Memories of Rialto Beach

Several years ago Josh and I spent a few weeks traveling around the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington. It was such an amazing place! In particular I loved the Hoh Rain Forest and the beaches – vast, wide, wild.

The thing that amazes me about the northern Pacific beaches, ones in Oregon and Washington – as well as into Canada – are the sea stacks. They are tall rocks, worn away by wind and wave, but they are not barren. Pine trees grow on them – some have more, some have less. I think it would be a wonderful thing to live on one, in a warm cave (with running water and few other things!), to be at one with the sounds of the world . . .

More pen and color. This time I tried to have a more delicate touch with color. I inked in most of the drawing with a fine Micron pen, added color – mostly cool – and then drew more lines and dots with a thicker pen to outline and add textures. The sky was done after wetting the paper and dropping in color.

And that’s it!

Carpinteria Bluffs

Another attempt at acrylic painting. This time I used a sheet from a Fredrix linen pad. I gessoed it and then used, initially, the Open medium with the paints, but I didn’t like the way it was working, and so switched to regular matte medium to dilute the paints. I tried to use the paints fairly straight out of the tube, blending with white and matte medium. The result was a fairly thick paint that behaved well.

The Carpinteria Bluffs are located in the southernmost section of Santa Barbara County, just above the border of Ventura County, where I currently live. Carpinteria was home for many years and always enjoy returning, especially in summer when the light shifts and everything has a glow of its own. Eucalyptus trees and other plant life make for a wonderful walk along the cliffs above the Pacific, and across the Santa Barbara Channel are the various islands that make up the Channel Island National Park. This might be San Miguel Island, but I can never remember which one is which!