Friday, June 20, 2014

Plein Air Painting in Vasona Park

"Summer Morn"
Vasona County Park
10" x 13" watercolor

Our Santa Clara Valley Water Color Society (SCVWS) Plein Air painters are a very active group. They paint all over the Bay area twice monthly on Thursday mornings and once a month on Saturday mornings in such interesting places. Some new leaders took over recently and are doing a fine job of carrying on the tradition upon which this 400 member society was founded and that our previous leaders did so well.

There is nothing better than painting outdoors in our lovely California sunshine with other artists. One woman asked me how she could join the group because there was such great energy. I told her to sign up at scvws.org for a modest $30 a year.

 "Summer Morn" is a composite of the elements that say "Vasona." This county park is a little haven in the midst of Los Gatos, a vibrant and upscale community abutting San Jose. People from all walks of life use the park. School busloads of children, moms and/or dads with children, babies, and pets in tow, joggers, and bike riders were in abundance. We were at the boathouse and many children were taking sailing or paddle board lessons. I wanted a typical park view, so I edited out the dock and boats and mentally moved the rock. The rest of the elements are pretty true to the view.

We gathered sometime after 12:30 for our self-provided picnic lunches and sharing our work. Everyone did such nice pieces and the individual styles are so interesting to see. Check out the paintsites blog to see all the work: http://scvwspaintsites.blogspot.com  when Brad posts them. An artist who teaches told me my pallette is the traditional WPA pallette of the 30s. Who knew I was such a throwback! I enjoyed meeting some newcomers to the group, including Rich who said this was his third outing and he is loving it.


3 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Mary, this is just such a beautiful plein aire piece!! Each new painting is even better than the previous. What an adventurous life you have!

Mary Paquet said...

Sherri, thanks for your kind comments. I am milking my golden years!

Pam Huggins said...

What a bargain for such an active and supportive group! I just love your painting. It is beautiful and the colors are lovely. Who knew you were a throwback indeed! :-)

I'm starting to venture out more and try, try to sketch a bit. After seeing all of you artists who do it all the time, I continue to be inspired. You make it look easy, but of course, it's not.

Thank you for always sharing. And yes, your area of the country is simply gorgeous!