September at Meeker Slough

 Slough Bridge, oil on canvas, 18" square.

The fog cleared to a beautiful fall day. I liked the glow of the dead grasses along the causeway to the bridge.

September Marsh, oil on canvas, 30" x 24."

Over the fence marked with a sign saying Danger, Toxic Materials, a wealth of life enjoyed the water.

Meeker Slough

Here is one of the ones I did at Meeker Slough, this one at low tide. I had planned to work on a smaller piece, canvas all ready, but was surprised by low tide. I had an old dud painting in the car, so I slathered paint over what was there, and finally it worked out! Betsy K

Fall Day at Meeker Slough

Meeker Slough #2  watercolor

Sharon Hind-Smith did this one on our second visit to Meeker Slough this fall. It was a beautiful crisp day, warm in the sun.

Meeker Slough

Meeker Slough #2  acrylic on canvas 20  by 30

We have been back to Meeker Slough a few times.  I did this on one of our recent visits. The weather was wonderful.  I  hope we have a few more days like that one.

Karen

Painting at Meeker Slough

Meeker Slough with Duck   acrylic  20 by 30

A few weeks ago I did this one at Meeker Slough on a linen canvas.  It was a warm day and the paint dried quickly on my pallete so I was working faster and faster towards the end with pretty thick paint.  Karen

Julie at the Hoffman Marsh

We were lucky it did not get drizzly until after our three hours were up. Julie was right in front of me and we did not have that much space.  The grassy area between Rydin St. and the marsh is not that wide. Everything was wet.

Julie paints with another outdoor painting group and joins us occasionally. She was working on a wonderful painting of the marsh itself that included the Central Ave highway 80 overpass in the background.

This is a 20 x 16" acrylic on canvas. I used a lot of matte gel for the green grass and the sky, and kept changing the marsh behind the eucalyptus trees. I may continue to revise this painting. I usually line up three or four paintings and revise them simultaneously.

Meeker Slough, Richmond

The weather was very dramatic this day, so the sky and the reflection of the sky was the number 1 focal point of the painting. The little houses were cute too. We left when it started to rain. I think I only appreciated the painting after I got it back to the studio and started distressing the surface with rain drops.

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
11 X 15

marilynhill.com

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.

Sheep and Goats at Whittel Marsh, Point Pinole

I climbed the 10 foot tall earthen shield of what would have been a WWII turret and found this view. I worked for 1.5 hrs and had to hurry out of the park because I had a meeting at 4:00 pm (bad idea to schedule something immediately after painting). Then I took a long time before posting it because I had to photoshop the flies the oil caught on canvas on my way back to the parking lot. This is more what I've been hoping to do. I did not revise it at home, finding that this quick sketch has the essential elements, and that it does what it set out to do.

Point Pinole

Lovely warm day, a flat trail and goats in front of us. Lots of fun hearing them bleat at first but it did get a bit wearing after 2 or 3 hours. They were constantly moving and fascinating colors too. I decided to stand in an area near Rebeca and Joan that was perhaps a bit too marshy and wet, and in shade quite quickly but Point Pinole is a place I'd love to return to, though I think my kit was a little heavy for the walk back to the car park. The shuttle out though is great. I had an old frame that measured 10" x 20", so this was painted in oils on canvas board to fit. It was a challenge to get the color down, as the light changed constantly and I did a few watercolor sketches to 'warm up'. Thanks for nominating this great location!

Wildcat Creek Trail

I took my dog with us to provide additional protection in an otherwise lonely corner of Richmond Parkway. We got there early. It was going to be overcast but it was not going to rain, according to the forecast. As we walked, I noticed that this part of the bay trail was going to be a great hiking experience a couple of decades ago. The short paved trail ends at an oak grove with an elevated platform and two benches. There is a gate separating the grove from what looks and feels like a levee, although it could have been the next stage of the bay trail left unfinished. All around us we could see the Parchester Marsh expanse, and beyond it, Chevron. We crossed the gate to get a better view of the marsh. Marilyn and Karen went to the end, but Kafka and I stayed by the gate. Beryl chose the grove. After noon, a cold wind swept through the marsh and froze our hands and feet. Soon after a light rain fell and we were forced to leave at exactly 1:00 pm. I was glad to have picked acrylic to depict this 16 x 20" view of the grassy levee and the hills beyond. Rebeca

Meeker Slough Pier

My preconceived idea was to paint the broken down pier. A photo that I saw online showed a small building at the end, but that was gone. As I was on the path near the pier, I realized that the sun would be right in my eyes soon, so I went back to this view. It had the advantage of a small spot of shade also. I had composed the painting with Albany Hill and the Berkeley hills in the background. Then the sun seemed to light up that middle-ground marshy area and I knew I had to try to capture that. The reeds nearest me were more dry dull. The pier became less important. I was trying to keep an area white that was a bird on the post at the end of the pier, but I accidentally painted over it. I think I'll crop some off the sky because there is some sort of blotch in the middle top that appeared and I don't know what caused it.

Larry Hatfield

Meeker Slough

I loved the Meeker Slough and might return on my own another day. There is a lot to paint if you factor in the tide levels. I returned to the same spot this Saturday, hoping to finish the parts of this view closer to me, but found the tide to be opposite to what it was last Saturday. It was high and getting higher! I finished this painting from memory and from the little bits above the waterline I could still see. The 18 x 24" canvas was a better size to work on. In the meantime, I painted the view to my left of the rapidly flooding slough on a smaller canvas, but one stretcher bar was broken and the canvas was not taut, adding a new dimension to my misery. There were coots and I struggled to add them to the water, with disastrous results. I am hoping to salvage this second painting and I might post it this week. Rebeca

Meeker Slough

I tried another bird. The birds at Meeker Slough were so varied and beautiful that I couldn't help myself. After I had blocked out my painting all the birds had flown off. Suddenly a flash of white appeared before me and I threw some white paint down in the general shape of the big egret. The bird stayed for only a minute but I kept it in the painting. Meeker Slough is a great place to paint in. Many different views and choices and the light in the afternoon is stunning. Karen

Larkspur Landing

We had a pretty good showing this last Saturday, considering it was across the bay. Deborah, Joan, Karen and I sat along the edge of the ferry parking lot because it was shaded and it provided an incomparable view of the marsh and the boat houses behind it. But because it's fall, the sun went into sunset mode rather quickly. I was in a bad mood because something wasn't working in this 16 x 20" acrylic, and Karen mentioned there might be two paintings in one. I thought she was right and went home determined to dull out the marsh and enhance the houses across it. This is the revised version. Rebeca

Hoffman Marsh, belatedly

Hoffman Marsh was the very first landscape I painted with the East Bay Plein Air group. I was worried about the lack of a restroom, but it turned out not to be a problem--I got so wrapped up in painting, other considerations never entered in.

There were about seven of us painting this spot, and we didn't stray too far from each other, so we all had a chance to chat and look at each other's works.

I had a lot of fun with the grasses, and got a bit carried away with painting them. The technique sort of breaks down in the two yellowish masses at the right, one near and one smaller and more distant. These areas were in fact quite wild and wooly, but they don't read intelligibly in the painting. I'm tempted to repaint them in a tamer, more controlled way (like the yellowish grassy banks at the left, which read as grass).

Painting Under the Oak

I almost ran out of gas on the way to China Camp. I loved the oak by the road where Marilyn was last week, but did not want to paint the same view she had done so well, so I turned my head to the left and did a different view of the same marsh. I sat down to paint quite contentedly when a sudden breeze flipped my palette. It landed face down on my shoes. After scraping the blobs of color off my boots, I settled for doing what I could. At around 11:30 the fog dissipates and the sun comes out, changing the entire color scheme but I didn't have to worry. A minute after I stepped back to look at the painting, the wind blew the easel and the attached 24 x 24" birch panel. "Oh well," I thought to myself, "at least it's acrylic, the paint's dry." I re-arranged everything, sat down again, and a wasp gall the size of a tennis ball fell on the truck, scaring the heck out of me. By then I was hungry so I ate some trail mix, pondering what to make of this nature plot. I managed to finish close to 2 pm, after getting bitten my multiple female marsh mosquitoes, and completed the last details in my living room.

Island in the Marsh, China Camp

The fog was beginning to burn off and gave an interesting sky. The bright blue showing through the white/gray/purple fog. This is only one end of the Island that looks strangely marooned in the marsh. I don't think I captured the patterns and colors in the marsh very well, but to add to it would probably destroy it. There is still some orange fuzzy stuff on the pickle weed showing.

I did another one on the same sunny day at China Camp.  This one I did very fast when a lot of children from an adventure camp descended on the beach. It came out in the spirit of  a finger painting.

Karen