Tag: trees

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!

Under the Trees into the Unknown

I have not been too much into cameras or photography for weeks, but with the weather changing and my garage getting straightened up (a months long project!), at least I am finding an interest in something other than my messy house!

An element of mystery always catches me when on this trail. It is not through a particularly dramatic landscape, but its overgrowth always enchants me. As evening falls, it is the stuff of dreams or fairy tales or nightmares.

I will leave you to your imagination.

Windbreak

I should have gone to my Pencil Portraits class . . . but it was raining and cold and it’s outdoors.  I’m a wuss, enjoying snow and ice from a distance.  Thus, biting cold, frost, and snow fog.  Wander along the road, beneath the trees, and remain in my snug house with a cup of cocoa and blues a-playing in the background.  Not a rough life.

Marshland

As the Midwest and other parts of the world endure and enjoy subzero weather and snow and ice, it is summer somewhere in the southern hemisphere!

Where I am, it is neither; just a crisp and lovely day, with the winter light canted lower in the sky. I really enjoy painting landscapes, imagining myself in the middle of it all. I think I need to get into town, though – my hiking boots need replacing. 😉

 

A Bit of Snow

Where I live there isn’t a very big likelihood of snow. At higher elevations, yes, but here in coastal California, 800 feet isn’t gonna get it.

So, I dream.

I’ve lived in some places with stunning countryside, such as rural Illinois, upstate New York, in the Rockies of Colorado. Snow was beautiful and thrilling. As a kid, it’s a wonderland, but I remember my mother would always kvetch about all the little mittens, the snowsuits, the boots, the scarves, the this and that to get a herd of kids dressed to play – and then ten minutes later, they are all back in the house.

Poor Ma!