Keller Beach in Point Richmond

I really wanted to finish by 1 pm, so I made a decision early on not to "finish" it too much, to use bigger brushes, etc. I did the water last and I mixed in some acrylic medium which helped give it that texture. I was sitting in front the old railroad tracks that lead through the old tunnel, just outside of Miller Knox Park, but facing the small beach closer to the residential area of Point Richmond. It was a holiday but not many people passed through that area. Rebeca

Girl at Miller Knox

It was very busy at Miller Knox for the Labor Day holiday. I started a painting of the trees beyond the laggoon with the Bay behind but soon had a young girl and her sister looking over my shoulder asking questions. Her questions were so good and she was so interested in the process of painting I didn't have the heart to shoo her away. Instead I started another painting with her as the focal point. She stood perfectly still for me. When she left to eat lunch I finished and changed the figure quite a bit so that when she came back I think she was disapointed that it didn't look more like her and we had a good conversation about that.

Karen

Mount Tamalpais & Oil Tanker

The contrast of Mount Tam with its wildlife refuge and protected redwoods across the Bay from the oil tanker loading at Chevron's pier caught my attention. I had painted at Keller Beach before and needed a new subject. I saw a picture of Percy Gray's painting with Mt. Tam in the background, so why not paint it. Most of the painting is sky, it actually goes higher than this shows. I had some trouble controlling the wash for the sky. I wanted to get lighter as I got nearer the mountain, but I must have added too much water about halfway down. We'll call them ghost clouds. Dealing with the elements and bugs and stuff falling out of trees is part of plein air. So far the birds haven't bombed me.

Larry Hatfield

Gardeners and Shoppers at Annie's Annuals

I have never been to Annie's before. There were so many possibilities. I loved the way people looked among the plants and flowers and with the netting overhead. I had to work fast. I want to go back into the one with the gardeners to make the composition stronger.

Karen

Annie's Annuals in Richmond

I would not have attempted a painting like this in oil! When I tried to do it at the Blake Garden, I failed to achieve what I wanted, and was feeling really frustrated (I did not post that painting). But acrylic enabled me to lay a dark underpainting on top of which I built the lighter foliage when the sun came out. My challenge was the bare tables to the right, which I kept re-rendering because the perspective was not working. Acrylic also lets you adjust and readjust the values pretty quickly, so I went home and did this value adjustment from memory. I am enjoying more and more the post-plein air revision now. At first didn't realize that I had to take mental notes of what I would like to work on before I left. But now that I do this, it is less scary to revise. Rebeca

September 7

Fran says the Miller Knox Regional Park offers a variety of places and different views. Thank you to Karen for submitting Fran's nomination. We still need nominations for more places in September.

Directions: From I-580 West in Richmond, exit at Canal Boulevard.
Turn left at the light onto Canal. Turn right at the light onto W. Cutting Bl., then left at the stop sign onto Garrard Bl. Proceed through the auto tunnel; Garrard becomes Dornan Drive on the south side of the auto tunnel. The park entrance will be on the right less than 1/2 miles south of the tunnel.

Annie's Annuals, one view

I didn't think I would be able to find anything to paint because there were so many flowers so much color it was hard to take it all in. Finally, I settled on this curious structure with the plants around it. I have been trying to grow those Brugmania trumpet flowers at home, no success yet. The fog was thick to start with, but the sun came out strong after about an hour and a half. The sky shows the break up of the fog, before it actually did. There was no blue sky visible when I painted the sky, but I was expecting it.