Sage & Shadows

Sage & Shadows

I have been soooooo busy with everything! People, projects, classes, etc., etc. I finally got out for a bit of a hike, and brought my camera along, too, loaded with Portra 400. I used my Olympus OM-1n, which is a favorite camera of mine. The lens was the 50mm I had attached to it. Interestingly, my tape that I put on any camera with film in it told me I had loaded the film on 3/6/2021, exactly one year to the day that I was out and about!

I am always rather “hmmmmm” about Portra 400. A lot of people like it, but in post I always need to do something to it. I probably should just not use it for anything but portraits since that is what it is intended for, but I don’t often take pictures of people.

Anyway, the hike was fun – and kind of scary since I went by myself and part of it was rather steep, with fall-offs that could be treacherous. Getting old is not fun, and losing a sense of independence in some areas is not where I want to be. However, prudence was there insofar as my husband knew where I was, and I had my phone.

This is a little sage plant, newly growing in the moist soil above a creek. I couldn’t get a really nice shot of it by itself, and that is when I set my exposure and took multiple images to stitch together. In the end, I liked this composition, and just messed with it until I got something I liked.

Winter at Jalama Beach

Where have I been these last several weeks? Busy with online classes in drawing as a prelim to painting and hand sewing 18th century stays. So, I have been doing things, but have had so many other distractions that I have not been too active online here. So, today, a gouache, just because paint needs to be used to feel like a normal person.

Jalama Beach is in San Luis Obispo County along the central coast of California. It is a strange, remote beach. Winds blow the sea foam onto the sand, and it can look like very dirty snow. The first time I came here was in my teens – a long, long time ago. Then you could get abalones just by picking them up, and the beach was littered with their shells, big ones easily 8-10 inches in diameter. (Tasty critters, I will say.)

Winter time brings erratic tides, scudding clouds, and wind that can blow fierce and cold. Sandpipers and gulls wheel overhead as the wind beats you back. The wildness of the place is something that anyone who has been to a lonely beach can understand. I think I caught it (for myself at least) here.

Along the Shore

It is always worthwhile looking at the works of various painters, regardless as the medium in which they are creating. The works of Edward Seago have a charm to them which is old world, peaceful, and hearkens to a quieter and simpler time. This painting is based loosely off one of his oil painting of the eastern English coastline. What attracted me was – and is – his vast skies. The low lying shoreline beneath such a magnificent sky is worth trying out. The same may be said of the watercolors of Edo Hannema – he, too, finds the work of Seago, and Edward Wesson, as sources for inspiration.

In Southern California, the sky, where I live, is almost always blue. No clouds, little haze. Humidity sits at zero. (I won’t discuss the vast amount of lotion I use!) However, the big skies of the midwest with towering clouds, or the piles of clouds over New Mexico, are in my memory, and so the clouds and moist skies of a wetter clime draw me.

Here, I used the 1.5 inch flat brush for 90% of the painting, resorting to a small flat brush – 1/4 inch – for some detail. Large washes, wet into wet, some glazing. Paper is Arches 140# CP, 16×20. The large brush is becoming a favorite for sure!

The large brush helps me keep my colors clean and think about masses rather than details. Big to small. I am also refreshing my water as I move along – this took about 2 or 3 refreshes – and cleaning off my palette, too. With a large brush, large washes, a lot of color is used. Clean palette, clean water, and, of course, a clean brush. The results are beginning to be seen.