Impressions of San Gregorio State Beach

Scanning – sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. It is usually better than trying to take a photo of a painting though . . . .

I used Epson V600 Epson Scan on one of these; VueScan on the other.

Above was done using VueScan. It captures the colors better but is a bit dark. Below, the greens of the trees and bushes are better captured.

More of the colors show up using Epson Scan, but they are a little too intense.

Sigh.

The fact is that scanning and post-production can really influence how a painting looks. This goes whether the painting is scanned and interpreted using software, or photographed, and then interpreted and adjusted using software. If you look up a painting on the internet and then look at all the images of it, you know what I mean – colors can vary dramatically.

All this techno speak aside, I like them both for different reasons. Both do capture the moodiness of the original watercolor, which I like. Perhaps that is the most important thing – the mood is caught?

Watercolor, Arches 140# CP, 10×14.

Winter in the White Mountains

It is exactly a week before Christmas. Today, in SoCal, the wind is blowing, there are fire warnings, and it is about 77F (25C). It is a bit warm. Snow seems to be a good subject to watercolor!

The focal point of painting this picture, besides wanting a bit of snow for the season, is to see if I could catch the softness of the bare birch trees that act as a barrier between the snowy foreground and the mountainous background. Anyone who has seen the leafless birch trees at a distance knows that there is a sort of haziness as all their branches overlap and merge into a softness with some detail and without much detail at all.

I used a relatively limited palette – mostly ultramarine, Hooker’s green, burnt sienna and umber. In some areas I used titanium white gouache, partly to place definite snowy details as well as to blur into the birch branches to create that softness I wanted to express.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon out of the wind!

Watercolors, Arches 140# CP, 10×14, some gouache.

Beach at Saint-Malo

Remember the story All the Light We Cannot See? Ever since, the city has intrigued me. The story is worth reading, and if I remember, the movie was decent as well.

This painting was a quick one, and it turned out pretty good in my opinion. The point was to just paint, as well as to try out a new-to-me watercolor paper. This paper is St. Cuthberts Mill’s Bockingford paper. It seems to be a fairly soft paper as the tape around the edges of the painting pulled up some of the paper even though the tape was on the paper itself for only a short time. Using the heat of a hair dryer solved this problem, like it usually does. I liked this paper, though it does buckle a bit more than I expected when wet, but in the end it has proven to be well behaved.

Initially I scanned this painting on my Epson V600 scanner using the Epson software. Contrast was harsh and the sky barely showed up. I have had issues with watercolors and the software before – not at all pleasant to see – and then I suddenly remembered I have VueScan by Hamrick. I closed out the Epson software and fired up VueScan – and, oh, what a beautiful difference! This software is something I bought years ago, and I never really thought about using it for watercolors – I use it for photos I plan to run through Negative Lab Pro. Well, I guess I will have another use for it as well! Sheesh.

Watercolor, St. Cuthberts Mill Bockingford, 12 x 16, CP 140#.

Under a Rain of Acorns

Yesterday I decided to finally go on a bit of a hike by myself. With a bit of trepidation, I told people where I was going, had my phone, and watched where I put my tootsies. The result was a slow meander, camera in hand, down the Chumash Trail. Housed within the area of this park is the Chumash History Museum, closed weekdays, but worth a visit.

Overhead, the half moon could be seen above the trees and glimpses of the mountainous ridges above. The pathway beneath the trees was dark and shadowy.

Though it is just weeks away from winter, here in SoCal we are experiencing dry weather, sometimes warm, sometimes cold. This morning I woke to the news that Malibu is, once again, in flames. An ironic bit as I thought I should walk down the Chumash before it burns again as I knew the east winds were on their way.

My favorite old, old tree is gone, with only a reminder of its former grandeur and an empty sky overhead.

Grasses, flowers, poison oak, toyon were present, too – some plants I could name, others I could not, but it was just a pleasure to be out, looking for deer and squirrels – listening to the birds – canyon wrens mostly, an occasional crow – and to the patter, patter of the acorns.

And, of course, everywhere are oak trees! Some scorched, some fallen, some cut down and left to return to the earth after the fire. Each tree has its own lovely and crazy shape and form, like dancers bending and arching. The Chumash Trail is a magical place and one which soothes the soul as only a walk under the trees can . . .