Tag: cypress trees

At Ventura Harbor

A local group, Plein Air Ventura County, is having weekly meet-ups at the Buenaventura Art Association’s gallery during the month of August. Located in the local marina on the second floor, with galleries all around, there are views of the boats and the ocean and buildings. It’s a rather nice place to be and I have spent a lot of time there when I lived a few miles away. A friend and I packed up our supplies and trekked across the county. Traffic was a bit awful as everyone was leaving Los Angeles, but we drove on and arrived to a beautiful day at the beach.

This was my first sketch and it took the longest. Normally with ink pen I like to just get to work without an underlying pencil drawing. Here, I decided to just go ahead and do a pencil sketch as I am no expert at boats or proportions. I am glad I did as I spent a lot of time erasing before I was happy with the results to begin the inking. I spent about 90 minutes on this.

Next came this little weird succulent. It was on the gallery overlooking the marina, so I sat down and sketched it directly in ink. Plants don’t open you up to complaints about proportion (too often, anyway!), so off I went. I also wanted to see how the paper in this sketchbook would hold up to watercolor and I didn’t want to risk my boat to a poor water-paper combination. Luckily, it worked out quite well. I spent about 45 minutes on this drawing because I had to think about my colors and how thin I wanted the washes to be. In truth, this succulent was basically a silvery grey with a touch of subtle rust and green, but I needed to brighten it up.

This was my final drawing, done in about 15 minutes. It was getting into the third hour and I was getting pretty tired. So was my friend. Here, I focused on the cypress trees and a single palm, the dunes beyond the road, and the Pacific beyond the dunes. The little sail boat really was there – it was the boat or flying pelicans, and the boat was the easier choice!

It was a cool, breezy, bright day at the beach. Salty wind. I got sunburned, something I didn’t think about as I don’t hang out in the sun like I used to! It was worth it, though, as I had a good time and came home pleased with my forays, especially into the boat drawing. The succulent was easy and fun – nothing I took too seriously. On the other hand, the cypress trees always throw me a bit because of the way the foliage seems to lie flat across a tree with a few branches – simply put, a complicated flat texture is the only way to describe it.

In between each sketch, a bit of wandering around and socializing before getting back into the sketching.

Ink, watercolor, Pentalic 6×12 sketchbook.

On the Road to Somewhere

….via plane and ship!

In between everything and all the organizing and deciding and packing and griping and whining and worrying and daily stuff, I did manage to start a painting. It’s on a bit of 14×18 inch Fredrix canvas, taped to coroplast, and on the easel. It has been through multiple iterations since its inception, and still has a way to go. I will finish when we return, and I am sure I will see it all with fresh eyes.

This is not a great picture – a photograph rather than a scan – but it does show where it now stands. I thought a painting of a road and building might be fun to do. I still need to put in windows and work a bit on the middle area where the two pinky curvy bits of architecture are, as well as some of the leafy trees on the left. The photo makes it a bit askew, but the roof lines are actually straighter in the painting.

I usually work in watercolor, and that is usually a more immediate event than returning to a painting daily for a few hours. In fact, it is an altogether new experience for this impatient person, and I am finding I rather like the time I have to come and go with a painting. Having it on an easel to look at all the time is also a new experience. It let’s me look at it and review it from where I sit in the studio, typing away about it or other things. I wonder how this newfound taste and appreciation for time and painting will play out on our trip.

Golden Fluid Acrylics, 14×18 Fredrix canvas.

Swamp

Swamps are amazing ecosystems. They are forested wetlands and often serve as a barrier between a large body of water – such as an ocean – and the land. Many of the Southern states are home to a number of swamps, such as the Everglades and the Atchafalaya Basin. Unfortunately, we have lost a lot of what they once covered through changing the land with drainage, building of levees, and such. The value of these wetlands has been seen with the massive flooding and storm surges during hurricanes when waves travel miles inland, across former swamps now denuded of trees and other plants. Heavy damage to the land occurs, with homes lost, pig slop and sheep dips overflowing into water sources. With the land clearing, wildlife diversity is also lost. The swamps provide a wall between the sea and the higher, drier land, as well as add to the overall health of the planet and wildlife diversity.

Here, an impression of a swamp in Louisiana, specifically the Atchafalaya. Once more, I worked wet-into-wet. And, I added gouache, which I am beginning to find is a nice mix with watercolor. The gouache works especially well over the transparent pigments, giving solidity and depth where needed. Arches 140# CP, 16×20 paper was used.

The Atchafalaya Basin, or swamp, is the largest swamp in the US. It is home to bald cypress. over 200 species of animals, marshland, grasses, and a resting place for migratory birds. In the 1700s, after le Grand Derangement, the French settlers of “Acadia were forcefully resettled elsewhere. Many landed in Louisiana, creating a cultural enclave of Cajuns, Creoles, assimilating English-speaking peoples who married them, and now, Cajun music is to be heard worldwide. Acadian became Cajun – and if you know your French, you’ll see the linguistic change.

So, in doing all this wet-into-wet, I am having a lot of fun, loosening up, and by bringing in gouache, I am adding a different element to my painting. Combining them is worthwhile as there are qualities in each that add much to a painting.

This painting pleases me enough perchance to be framed and hung up!