Monday, March 1st

We will be going to a regional park named Wildcat Creek Trail, located by the Richmond Parkway. This park was formed in the 70s when concerned neighbors organized to clean up the part of Wildcat creek that meets the bay, and you won't find it listed on the Regional Park website. This park is not to be confused with the Alvarado Park Wildcat Canyon Staging Area, located at the end of North Arlington Road. There are no bathrooms or water, but there is a small lot in which to park, and the terrain is flat. Tom Phinnaeus recommended the area as a place with good, varied views.

Directions: From 80, take the San Pablo or Barrett exit and head west towards the water on Barrett. Barrett ends at Garrard. Make a right on Garrard. The road curves and goes under 580. Pass Hensley and Gertrude to your right. Garrard becomes Richmond Parkway. On the other side of the road you'll see a junkyard, then the park's entrance, which does not have a big sign. The next turning lane is at Pittsburg Ave. Make a U turn on Richmond Parkway when you hit Pittsburg Ave, so that you can turn right at the nondescript park entrance. Park at the small parking lot and wait inside your car if you don't see anyone yet. You can also take the Richmond Parkway exit and make a right at the park's entrance after passing Giant Road, the dump, Parr and Pittsburg Ave.

Tomales Bay Ecological Reserve

Point Reyes really is a place to go for more than a day trip, but neither Karen nor I could go for that long this weekend. There was a tsunami warning for 1:30 pm, and a light rain forecast. But once we got there it was sunny, there was no wind, and only a few visitors. We briefly considered painting on the dunes above North Beach, but heard the warning to stay away from the 16 foot waves and headed for Tomales Bay near Inverness. The Chicken Farm Beach was rapidly flooding, so we ended up farther south on the same shore, where the elevation kept us dry. I used acrylic to paint this 22 x 28" view of the estuary and the hills beyond, which kept changing colors as the voluminous clouds passed east. We left at 3:30 and made it home by 5:00 pm.

Vista Point, Carquinez Straits

I was looking for some piece of grungy stuff to paint on a very cold Saturday, and found this bit of rusty car. Against a grey day the spring grass was electric green. Again, I was practicing dropping pigment onto wet paper, creating a watercolory background. Then using an opaque dry brush method, I painted foreground car and grass.

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
11 X 14

Saturday, February 27

We are scheduled to be at Point Reyes. The directions are on this website. So far the forecast says it will clear up by noon in that area so we'll have to play it by ear. If it does, we will be there earlier, to accommodate the 1.5 hours it takes to drive there from the east bay. If you are going, please call or e-mail to let us know, so we can let you know where to meet us. You will need to be prepared for wind if you use an easel.

Vista Point at Carquinez Strait

Windy and cold and it's been a while so realized my palette was all a bit grubby and needs a good sort out. Like Karen I struggled with the wind and it flipped things onto the grit and grass several times. These two are in need of more work and I really struggled with the relative colors of the brownish sea (all churned up and choppy) and in the small sketch it is just too pale but when I tried it darker it seemed too brown. I'll dabble a bit maybe but looking forward to next time ... (First sketch is 10 x 14 oil on canvas board and second one is 6 x 8 on same) Fran

Vista Point at Carquinez

It was cold and windy overlooking the Carquinez Strait. I was perched on a ledge and at one point everything went flying. I had a decent version done when I decided to redo it to get more of the feeling of the grays of the sky and the water. I found I had to change the foreground and it no longer read like what I was looking at. When I got home I decided I liked it that way especially since I could not longer see what it was suppose to be. It is a 18 by 24 acrylic. Karen

Monday, February 22

It will be sunny tomorrow, even in Morgan Hill! If you are planning to go and help the committee that wants to save the Granada theatre, please call or e-mail Rebeca before 8:00 am. So far, she is the only one going and if that is the case, she will have to postpone the trip until a small group can go.

Saturday, February 20

We'll meet again at the vista point located at the north end of San Pablo Ave. It has an expansive view of the Carquinez Bridges and Benicia. You can also paint the hills below the vista point. No bathrooms, no water, but ample parking. This spot may be windy. You may need a way to secure your easel to the ground.

Directions: Take 80 north, and get off at the Pomona Ave/Crockett exit. Go through the ramp, which goes under the freeway. At the light, you will see the Dead Dish restaurant ahead of you. Continue straight on San Pablo and pass the Dead Fish. Not too long after, you will see a vista point to your right. We meet in this parking lot.

Jewel Lake

The colors at jewel lake were so close in value finding a composition that interested me was hard. I worked on the water without a plan. Karen

Jewel Lake, Tilden Park

I have been experimenting with a wet-in-wet technique in the studio. The idea is; you wet an entire section of the paper and then drop pigment into it with more attention to effect than subject painted. I have been reluctant to use this technique in it's entirety when plein air painting because of it's unpredictability. But my intention of practicing this, has always been to apply it. In this painting I used the drop-pigment into wet paper technique, but then dry brushed over it in some areas to get a dense-yet fresh style. The "yet fresh" part didn't work as well as I would have wished; but it was a wonderful holiday spent with familys from all over the world.

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
14 X 11

President's Day at Jewel Lake

The tiny lake was swarming with small children and their parents. We took a less popular trail which was quite muddy and arrived at the southern shore, almost at the water's level. My chair kept sinking in the mud. Towards noon several preschool-age kids started visited us. Their completely uncensored comments were so much fun I almost forgot the hard time I was having with this painting. It was a 16 x 20" canvas I had previously scraped, and I should have not used pthalo blue at all. I just wasn't very focused and I think the water could have come out a lot better had I been more conscious of what I was doing. Rebeca

Beryl Painting Jewel Lake

Beryl was painting across the lake and her orange coat caught my eye. I didn't know it was her until she put up her easel. I spent way too much time on this. Then I had to try to rescue some of it by lifting color. I cropped the part at the top that I didn't like much. It is always a difficult task to paint a light colored tree in a dark background. At least for me it is. I am trying to use Perinone Orange at every opportunity lately. I had it in my palette for months and didn't use it.

Larry Hatfield
9.5x14"

After slogging around on some muddy trails, Rebeca and I found a place to paint. I added some color to the buildings. They were so dull, probably neglected since that Navy left. I was using a half sheet (15x22") on a board. I was trying out my 2" brush. I have another 2" brush with a slanted end that is a little easier to get into the small portable palette paint wells. So, I used a butcher pan for the paint for the under painting and water with the 2". I thought that the orange building would stand out, but the clouds seem to have taken over.

Larry Hatfield
Watercolor 14x21"

Monday, February 15

We'll recover from Valentine's Day by walking the 750 feet trail to Jewel Lake in the Tilden Nature Area. We will meet in the parking lot of the Environmental Education Center, where there are bathrooms and water.

Directions from Hwy 80: Take the University Avenue exit in Berkeley. Follow University towards the hills, turn left onto Oxford St. Turn right onto Rose St. Turn left onto Spruce St. Follow Spruce up the hill, you will reach a stop sign at the top of the hill, proceed through the intersection and turn immediately left down Canon Dr. At the bottom of Canon, veer left onto Central Park Drive and follow into the parking lot for the Nature Area.

Directions from Hwy 24, exit at Fish Ranch Road. Take Fish Ranch Road to Grizzly Peak Blvd and turn right. Continue on Grizzly Peak Blvd. until you come to the intersection of Spruce Street, Wildcat Canyon Road and Canon Drive. Turn right on Wildcat Canyon Rd, then immediately make a sharp left down Canon Drive. At the bottom of the hill, veer left onto Central Park Drive and follow into the parking lot for the Nature Area.

White Houses Overlooking Carquinez Strait

I tried incorporating more texture using some home made modeling paste. I have been trying to do this for awhile but was reminded after I demonstrated making the paste in Rebeca's acrylic class. A student asked me how or when to incorporate texture and I had no answer. I decided to try and see how. So far my only answer is add it carefully and with restraint. I will continue to try. In this painting I felt the texture added an interesting dimension to the surface. It is 18 by 24.

Karen

Port Costa, ATE Theatre

This was an old sign outside the Port Costa Post Office. The town is an artistic junk lovers tiny historic place, filled with wonderful broken or ancient stuff. After I left, I felt the painting was just to smooth for the feeling of the location so I scumbled and textured it until it took on a proper patina.

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
11 X 14

Saturday, February 13

We will meet at the vista point located at the north end of San Pablo Ave. It has an expansive view of the Carquinez Bridges and Benicia. You can also paint the hills below the vista point. No bathrooms, no water, but ample parking. This spot may be windy. You may need a way to secure your easel to the ground.

Directions: Take 80 north, and get off at the Pomona Ave/Crockett exit. Go through the ramp, which goes under the freeway. At the light, you will see the Dead Dish restaurant ahead of you. Continue straight on San Pablo and pass the Dead Fish. Not too long after, you will see a vista point to your right. We meet in this parking lot.

Pink Truck at Port Costa

The shapes and colors at Port Costa are interesting. I loved the deep colors in the shadows and the greys in the sky and parking lot. I did a lot of color mixing directly on the canvas in this 18 by 24 acrylic. Karen

Sparky's Garage, Port Costa

After I finished this, I thought I should have done it as a horizontal painting since I was fascinated by the windows and planters below. The perspective on the Victorian windows above were a bit of a challenge since they were going at odd angles. However the yellow patch at the top may add some compositional interest and a relief from the busy windows.... The weather in the morning was sunny, then cloudy so I decided on just grey — in my continued exploration of black and grey. Both the items behind the windows plus it's reflection was really the center of my exploration in this painting.

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
14 X 11"

Art and Monster Trucks at Port Costa

Okay, they were irresistible. Not the trucks themselves, but their reflection on the parking lot's deep puddles of dirty water. Karen and I noticed them at the same time and decided to paint them, but I had a square 20 x 20" canvas and had to make the composition work. I jumped on my truck bed and found it gave me a good view of the puddles. I also became an unwitting participant of the hotel's gossip from this vantage point. Just when I thought I was going to spend a wonderful half hour rendering the pink truck, a man who was going fishing parked a big 350 Ford right in front of the pink art truck. I promptly got off my platform to beg the good man to move it, and he obliged (thank you!). Karen got a good laugh from the whole episode, which she watched from a far corner of the lot. I ended up moving the bare mossy tree to the left, because it was sitting right in between the two trucks, but I left the rest pretty much the same way it looked. Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez

Waterfront Port Costa

I wanted to do some detail this time not a building or scene. After walking around, I found some rocks and old pier pilings that I thought were suitable. I changed the color of the water because it was not very attractive. I couldn't see much color in it, just a dirty brown. There were some interesting bubble patterns. I tried to use a wax candle for that, but it was only partly successful. At first I couldn't see it at all, then later after 2-3 washes it began to show up. If I do this again, I think I will make it even simpler. It might be interesting to see it in very strong sunlight.

Larry Hatfield
Watercolor
9.5x13.5"

Monday, February 7

We'll see you at Port Costa. Directions: Head toward Crockett on 80. Take the Crockett/Pomona St exit, which curves under the bridge. Make an extreme left, almost an u turn, at the light. This will take you again under the freeway/bridge and to Pomona St., Crockett's main drag. Continue on Pomona St. past the lights and residential part of town. Pomona St. becomes Carquinez Scenic Drive as you exit Crockett. Continue and turn left on Canyon Lake Dr. Continue to the end, where there is a parking lot facing the strait. We meet at this parking lot.

Saturday, February 6

Session canceled because "showers are likely" this afternoon (the forecast for Selby, CA). For a while it looked as if it was going to clear up which is why we were waiting, but the dark clouds have moved in. We were supposed to go to the end of San Pablo Ave today, near Crockett.

Directions: Take 80 north, and get off at the Pomona Ave/Crockett exit. Go through the ramp, which goes under the freeway. At the light, you will see the Dead Dish restaurant ahead of you. Continue straight on San Pablo and pass the Dead Fish. Not too long after, you will see a vista point to your right. We meet in this parking lot.

I am delighted

I am happy that today I have become a contributor to this blog. I enjoy painting outdooors in the fresh air and it is especially nice to paint with a group and see such a variety of approaches in seeing the same landscape in front of us. Annette

Yellow Building at Port Costa

Port Costa has many things that I find interesting to paint. I love the hills nearby also. I had a great view across the parking lot and could watch the people coming and going. Having the buildings and the hills beyond and the cars in front let me play with shapes and colors until I liked the balance of abstract and representation. It is a 18 by 24 acrylic on canvas. Karen

Bull Valley Inn - Port Costa

I was going to just focus on the sign and the windows near it, then this guy sat down on the bench and I stretched out the composition to include him. This is the first time in 2 years that I included a person in my plein air painting. I came away feeling that I had made it more complicated than I wanted to. I also had to crop it a little since I tend to make the vertical lines lean to the left when I am drawing. I did it again. I have been playing around with some new brushes and so some of the brushwork is uncertain as I try different things. I used a 2" angled flat brush for the underpainting of cobalt & Ultramarine blue on the left background and perm. orange for the building in sun. I left the white for the sign and the guy's hair white.

Larry Hatfield

Port Costa Train Tracks

Sometimes the challenge is to paint the ordinary. I was interested in the pooling water near the tracks and walked away from the fence opening until I found a good view of them. I was also challenged by the many greys, purples and greens on this hazy day with no direct sunlight. The problem was that I brought my dog with me and this did not let me concentrate very well. I think I needed more contrast, and I never did the puddles the way I wanted. I still like the idea, maybe I will try again next week. Rebeca