Plein Air or Studio?

This is Asilomar State Beach, the first place I set up an easel to paint plein air, which means feet in the sand, wind in my hair, hair in my eyes, and easel fighting gravity.

This is my painting of Asilomar Beach, brought into submission in the confines of my painting workshop (i.e. studio).

This is Carmel Beach, voted the most beautiful beach in California or the US or ???, as first painted while sitting on a park bench, balancing a pochade box on my lap with my palette of paints on the bench beside, all the while wishing I was down on the sand with my feet in the water, minus the painting.

This is my painting of Carmel Beach, brought into submission in the painting workshop, with the able assistance of some photos where things hold still for a pair of minutes and color can be actually seen rather than squinted and guessed at in the bright sun (or deep shade)

But I’m perfectly neutral on the topic, as you can see.

P.S. At the opening reception of my show Simply Home, an acquaintance of many years said to me, “I’m going to tell you something that will make you mad.” Then he proceeded to say, “You draw better than you paint.”

What would he have said if he’d seen my plein air paintings before I retouched them??

Simply Home

Lemon Cove Oranges, 16×16″, SOLD

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

P.S. This painting is the one chosen for the publicity for the show. Yes, it is oil on wrapped canvas, but I’m tired of typing that and fairly certain that you are tired of reading it too.

Plein Air Painting in Monterey: the Area

Today I will show you photos from the area. There are so many that I will just do it as a “gallery”, which is a collection of photos without all the chit-chat. Okay, maybe a tiny bit of chit-chat to explain 2 of the photos. Or maybe 3.

This is the sad little house that my drawing student is working on. A drawing of the house, not the actual house.
This was the very first structure one of my long time students drew a very long time ago

Simply Home

Today’s painting from Simply Home, a solo show at CACHE in Exeter.

Take Me Home. . . 16×20″, oil on wrapped canvas, $650

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

Plein Air Painting in Monterey: Sunset and Sundries

Although I am still going on and on about the week of plein air painting in Monterey, now that Simply Home has opened, I will show a painting from the show each day until I either run out of paintings or run out of days.

Each evening I ate dinner quickly, grabbed a to-go cup of decaf coffee, and scooted down to the beach for a little time before our evening gathering sessions. Everyone loves sunset at the beach in California, but most people stayed at the tables conversing and having dessert. It was just too loud in there for me, and the beach was calling.

I never did see the green flash because the sky was never clear in the west. Besides, I’ve never seen the green flash and wonder if it really exists or if it is like Sasquatch.

These photos are beautiful, but in Plein Air World, it is VERY BAD to paint from photos. You may use them for reference, but if you aren’t painting on location, your paintings will be SUBSTANDARD. So there.

(Oh yeah? Whatcha gonna do about it, eh?)

There were a few oddities that caught my eye throughout the week. (I used “sundries” in the title because of the alliteration.)

This car was parked near me when I sat on a wall painting. A very dressed up young woman appeared briefly, but I was too engrossed in my work to figure it out. Probably engagement photos.

This was behind the counter where we got our meals.

Yeppers, me too.

This house was next to the building where we had our Rah-rah sessions, and one evening it was lit up like this. Too bad about the car in front. I could paint it; our Fearless Leader told us to only paint houses when there are clearly cars there to indicate that the owner is home, because then you are likely to sell the painting! I was too busy to stand around painting houses.

Simply Home

Here is painting #1 from Simply Home.

Sunset Over the Kaweah, 16×20″, oil on wrapped canvas, $650

CACHE Gallery hours are Fridays 1:30-4:00, Saturdays 10:00-4:00, Sundays noon-4:00.

Plein Air Painting in Monterey: Friends

As we spent time painting or at meals or meetings, we gradually got to know one another and learn names, although there was a lot of name-tag reading all week long. I met John Lynch of Toronto on the first day, so his name got cemented into my overloaded memory.

John spent several mornings working on the same painting. The last morning, I almost shouted, “YOU NAILED IT!”, but I managed to keep my voice down, and he graciously talked to me about the importance of plein air painting. I wish I had recorded his wisdom.

John Lynch’s morning painting. I think this is his website, but I am not sure because he isn’t wearing the Fall Color Week hat in the photo here. He was very skilled, kind, and knowledgeable.

Liesel, my Roomie, cranked this out in one manic session. It sold immediately, and she will be making prints. Here is her website: Liesel Lund Fine Art She is a terrific painter who approaches art entirely differently from me, absolutely committed to making “joyful impressionist” work, which fits with her joyful personality. This is my favorite of her paintings, and although I hinted outright, she didn’t turn it into a roommate gift. (We are exchanging calendars of our work for 2025.)

Eric Rhoads, our fearless leader, is possibly the highest energy, most positive can-do (and does it all) man I’ve ever met. He is the publisher of Plein Air and Fine Art Connoisseur magazines, a producer of how-to painting videos, author of an art business book (out of print), organizer of plein air expos and retreats, and those are only the things that I remember off the top of my head.

Eric was Our Mighty Enthusiastic Fearless Leader and Charlotte became my hero by saving my week with the loan of her extra pochade box.

I met another Jana, whose last name I never learned. She noticed my name tag and introduced herself on Day 5. We were just tickled to run into someone else with the same not-so-usual name, but I never saw her again. Her husband was there to film an instructional video for Streamline Publishing, and I only got his first name of “Frank”.

This is me with Roomie on the last day when we were so happy to have been together for a week.

Simply Home

And one more reminder of Saturday’s show opening:

Architecture at Asilomar

Many of the buildings at Asilomar were designed by Julia Morgan, the architect best known for designing the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. She is also known for many fine buildings in Berkeley, AND a building at the Springville Hospital (for TB) here in Tulare County, now torn down due to earthquake standards.

Pencil drawing of Wayside at the Springville Hospital

Roomie and I were assigned a room in The Stuck-up Inn.

Our room was shockingly small for two people and all the painting gear. The room assignments were a mystery, because some of the people who paid for a single room had rooms that were much larger. Weird.

It had rooms around a central courtyard, where I sat to paint one afternoon after I had a fight with my easel.

I thoroughly enjoyed the living room each morning before the sun came up. It was a place to be alone (so thankful no one else thought of hanging out there!), to stretch, to read, and to experience some solitude before taking a pre-breakfast walk at (or on) the beach and joining the teeming mass of painters.

In spite of the space limitations, I was completely charmed by the age and the details of the building. As Roomie said, it forced us to spend more time out painting. I was very thankful for the fact that we were so compatible.

Crocker Dining Hall
Main building/lodge/office/etc.

Next time, I will show you photos of the sunrises and other things that caught my attention in this week of painting in Monterey.

Meanwhile, back to reality:

Plein Air Painting in Monterey, Day 6 (PM)

Piños Point Lighthouse was pulling me, just like that Rocky Creek Bridge. I love architecture and really like to paint (and draw) a blend of man-made and God-made subjects.

The trouble was that the lighthouse has very limited hours. By the time I finished painting at Lover’s Point Park, there were only 1-1/2 hours hour left when the lighthouse would be open. Since it cost to get in, I didn’t think such a limited time was worth the money—by the time I got set up and really into the painting, it would be time to go. So, I drove around looking for a few different views.

I finally found a place next to the adjoining golf course with the lighthouse in the distance. It isn’t perched on the cliffs, but is back a ways. You can see it isn’t ideal, but sometimes an artist has to do what she has to do.

This time I decided to draw directly on the canvas panel, to save some time.

Now, where will I put my little stool? There is no space, and it makes me too low. My main limitation (besides finding a parking place) was that when I sit, there are often shrubs blocking the view. In this case, it was a picket fence.

AHA! I will sit on Fernando’s hood, a less than ideal situation, but remember, sometimes an artist has to do what she has to do.

I got a few basics down, and realized it was ridiculous to paint that way. The slant of the hood (“HEY! Get back here, paintbrush/palette knife/palette/paper towel!”) along with the wind raging from the ocean behind me made it untenable. So, I took some photos to use later.

Forget this. I am a studio painter, and I need to sit quietly and look at my photos to complete this painting. I returned to Asilomar and set up in the living room of the lodge where I was staying.

Alrighty then! I like this, and will like it better when I detail it to pieces.

This was a good way to end my 6 days of painting at Fall Color Week at Asilomar. I will show you some other parts of the week in a few more blog posts.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. . .

Plein Air Painting in Monterey, Day 6 (AM)

Five days of painting plein air should have built some skill and some confidence. I learned two things: I paint better alone, and I paint better when there is no sense of being rushed. So, I headed to a place called Lover’s Point Park in downtown Pacific Grove.

I skipped the morning Rah-rah meeting—fun, painting tips, instructions but a waste of good painting time, left earlyish in my own car, and found a perfect parking place in the shade. It was close to a wall where I could sit with the borrowed easel box on my lap and my stuff on the wall next to me. Before setting up, I walked around a bit to choose a location. Yes, I was influenced by the proximity to Fernando (my car).

Next, a sketch. Choosing a view and doing these sketches reminds me of choosing something from a dinner menu at a great restaurant. Anything is great, so there’s no need to spend a lot of time dithering.

This’ll do.

Let’s go!! I felt confident enough to paint 11×14″, knowing that no one was waiting for me to finish, and not getting all bowed up about how fast the light was changing. I also didn’t overhear anyone else talking about “gorgeous light”, “yummy colors”, or “a pop of color”, or how they needed to “scrape” their painting because it was awful. All this chitchat stresses me out, although I can’t say exactly why that is.

It’s always good to step back, something that’s a bit harder to do when sitting with an easel box in one’s lap.

Might be good to photograph the scene again.

I kind of like this one, but still think I can do better in the studio. It was a fun place to paint, with lots of people stopping by to admire or ask questions. I talked to 3 little kids who all love to draw, and gave each one a business card, “free art”.

Painting Plein Air in Monterey, Day 5 PM

The fog came in thick. We had planned to go to Big Sur, and took the chance that the fog would have cleared.

Nope. Our hope was to go the viewpoint just north of Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, where a big deal painter named Bill told us to go in order to paint his favorite view of any place on the coast around Monterey. We could see exactly nothing.

I asked Roomie if she knew what was special about it, and she said it is the only place in California (or the west coast? or the world??) where a waterfall hits the ocean.

Move on, folks. Nothing to see here.

We were tired, had a lot of things scheduled that day including the evening, and didn’t want to hoof it down the trail lugging out painting gear, risk it looking too foggy, only to have 2 hours before we had to head back (we were maybe 1-1/2 hours from Asilomar).

We leaned over a bridge in the park to look at the stream which becomes the waterfall.

These are sequoia sempervirens, not our sequoias, which are sequoia gigantea.

Painting-wise, it was a disappointing day. No bridge, no Big Sur view, only one painting. But Roomie and I enjoyed each other’s company and enjoyed the drive. The last time I was on that road was on foot, in April of 2010. A friend and I walked the Big Sur 21-Miler. It was awesome! (The photos look a little weird in that post because WordPress is like every other tech platform, always updating, which we all know is a euphemism for “complication”.)

Plein Air Painting in Monterey, Day 5 (AM)

Day 5 was scheduled for painting at Rocky Creek/Rocky Point, and Rocky Creek bridge, which is shaped like the Oak Grove Bridge (but built 10 years later.) We drove to Rocky Point Restaurant, which is closed, but has a decent parking lot and some trails out to the point.

Looks easier than waves.

Better do a sketch first to see if all is well with this arrangement (“composition” in Artspeak). Yeppers, I can really draw, but little sketches like this serve as a map for how I hope the painting will turn out. I made the water area larger than it actually appeared while I was perched on my little stool, feet propped on a rock.

This one felt like a slog. I really wanted to paint that bridge, but it was tiny in the distance and barely visible in the mist and morning sun. I hadn’t driven so I couldn’t go looking for a better spot, and Roomie’s car was a rental so I couldn’t borrow it. Nobody was heading back to Asilomar so that I could get my car, so I just buckled down to work.

There was a crew of about 3 guys working. “What are you doing?” “Collecting seeds to rehab”. I learned later that the rehab project was paid for by a private individual. They were getting the fuzz from coyote bush, and one other that they didn’t know the name of in English.

Oh-oh, here comes the fog.

Bye-bye, view. Guess I’ll have to finish this from memory.

The view was gone-zo, just like the easel that I broke up with on Monday. I guess everyone out there on the point were also painting from memory.

Someone named Ryan Something-or-other was painting the painters while making a video about plein air painting.

I’m guessing it will be available for sale on Streamline Publishing in a few months.

I thought this lady looked kind of neato painting in the fog.

Plein Air Painting in Monterey, Day 4 (PM)

We were told that Carmel Beach was voted the Best Beach in the country. Or maybe it was on the west coast, or maybe “just” in California. It was tricky to find parking, and a place to paint sitting down in the shade. I found a low bench but was still able to peer over the shrubbery and through the cypress trees.

This time I used a miniature pochade (pronounced “po-SHOD”) box with a bungie cord holding the 8×10″ canvas board. Since I was on a bench, I put my palette next to me. The box lid is the support, but it wobbles because I dropped it in the workshop a week before I left and busted a hinge. Sigh. It has an attachable palette, but I didn’t want one more little thing to struggle with and ultimately get paint all over stuff because I was unfamiliar with how it worked.

Good enough to fix later. I NEED to walk on the beach!

The water was much farther away than it appeared, and the waves were MUY FABULOSO.

That gal waited until the waves got a bit tamer, and then she went in. I told her that I thought she was brave, and as I was waiting to see what she was going to do with those massive waves, I began to wonder if she was suicidal. She said that she might have been if she didn’t cool off from the terrible heat wave. What, 85°??

I could have stayed there all day. I keep thinking that if I stare at the waves long enough, I will understand how to make them look good in 2-dimensions. But without a camera, I don’t think I can really get a sense of where they are dark, light, fuzzy, clean-edged, and the patterns of water movement.

I seem to be destined to be a studio painter.