Just a random shot out of the side of the house which faces west. Early evening, so the lights were on and the last of the sunset can be seen through the trees and windows. Not sure which camera I used for this – Trip 35 or Oly XA4. I don’t even remember taking it – but do know I rather like it.
This is one of those little gems you come across when playing around YouTube. This one is so much fun, so 1950s, and makes me think of the movies we were shown in school, in black and white, in the dark basement of the school built in the 1880s, and the movie projector that sputtered along. Certainly makes me nostalgic for a simpler life.
Hmmm.
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.
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!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 