Author: -N-

Malibu Creek State Park, IV

Note: to see this painting a bit larger, you will need to right click on it (PC) and open in a new tab to see it bigger. WordPress has a new editor and I am not quite sure how to get it to make an image larger when you click on it. Sorry!

More Malibu Creek State Park, but this time with a different twist. The water is there – in the form of misty air. In spring and summer the coastal fog rolls in, and the landscape softens as it recedes. It doesn’t bring rain, but the environment is adapted to live on the moisture. As well, the land is often green from the rains earlier in the year.

I tried to capture this with washes and glazes, working wet-in-wet as well as rewetting the paper and adding color. This type of painting takes a patient approach (at least for me) as you have to load the paper with a bit of water and/or color, and then test it for dampness if you want things to soften and blur. It is also a fun way to express very faint geological shapes in the mountains.

Finally, oak trees. I just love these trees! Here in California they are really twisty and spooky, unlike the more upright specimens in the midwest. This one in the middle of the plain is unusual, but it is there, alone and grand.

Malibu Creek State Park, III

Round two of the creek, this time with a bit of a different approach. Glazes on the mountains, from the light one in the back, to the darker ones behind the trees.

I used frisket to block out whites for the sycamores and rocks in the foreground, along with some of the white areas on either side of the distant creek. This allowed me to splash in color more freely. I tried to make masses of color for the leaves, and left areas on the left distant mountain white, unlike yesterday’s painting, to get better foliage colors. The same with the reflections, as with yesterday – color masses. I also used a bit of white gouache to help define branches of the sycamores on both sides of the creek.

It’s been a real challenge for me to work at simplifying shapes into colors without finicky detailing. Sooooo against the way I see the world. I go chasing those sparkles, in the air on leaves, on water. Magpie Me. Anyway, more to come of a local state park!

Malibu Creek State Park, II

I tried to simplify things more in this painting by using washes and bleeding colors into them.  The foreground was tricky as there was a lot of texture from the brush on the lower left.  The same brush is on the opposite shore, but, as you can see, with a lot less detail.  Also, I decided to try to use a bit of white gouache mixed with watercolor to represent the white brush – baby sycamores? – as well as the branches of the sycamore trees.  Sadly, I didn’t really think about the leaves of the sycamores until after I had painted in the mountain in the distance, so I tried to retrieve a bit of lighter leaves in the foreground.  Not super successful, but am pleased with the effort of simplifying.

Deliverance

Before I even had time to get breakfast, look what showed up at the door!    I didn’t even hear it drive up, but suddenly Josh was (not literally) jumping up and down. Factory Five Racing was here.

What kind of car or truck did Josh choose? Mike is perusing the Factory Five Racing catalog.

The gentlemen are looking on. From left to right, Ed, Josh, and Mike. Ed has built two flying airplanes from kits, and flies his own. Now, he will also build the Factory Five 818S kit. Josh, in the middle, is the cause of all this hullabaloo. He has been wanting to build a car for years, and we have spent several looking at cars and kits, and this one fits our (his) needs. Mike, on the right, works with Ed teaching Aircraft Frame and other such stuff at the Los Angeles Adult School. Mike is also a builder of a kit plane that he flies around in.

This is the special trolley, dolly, moving device specially built to move parts into our garage, or yours if you buy your own kit.

Mark is the good man, the driver, who made the day!

This is the empty nest, awaiting its new occupant.

Mark opens up the back of the 70-foot-long 18-wheeler truck, and the fun begins.

Delivery starts . . .

and continues, with sweat running down . . . (not really, it was cool and the car panels are fiber glass) . . .

And now, the frame and paneled part – the car body – is soon to be born.

The side of the car body, hooked onto the overhead cranes, with a fender packed inside. All the guys had to hold the car steady as the fender was released from its home. It got snagged a bit on something, but Mark, Mike, Josh, Ed, and our neighbor John all got together and held it steady. I supervised, of course.

Mark pulling the magic cart. Or, maybe he was wheeling it back to the truck to get more fun stuff??

Yeppers! The body was delivered to its new home.

Jack stands are placed to hold the framework and body in place. Work will begin soon enough!

16 boxes of parts are offloaded. They need to be accounted for and inventoried individually. The tires are on back order and will arrive later. Seats will be bought, too.

The happy Mr. Josh surveys his kingdom for a moment, doubtless in anticipation of the future.

And now, on to deliver Ed’s 818S.