Georgianna Greenwood "Quinn's Lighthouse" Oakland CA Watercolor July 2015

Anderson Park

There were just a few of us that day in early December and I had a tiny 20 x 16" canvas. I worked with acrylic pretty close to the sidewalk. Just like in Richmond, passersby stopped to chat, wondering what we saw in the busy intersection. I was interested in the sycamores against the cathedral and the other downtown Oakland buildings. I did not finish there, but continued at the studio mainly from memory. It was a great location that I would like to return to.

Nicholl Park

This is one of the paintings I dropped off for our show at the San Pablo Gallery, Immigrant Neighborhoods. It is a well used small park with picnic areas and a skate board area. My composition is a little like a Seurat of the park with people in the shadows.  Only mine has a pitbull not a black dog.  It is 24 by 30.  Karen

Sausal Creek I and II

I started out two weeks ago, fascinated by the same green reflection Larry saw on the water. Unfortunately, this was one of the few times when I can say acrylic did not facilitate things. I should have used retarder, I know. But I didn't have any with me, and the hot day dried up my paints at a record rate. I also did not love the treatment I gave it. I did not want to tell a story so the woman and the children (they were sitting there the whole time), although tempting subjects on their own, become a distraction. As much as I worked on this first version at home, it seemed beyond repair, so I returned the following Saturday with oils, a spatula, and a 20 x 20" canvas. The result was more what I wanted. I felt ill after and hour and left, and it turns out that was precisely the moment when I should have stopped.

Sausal Creek

This was a new location for me. I hiked along a path and crossed a road where I saw the name of the creek. I came back near the building where all the kids were playing at Dimond Park. Usually, when I try to paint water, I wet the paper first. However, this time I didn't. The green reflection was so bright that I didn' t want to loose that. I painted that first after the top third, then put in the darks, then the rocks.

Larry Hatfield
10x15" watercolor

Arrowhead Marsh, Oakland

I'm a little behind in posting paintings. I usually like to review them in the studio before posting- then the rain. I think I liked the way the ramp stretched out into the marsh, especially since I am building a ramp at my house. Again experimenting with textures and colors.

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
11 X 15"

Arrowhead Marsh Near the Oakland Airport

We had fun waiting for each other at the observation tower. Later on, everyone went in a different direction. I walked down the long pier that serves as observation platform for water birds. I did not see the Clapper Rail this marsh is famous for, just lots of stinky mud. But there must be something about the light hitting this mud that is very attractive to me, as I have done a number of these canals by now. I also enjoyed the look of the new grasses in the breeze, even though I know they are the oat grass that causes my allergies, and the deadly foxtail. I worked hard on this 24 x 20" oil, and finished it in the field.

Near the Oakland Airport

I like the marshes near the airport. There were many water birds and airplanes and helicopters. People walked their dogs and were taking pictures. I put some of the elements around me into this painting. It is a 20 by 24 acrylic on canvas. Karen

Shelter at Roberts Recreational Area

I was so cold and miserable, I felt the same about this painting. Not the cold, but the miserable part. I touched up some areas this last few days after letting it sit awhile. I still don't like it much, but its better than before. There was a picnic table on the square part of the sidewalk that I decided to eliminate, it was just blocking my view of what I wanted to paint. The vines on the shelter were quite eye-catching. I didn't get as much depth there as there was.

Larry Hatfield

Grand View of Mount Hamilton

The weather was cold to start with, and we were up high at the Roberts Recreational Area. Some of us wore long underwear, turtlenecks and wool hats, but it didn't matter. By 3:15 we were frozen. I walked up a short path to a lookout named Grand View. You could see Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton. I was mostly concerned with not painting the exact same spot Karen had painted the week before, so I descended a bit down the hill and looked straight ahead. This was not a high energy day, and I just painted what was in front of me. Surprisingly, I ended up moving some trees in this composition, and not painting the oaks that were closest. This enabled me to spend more time on color and on the mood. Rebeca

Deep in Redwood Park

I remember Redwood park as deep dark greens. It felt rugged and far away even though it was in the middle of Oakland. It was very cold in the shade. I painted quickly and revised numerous times to eliminate detail.

Roberts Recreational Area

The Grand View. The view of Mount Diablo from Roberts Recreational Area in Redwood Regional Park. We all got cold today. Its time to unpack the long underwear. We were near the historical marker of where the giant Redwoods were that sailors used to navigate past some hidden rocks near Yerba Buena Island in the San Francisco Bay. That is before they cut them down, probably to help build the houses and buildings in San Francisco and other cities.

It felt good to get out and paint again. Its been over a week since I was able to get out and do it.
Larry Hatfield

Texture of the Cemetery

I drove all the way to the top of the Cemetery looking for people visiting the grave sites. I passed the Greek Orthodox area and found the graves with flat markers. People kept driving up to get out and place flowers. I decided to work with a lot of texture because I had been thinking about texture for a demonstration I did. I needed to work on the figures more but numerous insect bites forced me to leave and I worked on it in the studio. I will work on it some more I think. Karen

El Cementerio de Mountain View

Last week, as Annette and I walked up a hill on Mountain View cemetery, I kept looking all around me for something to paint on a 15 x 20" canvas. There was a lot to choose from. Then I walked to the edge of the road and peeked under the canopies, and there it was, a most interesting, sweeping view of the hills that seemed to spread from the fountain. I instantly fell in love with the bright-green, well manicured grounds, a rare sight in drought-stricken northern California. The trees changing color were beautiful, but so was the glow of the bright green grass and the indirect blue light filtering from above, but what really attracted me was the rows of tombstones that seemed to have their own pattern and thus their own (visual) music. So I committed to this painting, which took me two Saturdays to complete. Rebeca

Mountain View Cemetery: Matthew's Monument

There were so many interesting monuments I had trouble narrowing down the image to something manageable. I found a shady side of a large tomb and focused on the tall column. At first I thought it was a figure at the top. I saw it from the right side of this view, then I saw the urn with the drape hanging. Interesting, I don't know what that means exactly in cemetery symbolism. The sky was quite different, very light with clouds and there were some drifting gray clouds at an angel floating by. When I tried to paint them, they sort of mushed together. I guess the paper was still too wet from the sky painting. The color of the column was unusual too, I guess its some kind of red/pink marble. There were a lot more memorial stones that I left out. But the composition didn't need them. I have been using a smaller brush for the trees lately and I like it. Its a # 7 Rafael Kolinsky Sable. It seems to work better than the #9 that I was using, especially for the background trees. I used a 1" flat sable for the sky and underpainting for some of the trees and foreground. I wet the paper first for the sky because it looked so liquid. I was careful not to paint in the column or the light areas in the foreground.

Larry Hatfield

Mountain View Cemetery - October 10, 2009

Last Saturday was sunny and bright in Oakland. I was early for the paint out with East Bay Plein Air so I high-tailed it to the road up on the hill above Millionaire's Row at Mountain View Cemetery.




This is not exactly the view I had for my first painting (I was a little further down the road just in back of the statued monument - with a peek of the domed Oakland Columbarium through the trees. I left out the buildings in the background in the painting below.

Mountain View Cemetery (9"x12"pastel on black paper) - Artist Janice L-H


I did rework this when I got home, darkening the liquid amber trees and highlighting the statue above the monument for emphasis.
There is a slight glare on the photo from the right but you can see what it used to look like here.

Once the group arrived I met them at the last fountain where we split up to paint. I had glimpsed one of my favorite statues on the way down the hill but got turned around going to the meeting place. Anyhow I saw the Veteran's Area where I think I will go next time to work up some of those great magnolia trees located there.

Finally finding the Angel at the end of the curve in front of a row of ornamental plum trees, I went to work.




Reclining Angel (12"x 18" pastel on black paper) - Artist Janice L-H

Yes, I did rework this once I was home (I hope I'm not actually messing them up!) and you can see the original rendition here. I toned down the monuments, tree shadows and the sky and added some contour to the plum trees.


Can't wait to return tomorrow! Janice

Treasure Island From Oakland

This time the painting faeries smiled, despite the weather (cold and windy). I painted over a 15 x 30" canvas that I hated, climbed on the observation tower, pulled out a cardboard viewfinder to help me come up with a better composition and used a ruler to keep my lines straight. The dried-up grounds where the paths are were done with matte medium and Treasure Island and the foggy sky were done with with retardant.

Port of Oakland Cranes

I finally finished this at home. The top half was done on location, and the bottom was done from a photo. After a second session my neck has hurting very badly and I decided to use three photos for the bottom. I had cranked my neck up to be able to look at the cranes' platforms and after the sixth hour of that my neck could not take it anymore. The photos were taken with my cell phone and they were grainy. To make matters worse, they were shot from behind the barbed wire fence that protects the Port of Oakland operations. I took better photos later, but they were taken at much later time of the day and I could not use them.

San Franfoggy

Pretty windy out on the observation deck at Middle Harbor but a great panorama and lots to see. I decided to paint the SF skyline because it completely fascinates me and I try to memorize the buildings whenever I see it but I never can. Fog kept rolling in and out and the sky changed second by second. I only had some unmounted canvas with me and ended up with a very vertical sketch because it was all I could strap to my easel. Very interesting place and I will definitely go back at some point and try and tackle those cranes.

Saturday at Middle Harbor

You can sure tell it is Saturday on the bay. The sailboats were everywhere. Middle Harbor Park is just a sliver of a park in the middle of the port of Oakland. It is hard to drive to because of the trucks so Monday mornings have a different feel. It was very hot on Saturday without much wind and painting was hard. I managed to get an umbrella attached to the bench where I worked. I used a lot of gel and other additives in this 16" by 20" acrylic. . I like the boats and added them at the end. Karen