Mare Island Waterfront

Rebeca, Marilyn, and I painted the same thing at Mare Island today. It was cold to start, then warmed up. The paint wasn't drying so fast today, I had such a hard time on Saturday with that. Everything was leaning left so I fixed it in photoshop. I just rotated the image and cropped it. I juiced up the color just for fun. The colors were sort of drab and it was overcast too. I forgot my brushes, but Marilyn kindly lent me two. I also forgot a pencil, so I sketched with a light wash of ultramarine blue. Then I painted the sky. Then the buildings and cranes, then the water. I darkened the sea wall in the foreground. It kept drying too light, after about 3 tries, I really put down the pigment.

Larry Hatfield
10x14 watercolor

Monday, May 24

It will be overcast but not rainy at Mare Island. We'll see you there. You can find a map here.
Directions: Go north on I-80 until the I-780 exit. Don't take 780, but as you exit stay on the frontage road until the second exit. Go west onto Curtola Way. Take Curtola until you get to the water. The road bends to the right and becomes Mare Island Way. Stay on that until you see the Mare Island Causeway (the bridge). Once across the causeway, turn left onto Railroad Ave. The first turn is Nimitz, then Railroad near the end of the causeway. About a block and a half or two there is a street named "Pintado" with an empty parking area to your right. The small sign is blue. We don't know of any public bathrooms on the island. Bring your own water, and your cell phone in case we miss each other.

Saturday, May 22

This session has been cancelled because several of us are doing the Pro Arts East Bay Open Studios and we have an artists' reception on that very afternoon. Next Saturday we will be going to Mission Creek, San Francisco, on Fourth and Channel St. It has amazing views of downtown, and much more. A park user says: 

My favorite part is the less domesticated section on the south side by the cute houseboats. It's got lots of flowering plants and trees, and even an old sailboat with grass sprouting out of it. Walk a little further and there's a community garden.

Feel welcome to nominate new locations on our Google Group!

Monday, May 17

Session cancelled: we cannot paint in Mare island because of rain. If there are some of you who would like to stop checking the blog for updates: Become a follower! When you do, you get an e-mail notification in your inbox any time there is a new post, so you don't have to check manually. And if Karen or Rebeca forget to send e-mail updates, you'll be covered.

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Dimond Park - first visit

I only made it to the first Dimond Park outing and when I emerged from the bushes everyone had left, which was fine. I seemed to have chosen a very busy spot with lots of boys throwing stones into the creek and families trailing up and down behind me. Once I got used to that I began to really enjoy being there and one young man asked if he could join my painting business. It's only now that I realize what he meant – an apprentice would be very useful for carrying things around and I should have said Yes! These two are 10 x 8 and the tree had very minor touching up while the other one of the creek received a bit more reworking the other day.

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.

Monday, May 10

Rain has been forecast for Mare Island. We will postpone our trip until next Monday. Larry says "There are a lot of old Navy buildings and some cranes and equipment and waterfront warehouses & boatyard places. There are some historic houses and things that look like bomb shelters." Leslie Wilson adds: "The dry dock area is great - lots of cranes and old buildings next to the water. Also, just a few blocks away is the officer's quarters with mansions which is good too." You can find a map here.

Directions: Go north on I-80 until the I-780 exit. Don't take 780, but as you exit stay on the frontage road until the second exit. Go west onto Curtola Way. Take Curtola until you get to the water. The road bends to the right and becomes Mare Island Way. Stay on that until you see the Mare Island Causeway (the bridge). Once across the causeway, turn left onto Railroad Ave. The first turn is Nimitz, then Railroad near the end of the causeway. About a block and a half or two there is an empty parking area to your right, right before "C" Street, which is where we'll meet. We don't know of any public bathrooms on the island. Bring your own water, and your cell phone in case we miss each other.