wait to hear any comments.  

Fall Colored Flowers. 9" x 12", Mixed Media.

Flowered Plate on Placemat

"Flowered Plate on Placemat" Watercolor. 2012.

Gulls at the beach.

I decided to try and paint one more landscape before the weather changed.  I packed up my paints and gear in my large REI backpack, put on my warm layers and hiked down the stairs to the beach.  The tide was low but the sand was all soaking wet and cold.  I headed out hoping for that trigger to make me sit and spend a few hours of my life painting.  Today I found my eyes wandering less to the view of the beautiful cliffs and ocean waves, but to the group of gulls playing on these rocks near the waters edge.  So I plopped myself down in my thermarest chair, and pulled out my sketchbook.  The gulls were all grouped together at the waters edge, about 30 of them or so, looking out to sea.  A few gulls were closer to me on boulders next to a mossy log that was half buried in the wet sand.

So I sketched these wonderful gulls playing in the water, staring out to sea, realizing that they were taking turns walking up the beach to a freshwater spring that was running off the hillside.  Two by two,  they would walk up to the spring, drink some water, and walk down with the rest of the flock. 

After completing some rough sketches of the gulls, my drawing came to a hault, when two youg girls came running by and decided to chase them away from the very spot I was about to paint them.  However due to my sketches and positioning of the gulls, I was able to finish my painting with no worries.  And here is my watercolor of the gulls at the beach.

Gulls at the Beach. 8 1/2 " x 11". Watercolor.