Betsy Powell-Emeryville 2015

Diana Yoshida-Blakes Garden 2015

Linda Kohn-Emeryville 2015

Sharon Hind-Smith-Emeryville Dock #2 2015

Ling Liao-Martinez 2015

Painting at Middle Harbor

Middle Harbor park is right next to the Port of Oakland.   The city looms across the bay and huge ships move slowly by. We had two nice sessions there and plan on going back next week.  There are great contrasts in landscape and man made structures.  Lisa Greenstein sent this painting in oil on board that beautifully describles some of the contrasts and especially shows the wonderful sky we had after the rain the day before.

                                                                        Lisa Greenstein

Karen in the Vineyyard

Early in the Vineyard, oil, 18" square.

From one of last November's trips to Viano Winery in Martinez. The November rains made everything green and wet this fall. Fog stayed around till near noon, and we had to bundle up. Just up the rise beyond the orchard, trains rattle by.

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.

Lake Anza, Berkeley

Lake Anza, Oil on canvas, 18 x 24"

I took my mom to Lake Anza. Ever since my last visit I have wanted to return to work in oil, so that's what I did. My mom sat down to read while I tried to capture this spot with a palette knife. I revised a bit in the studio. I still want to return and do another one.

Wildcat From Kensington and Terrace

Wildcat From Kensington and Terrace, oil on canvas, 18 x 24"

We set up shop on this trailhead, on a very cold day just before the string of storms hit us. You could hear the cows moo down below. The neighbors came out to see what we were doing, something I like. Eventually it became too cold to continue and we left. I think overcast days pose their own color and value challenges, and they can yield very worthwhile nature studies.

Albany Hill From Potrero (Revised)

This one took two visits and considerable revision in my studio. The weather was very different on the first visit and I had easel issues. The location is fantastic. I would return there an day.

Near Rydin and Central Ave

Hoffmann Marsh, Near Central Ave, Oil on canvas 18 x 24"

I warn that this is not a good photograph of the painting. I used the paint knife the whole time. The palette was cadmium red, cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, pthalo blue, titanium white and ultramarine blue.

Albany Hill From Hoffmann Marsh

Albany Hill from Hoffmann Marsh, 18 x 24" Oil on masonite

I went to the marsh twice, then revised in the studio. I opted to change the canal's shape slightly because of composition. Masonite is my favorite painting surface.

Carol and Lisa on Clark Trail

Not sure exactly how big is this canvas, perhaps 24 x 30." What I do know is that this is my first oil outdoors after several months. Without the figures, this would have been a terrible composition. So I finished Carol and Lisa first, because I knew they would leave or move. I completed the hills and sky on a second visit, and did not revise it at all once it got to my studio. However, now that I see it here, I might work on the sky, which looks quite anemic.

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

Viewing the Albany City

We met at the small parking lot on the top of the hill. In the park, the view of the bay was blocked by trees. I did not want to explore too far away from the trail because of the poison oak.  After having walked for 10 to 15 min along the trail, Rebeca and I found an open view of the Albany City. This is an oil painting done on a 12" X 16" Gesso board.  Philip Ng

9th and Camelia

Two months ago I was going to finish my painting of the church on 8th and Camelia, but when we got there, there was a memorial service going on. We realized it would be terrible to stand across the street, finishing our paintings while people cried in front of the church. So we went a block away to 9th and Camelia. I loved the extra-wide sidewalk and the car lineup. Phillip and Kendall were there and I was able to include them in the otherwise barren landscape. But when I got home I had to admit the figures were too small. After 24 hours of deliberation, I gave in and scraped them, but not without first taking a cell phone photo (you can find it here) to use as reference for the second attempt. The finished painting shows the correction I made to the figures, as well as the revised sidewalk, which I lightened.

Ninth Street Corner

This is the painting I was doing in the photo  (see the post titled "Painting in Berkeley").  It was a windy day, but we were in the shelter of a tall warm wall.  Hooray!  I used a photo to record the windblown clouds for later work in the studio.
30" x 40" oil on canvas.   Betsy Kendall

House at 8th and Page, Berkeley

I sat on the back of my car and painted this one week when there was a break in the rain.  oil on canvas 18" x 24"

  Betsy Kendall

9th Street in Berkeley

The group met at Harrison Park and decided to revisit the location at Camelia and the Ninth Street. On 9th St. looking to the South, the interesting shape of the building drew my attention. In the painting,  the foreground on the right was very empty.  I painted the sign on the road which leaded me to add the figure to the painting.  I hoped it helped to balance the composition. This was done with oil on a 12 by 16 gesso board."   Philip Ng

Boynton St., Berkeley

The narrow Boynton St. snakes its way through the Berkeley hills, leaving little space for neighbors to park their cars. We had to set up shop on the sidewalk. Others tried the stairs leading from Maryland to Boynton, striving to capture a view of the bay. This was a smaller oil, 16 x 20." I used a lot of stand oil to work faster than usual, since I had challenged myself to get all nine cars in this painting. I worked from the background towards the foreground, from the more distant cars to the closest ones. By the time I got to the Volvo in the foreground, I was tired.

Rumrill Road

Finally got myself sufficiently organized to share these recent paintings, mostly of the Rumrill Road and Market intersection. I've somehow grown attached to the place, have encountered many appreciative people and had some interesting chats. Color is what fascinates me at the moment, and especially the impact that different light has, so it's been really great to keep returning to the same place under different conditions, and to keep looking and noticing and looking some more. These are still in progress and quite close to finished paintings but I'm still learning when to stop, and when to go on. I really want to paint the area near the tracks and maybe a freight train if I can do it, and also to put more people in - maybe when the weather improves a bit there will be more people out and about.

Oil on canvas 16 x 24 inches

Jana and Gerry Near Port Costa

I walked around for half an hour looking for a nice view of the twisty roads on this extremely hot day. We were on top of a hill and so I was already overheated when I sat down to paint Jana, who had a reflective umbrella and had brought water. Gerry was even smarter and hid behind a small tree. They weren't so close together. Just looking at Gerry required moving my whole setup about 15 yards up the hill, but I wanted to do something different. Towards the end the heat was too much and I had to leave. I was glad I brought oils and not acrylics, and I was happy with my new cadmium red light, which produced such great, glowing oranges.

John Hubert Davis Park, San Pablo

Karen and I parked on Brookside, the street narrowly flanked by Wildcat and San Pablo creeks, then walked to J. H. Davis using a pedestrian passageway between two houses. Wildcat was almost dry, while the previous week we had seen the still flowing waters of San Pablo. As we walked into the higher ground next to an impossibly green baseball field, I saw a group of boys ages 6-13 playing soccer, which I decided I would paint. I set my easel far enough to hope I would stay unnoticed, bu it wasn't the case. They stopped their game minutes later and walked over. They had great manners! Later, I found out none attended the public elementary school by the park. Some went as far as Berkekey to get their parochial education. They had very good questions ("If you're painting a car and it drives away, how do you deal with that?") and even helped Karen when the wind blew her whole setup. I decided to continue painting the empty field, as lately I am into "emptiness."