IsabeauxStudio

From my last painting I determined that for my next series I wanted to create a painting built from a combination of components.  Similar to the ladders in the previous post making up the body of the tree.

I started with a photo of a close up image of a bouquet of flowers.  These were given to me by my co-worker Grace on my last birthday.  It was a lovely bouquet in autumnal colors.

I used interweaving lines to build the main shapes of the flowers and the petals which made the flowers more textured and interesting. My goal, much like in the tree from the previous post was to use tonal color to help delineate the details of the flowers.

Here is the  rough sketch book sketch.  Looks quite complicated yes?  Of course as always  I make it hard on myself.  But overall at this point I am excited about the sketch and was eager to  see it in color.

Here is the beginning of the laying down of color.  I am am using watercolor still so I have to wait until each section dries before I can apply more.  I have taken some liberties with the color palette but am liking the direction the painting is headed.  I still need to soften the yellow in the lower right hand corner as it is feeling a little too bright.  I am about one third done, and will probably complete it this weekend.

From my most recent workshop that I attended on February 9th,  I came away with the germ of an idea how to start a new series of works.  Admittedly I have been floundering since my colored pencil series now almost a year ago, waiting for that bolt of lightning to hit me with the "a-ha! this is what I am going to do" moment.  I like to do things in groups, it gives a sense of cohesiveness, and shows that the technique wasn't an accident or a one hit wonder.

The task during the workshop was to create a personal collage.  That in itself was a pretty broad and vague assignment.  But I have done a lot of collage pieces on my own, and it was right up my alley.  Initially I wanted to use a motif that I use quite frequently in my pieces,  a ladder  (see journal entry "City's Edge") and mix that with more organic shapes.  I had just returned from Hawaii where being in the water and snorkeling had made quite an impression.  I wanted to somehow combine the two elements-geometric and organic. I had high hopes from where I started but ended up on a completely different path-here are the initial rough sketch book sketches....

The ladder shapes in this sketch become almost a city landscape, and the wave moves in and around the "buildings."  I wasn't so happy with this sketch, so I tried another.

This image I thought was the stronger of the two pieces,  so I decided to proceed with this one.   As I began to transfer this sketch to the good watercolor paper, I got an idea, which took me into a totally different direction.  As I was drawing in the left hand side of the image, I realized that it could very easily become a tree.

This is what the piece evolved into.  You can see how in the sketch above how that evolved into the tree form at left. Of course it is still not done- what I really love about it is the way the "ladders" form the tree and the landscape.  I like how I used the color to change the continuous wrapping ladders so it evokes the feeling of "ground" and "tree" without having to draw exact representations of them.  What I don't like is the figure.  It made the whole piece end up to look very much like a children's book illustration- not that there is anything wrong with that, it just wasn't my intial goal.

What I do take away from doing this painting is how I will start to construct my next one. The lightning bolt had finally hit, and I am excited to start something for the first time in a long while.

Two weeks ago Sunday, Matt was feeling the itch to get in the water.  I suppose he wanted to make up for the lack of body boarding in Hawaii.  He suggested a spur of the moment trip to Santa Cruz.  It sounded like a plan to me, as I was still reeling from the shock of being back at work.  A little road trip would be a nice diversion. 

I grabbed my painting gear and Matt grabbed all his gear (it is amazing how much stuff we pack for a day trip) and we left pretty early.  The destination was Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz. 

I parked myself on the overlook, and set up camp while Matt got into the water.  It was a beautiful day, in the high 60's so I was happy as a clam.  It is a well known surf spot with plenty of people around.  A perfect spot if I ever wanted to pick up a guy as I got this comment (one of several) while painting,  "Dude, you do watercolors????........Coooooool."

Here is the piece that I did from that vantage point.  Notice how similar it is in look to the piece from Honalua Bay in Hawaii.  The background is not quite done.  I quite like the rock in the foreground, and how  the wet sand turned out.  I still need to work on the execution of my trees as I found that green was a hard color to control.  But I am improving each time I do a new piece and gaining more confidence as I work around  people out doors.

Living in northern California, one can take advantage of Sonoma, Napa and all the wine goodness that they entail.  During my parents visit last fall we ended up doing a sparkling wine tasting at Gloria Ferrer (http://www.gloriaferrer.com/.)  As I was enjoying the sparkling wine (though I must say I prefer to call it Champagne-sounds sexier!)and the beautiful day, an idea popped into my head.   The vineyards of Gloria Ferrer and surrounding hillside are just lovely and I wanted to see if I could do some plein air painting at the vineyard.  Sounds great yes?  Do some painting, have some lunch, and end the day with a glass of sparkling wine...heaven!

Once I got this idea in my head, I quickly took steps to have it happen.  After exchanging multiple emails with the hospitality manager, I arranged a meeting to learn the "do's & don'ts."   Initially, I would be restricted to a certain area, which is naturally fine.  There is PLENTY to paint.  Weather permitting, I will be able to begin this Saturday-wahoo!

There is a surf spot that Matt had been wanting to go to called Honalua Bay it is on the upper west side of Maui. Five years ago when we went to Maui there was a surf competition there, and you couldn't get near it.  This time, we went once to go scout it out and do a "surf check" and it was beautiful and sunny.  Matt didn't go in at that time. 

When we went back, naturally it was pouring.  He went in anyway, and I sat in the car like the good sport that I am and paintedt these two pieces.   This picture at left shows the cliff above the bay where I hung out.  Matt had to climb down a very muddy  slippery path  in order to get to the water.

    This is my favorite of the two "car pieces."  This one is not quite done yet but I am pleased with the start.  I will come back and post the finished pieces shortly.

It took quite some time for the paint to dry on its own.  So while the first one was drying I started the other piece and rotated them out to keep me occupied.  This kept me busy for about 2 1/2" hours.