The end. We were caravanning back thru the windy Kern river gulley and finally stopped to clamber down the ravine to the cold river, already hazing over, a little bit of fog creeping in and getting really cold and dark. It was speed painting 101 as we hurriedly slapped paint on canvases. This is supposed to be black water surrounding rock but dammit, we just lost the light. A plein aire artist's dismay--gorgeous scenery, but landscape turning into no contrast, no light picture. Oh well-- we tried.

I am trying to get a feeling of perspective here, and even tho not done, you can still get a sense of inspiration, a freshness, and if we had had more light, this one had lots of promise.

Laura Wambgans was on fire searching for her sycamores to paint along the river. Laura, I will chase light with you any day. (see her entry on her blog on the right)

Sunday morning: better rested and centered. We went to a small iced over lake to paint the surrounding mountains. No real memorable piece was painted by me, but the experience was invaluable and thoroughly inspiring and enjoyable. It was the process that is going to catapult me into a better painter. At least, for now these paintings do not have enough brushstroke variation or design...at least not yet...!

The bottom one was the "I ran out of time" painting.

WEEKEND PAINT OUT: Four of us artists went to R ranch this last weekend. This is past Bakersfield, past the Kern river to a southern Sequoia forest. This is the first painting done in a creek bed. It is the warm up for the weekend.

During the last 2 years at Disney, I did a lot of watercolor figure in Bob Kato's class, and you can see the watercolor influence with this washed out acrylic on canvas paper.

Finished!

Another quick 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ACEO card. The redlandscape and these redwoods will be available to purchase on ebay starting this weekend.