Travel Sketch in Australia

"Entrance to Sydney Harbor"
9" x 5" watercolor sketch

We left for Australia January 21 and returned home on February 18. We mixed it up, spending 8 nights in a studio apartment with gorgeous Opera House and harbor views, taking the Indian Pacific Railway for four days, three nights across the continent to Perth for a few days; then boarded a Crystal Cruise back to Sydney by way of the West and Southern Coasts, Melbourne and Tasmania.

I used to be much more motivated to do travel sketches and I don't know why I was not on this trip. Maybe because we are traveling so much. On our first full day in Sydney, we took a bus tour around the city to get the lay of the land. We stopped at the entrance to the very impressive harbor. A few days later we took a ferry to Manley past this spot. I usually take photos and do the sketch later in my room. I did just one other sketch on this trip.  As we left Tasmania, I captured a photo of impressive storm clouds against the rugged coast from our dining table.

W are traveling again, so I will post this piece that I drafted sometime ago. I promise more to come.

Pastels from Monday Morning Drawing Cl

"Pitcher and Floribunda Roses"
12" x 16" Pastel

Since 2007,  every Monday when I am not traveling, I attend a three hour drawing class by Robert Semans, a master artist for the past 40 years. This particular piece was a setup I brought to class, using a pitcher I bought in England and Floribunda Roses blooming in my back yard. Bob says we paint the light, and I believe I managed that with the dark shadows, reflected light, and highlights.

"Tis Fall"
12" by 16" Pastel

In the fall, some of our favorite still life subjects include the pumpkins, gourds, and corn available at our farm stands. The pumpkin on the left was very interesting with its imperfections. I like that I introduce a touch of green into the dark drape.

"Cabbage, Anyone?
12" x 16" Pastel

When Bob wants us to really focus on creating three-dimensional objects, he will have us do just one. Cabbages and onions are particularly popular with their layers, odd shapes, and the subtle way they pick up the light and shadow.

"In the Kitchen"
12" x 16" Pastel

Friend Susan brought this setup from her kitchen. We enjoy doing glass and it is always a challenge. Here we had transparent, opaque, and a jelly jar with contents. The orange of the Mandarins nicely balance the neutral shades and the colors in the jelly jar. As Bob will tell us, light is everything. Note the various highlights that help suggest the shape of the objects.

Now, sadly, we are losing our class venue. University Arts  store is closing it's San Jose store in early May after 70 years in business. The company owns the building and can make more from leasing the space to the motorcycle dealers that rent a portion of the building, than from selling art. As they explained, even the vendors are now competing with them online. Privately we heard that Corporate dismissed the idea of selling online early in the internet revolution. a bad decision.  Thus, the employees who don't want to move to a store an hour away are without jobs. This leaves us with just two Aaron Brothers Art stores as the only brick and dedicated motor art stores  in Santa Clara Valley, home to abut 2 million people. University Arts was superior to anything that remains. Our instructor is looking for a new venue for our group. We old faithfuls are so bonded with each other and want to continue improving our drawing skills. No other class has helped me as much with my art in all mediums.

Mendocino Remembered

"Mendocino Memories"
10" x 13" Watercolor

In January, Bob and I spent three days in Mendocino at the MacCallum House, a BandB with cottages and lovely gardens. We even managed to use our own garden spa in spite of rain and cold weather on the coast. We enjoyed a private wine tour of the Anderson Valley. Bob likes to do Argentine Tango so we went to a Milonga,  a dance event for people who dance Argentine Tango, in tiny Casper. People gather in the most interesting places. We also met up with one of Bob's high school girlfriend, special because they attended Austin High School in Chicago! I so enjoyed meeting Sue and her partner. Sue has lived in California many years. Bob and Sue had not seen each other since right after our big Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. Sue was then in charge of a large geological group in Berkeley and very busy when they met.

McCallum House

That is the background. So what is this painting and why did I paint it? I have always enjoyed patterns and geometrics, so I took a closeup of the "Chickens and Hens" growing near our cottage. Lots of blue/green mixed with a touch of scarlet made a good grey-green for this painting. I am fascinated by how mixing complements can make such lovely greys. I learned most of what I know about color from Stephen Quiller's workshop and books.

If you are older than 40, you might recall that this coastal town, 3 hours drive north of San Francisco, was the setting for the moving "Same Time Next Year," one of my favorite oldies with Alan Alda.

"Sunshine" from my garden

"Sunshine"
12" x 12" Watercolor

Spring brings on a desire to paint flowers, so the beat continues. For the past two weeks I have worked on this small piece at Thursday Night Art and at home. These Peruvian Lillies grow in our back yard,. I placed them in a jelly jar with a ribbon around the top and photographed them on my sofa to capture the light. I loved the shadows, the very deep background color, the refracted light, and the abstract pattern in the jar.

Camellias on My Mind

"Happy"

12" x 12" Mixed Media

A few of my faithful bloggers have wondered where I have been. Bob and I have dedicated a lot of time to seeing the world the last few years (well, parts of it), with a month in Australia in January/February our most recent adventure. It has been difficult to get a solid block of time for art, and even less for blogging about it. However, when I am in town I have continued to take my Monday morning drawing class weekly and I paint every Thursday night with fellow artists that I met in my first art classes at a community center. So I do have some art to post.

I am starting here with one I finished yesterday and began three weeks ago on a Thursday night. I have a gorgeous Camellia bush on the side of the house that begins blooming early in the year and finishes just about now. In fact this is one of the last blooms. It took me quite a while to hand draw this small painting, but I felt I had to be accurate to do it justice. The flower and leaves are all watercolor, but I was not happy with my background and in desperation,  I pulled out my acrylics to complete the painting. I was going for simplicity with some suggestion of light ad shadow.

Stay tuned for more posts.