Sunday, July 24, 2011

Botanical Gardens in Tilden Park, Berkeley, CA

Workshop/Demonstration by Artist Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez:

Membership in the East Bay Plein Air Painters has many benefits. The ability to paint a couple of times a month with various talented artists and the yearly dues gives the membership access to workshops/demonstrations during the paint-out schedules. This year's workshop/demonstration was conducted by local artist Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez* at Tilden Park's Botanical Gardens.

It was a overcast and cool day (usual in California for the Berkeley Hills area in the summer). The demonstration was one of the best I've attended. Rebeca gave us a running commentary of her process in capturing the scene before us in her painting. She explained her techniques with acrylic painting methods and gave us all pointers on composition, value and color harmony.


After the demo, I was able to get about the Garden and attempt some sketches of the various flora and fauna (as well as see what the painters were up to!). Even on a foggy day - there were marvelous views along the winding and climbing pathways.


Later I added some pen and watercolor to my pencil sketches and went back down to the "flatlands" for a bite to eat.
Here's a sketch that I made from photos of Rebeca (and a hummingbird that was spying on one of the artists at work that day). The hummingbird sat very still on that branch so I could get a zoom photo of it.


* Rebeca is also one of the founding artists of a similarly named plein air group (the collaborative East Bay Painters). Check out their blogs: East Bay Landscape Painters and the East Bay Figure Painting.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sketchcrawl 32 - July 23, 2011

Berkeley Horticultural Garden (Tilden Park)


Sketchcrawl Saturday found me in Berkeley with the East Bay Plein air Painters at a workshop (more about that later). Anyway, after the demonstration I had a chance to get around the garden and very quickly pencil in some impressions (ink and color added at home).

This sketch was of some interesting trees in the meadow area that had a very colorful orange litchen or moss growing on it.
The flowers below were found all over the garden entrance. The white ones are Matilija Poppies and they can get very large.

After the workshop I had dinner at Nation's Giant Hamburgers in El Cerrito.
I had a lot more time to sketch and ink in the burger place. The burger was tasty too!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Pastel Workshop at Knowlton Gallery - Lodi Part I

July 16th & 17th - Lodi
I attended a pastel workshop given by Gil Dellinger in Lodi. Gil is one of the premier pastel artists in California and exhibits his work nationally and internationally. We are lucky to have him available for this workshop through Knowlton Gallery (one of my favorite galleries). Here he is demonstrating his pastel technique to the class. His completed pastel painting of Lake Louise is included below.



Below are my efforts in this class - somewhat different from my usual pastel paintings. I found it difficult to work from photographs I hadn't taken. Gil provided the class with excellent photos he had taken as subject matter (or we could bring in one of our own).

"Cows in Autumn" (9" x 12" pastel on Canson paper - Artist Janice L-H)

In this second painting - it was the first time I had worked with the sandpaper surfaced paper and it was from one of my own photos taken earlier.

"View from the Castella Moat" (9"x 12"pastel on Wallis paper - Artist Janice L-H)






My fingers got a little raw from using them to blend on this paper! Next time I need to invest in finger cots!




I hope that I will be able to work more like this on location - with a bit of my usual style added in!


Here are a couple of blog post by terrific local artists on painting from photo references:



Monday, July 4, 2011

Sketching in Isleton on a hot June day

The day after the Davis Sketchcrawl, I drove up to the little Delta community of Isleton. Known for their "Cajun Festival" in the summertime, the Benicia Plein Air Painters were gathering for one of their weekly Sunday paintouts. I arrived a little late, but was able to get in a couple of sketches before I had to head out home.