When I sketched this Morgan Hill, CA, field last October, it was filled with rows and rows of pumpkin vines. Yesterday it sported an acid yellow coat: wild mustard as far as the eye could see.



Direct to watercolor, in Fabriano wirebound watercolor sketchbook. Not my favorite paper, as it doesn't love juicy washes ... but I'm on a self-imposed paper diet as I have too many UFSs (unfinished sketchbooks) on hand.

Don't know about you, but the heat out here this week is making me sluggish. I'm up to 17 in the #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge, so have a few more to go to catch up to where I'm supposed to be.

I pass this lovely San Jose building (the City National Civic theatre) on my way to work, so I snapped a photo and tried painting it in a more opaque, gouache-y style:



To me it feels more "illustration" than "sketch" - what do you think?

My inspiration for these next two was Season 3 of Mozart in the Jungle, streaming via Amazon Prime. Much of the action is set in Venice, so I pulled out my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors and a large pad of Canson paper to play with:



No real subjects -- just my imagination.



I'm crushing on the metallic colors in that set -- aren't those shimmery gold accents fun? Might have to use that in some other paintings going forward.

And here's a quick sketch from a photo I took in Big Sur a while ago:

This #30x30DirectWatercolor2018 challenge is great for using supplies sitting around my studio! I dug up the paper samples I got at last year's Urban Sketchers Symposium and took them for a spin.

First up, the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, on a Hahnemuhle hot press sample sheet. Hmm - tough to handle juicy direct watercolor on this surface, and it looks pilly.



Next: A Winsor & Newton cold press sample. I may like this in a block or stretched and taped, but as is it feels rather lightweight.



Here I went back to the Fluid 100 cold press paper I've been using a lot in this challenge:

Day 6 of #30x30DirectWatercolor2018: Today I was struggling to find a subject, so I focused on brushwork instead. I chose to do variations based on a photo I took in the park behind my house. For the first painting I used only a flat brush. I am more used to using flats in urbanscapes so I found it hard to keep the shapes lively and organic and the colors clear without any rounds.



For the second painting I used only rounds. This interpretation looks oddly southwestern, no?



Do you like one better than the other?

Day 5 of #30x30DirectWatercolor 2018: In which I attempt to paint M. and end up painting his scowling, angry doppelganger instead. :-D

Stand aside, #Inktober. Sit down, #OneWeek100People. Our sketching friends Marc, Suhita, Liz, and Uma along with a few others have come up with yet another great excuse to use up all those extra art supplies: #30x30DirectWatercolor2018.

Thirty days to complete thirty watercolor paintings, (preferably with no ink or pencil lines). Here I go!

Started off fairly simple: a red-crested cardinal from a photo I took in Kauai.



For my second one I leaned in the opposite direction: a complex scene painted on location at Garden of Eden, a swimming hole on the San Lorenzo River in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. It's a mile-ish hike to get down there, and it was very sunny. This one was frustrating -- it was hard to see the contrasts in the bright light.



Went back to a photo for the third one - this is a view from the park behind our house, taken by M. on a mountain bike ride.



And here's my attempt at a direct-to-watercolor street scene, painted from a photo I took in Bakersfield late last year:



Onward!

Got back from a work trip to Boulder, CO, Friday night. Saturday morning, I was up bright and early to paint with Pacific Art League at the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve near Los Altos, CA. The one-day workshop was led by Steve Curl. It's a steep and winding road up into the hills. It was tough to set up to paint there, as the grasses hugging the hiking trail were waist high.

After my initial painting (above), I did a few quick studies to round out the day.

A lone redwood, surrounded by other trees and vegetation. I was drawn to its cinnamon light in the dappled shade. It stands in Santa Teresa County Park, near the Laurel Canyon waterfall. That's right, there's a waterfall barely a mile from our house. We've been here two years and only just went up that trail today!

The recent rain has caused an explosion of wildflowers in California. Yesterday, we decided to take a day trip to Carrizo Plain National Monument, just east of San Luis Obispo. The swaths of gold were truly spectacular. I sketched the blooms near the salt encrusted Soda Lake. M. took a photo of me as I was working.



I sketched this on Bee Paper's Super Deluxe Mixed Media sketchbook, which has been recommended by several sketchers as a good, reasonably priced workhorse surface. While I've been happy drawing on Bee's Pen Sketcher's paper, the Mixed Media one just isn't my jam for ink & watercolor work. Its weight and tooth feel more suited to dry media.

Wow, can't believe that PACE16 is just a memory! It was three intense days of learning, watching, sketching, painting, networking, and shopping.

We flew into Phoenix the evening of Friday, April 15, and drove down to Tucson that night. Saturday morning's lineup included Matt Smith's demonstration. He showed us how to use the palette knife to scratch out branches in the foreground, and how to use a bit of red with white for the highlights on saguaro cacti.

At lunch, I met Heather Goldstein, a vice president at Jerry's Artarama. We talked about how rare it is to find people who are both art- and business-savvy.

As I relaxed on the patio at the Hilton El Conquistador I sketched Pusch Ridge in my Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook, with a tiny set of watercolors and a waterbrush.



While I was browsing the paintings displayed for sale in the hall, I met Randall Sexton and we chatted about the painting workshop he's offering at Carquinez Strait, through Arts Benicia. I've been thinking about signing up.

I skipped the afternoon's paintout on the grounds of the hotel; M. and I went to Saguaro National Park instead and then went out for a delicious dinner at Cafe Poca Cosa in downtown Tucson. The park was otherworldly -- so many towering cacti! Now I see why cartoons of cacti look the way they do.



In addition to my Stillman & Birn, I also took along the Bee Pen Sketcher's sketchbook I've been playing with. While it does OK with ink and wash, it didn't really love a combination of Crayola Twistable colored pencils and watercolor. This was a quick sketch I did of the desert plantlife behind the Hilton.



I did a lot of thumbnails during the trip, working out compositions for potential acrylic studies.



Sunday's convention highlight was easily the portrait demo by Jove Wang. With seemingly random strokes he dashed off a likeness of the sitter that was full of life. I challenged myself to do a quick sketch of him painting with just a waterbrush and watercolors -- no pencil or pen first.



From the resort, you can see quite far into the distance -- tried to capture it with ink and wash between conference sessions.



The evening's paintout was at Catalina State Park. I had only about an hour to paint, since I wanted to get back to the hotel for the urban sketching demo by Tim Oliver and Richard Sneary.



It was challenging to keep the acrylics workable even though I was in the shade of the car. The tiny canvas size meant I couldn't use huge brushes, so that made everything fiddly.



Monday I did another watercolor sketch of the view of Oro Valley from the Hilton.



I spent quite a bit of time at the expo, figuring out what I would buy. As I mentioned in the last post, I'd had my eye on a Strada easel, so I decided to spring for the Mini version. I also got an Easyl tripod to go with it, and picked up various odds and ends at other vendors: the RayMar panels and wet panel carrier, a Rosemary & Co. travel sable watercolor brush, some brushes from Trekell and Judson's, an Easel Brush Clip, etc. Golden Artist Colors kindly gave me a few free tubes of their OPEN acrylic paint to supplement the ones I'd brought.

While everyone else went off to paint Old Tucson, M. and I went to Picacho State Park, where I set up my new easel and tripod. I used the Golden OPEN acrylics on a RayMar panel. (The painting I did there is at the top of this blog post.)



The views were beautiful and it would have been great to stay longer, but we had to get to Phoenix for dinner with M.'s cousin and to check into our airport hotel. But -- one last putting of pen to paper: on the way to Phoenix, I sketched some quick studies of the highway.



It's amazing that these desert landscapes are just a short plane ride away now. I still haven't seen (or painted) the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Scottsdale -- so many more places to explore on our next AZ adventure!

I'm still working with the Bee Pen Sketcher's sketchbook, as we'll be using it for the Art in Action workshop I'm leading in a few months.

At a conference for work in Anaheim, California, I sketched some entertainers: a poet with a typewriter slung around his neck and a temporary tattoo artist. I colored it with the inexpensive Yarka semi-moist watercolors and Pentel Aquash waterbrush that we'll be using in the workshop.



Last weekend, I went to San Francisco and sketched David Best's temple in Hayes Valley. Again, I used the Yarka watercolors.

We spent our first New Year's in California cooking, eating, and going to wineries with friends. On that Sunday, M and I capped off the holiday with a hike in Henry Coe State Park, where I just had to stop and paint this twisting, gnarled tree. Not a bad way to start 2016!

Before I lived in Connecticut I wasn't really a beach person. Now that I'm living inland, I crave a glimpse of water from time to time. It's a good thing we don't live too far from the ocean.

M. surprised me on my birthday with an impromptu trip to Santa Cruz, the original California surfer town. Our lovely B&B, West Cliff Inn, overlooked the boardwalk and the beach.

Just a few minutes' drive away is Natural Bridges State Beach.




Both of these sketches were done on a Fluid 100 hot press watercolor 8x8 block. I'm really enjoying the way paint behaves on this smooth surface.