Monday, May 31

No painting session. We will return to Mare Island next Monday. This Monday is Memorial Day and everyone will either be at a BBQ or getting ready for Open Studios.

Saturday, May 29

We will meet at the narrow park bordering Mission Creek, on 4th and Channel St, in San Francisco. Cross the Bay Bridge. Take the Fremont exit and turn left. Turn left at Howard. Turn left at 4th street. Pass King and Berry Streets, then cross the creek and you will see Channel. Make a right on Channel St and you will see the park to your right. Because this is not a huge park, park on any side of Channel St., bring your gear and start painting so the others can see you. Bring a cell phone.

Its website says: "The northern portion of Mission Creek Park runs parallel to Mission Creek between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Here you will find a tiled pathway leading to a viewing platform that overlooks Mission Creek. Benches are strategically placed along this esplanade so that one can rest and enjoy the many landscape and water features along with the abundance of waterfowl that visit the area." You can read more information here.

Rodeo Beach Rocks, Marin Headlands

This was from the end of April. I had a big problem with a rock that looked like a giant dead turtle. I didn't know how to fix it, so I just cut it off the bottom and made this a 9.75 x 20.5" horizontal. The bottom half of the painting wasn't finished because of the high winds that made it difficult to continue. The winds nearly took the board out of my hands. So, I tip-toed back through the poison oak. Then trudged back across the sand hoping the sand would remove the p.o. from my shoes. I wanted to paint the mustard colored tops of the cliff. I started out aiming to paint Bird Rock which is to the right, but decided on this.

Larry Hatfield

Mare Island, Vallejo

After we painted, I visited the Mare Island Museum and learned that the history dates back to mid 1800's. The cranes we were painting were mostly from World War II. Against the back drop of a grey day, the yellows, oranges and greens of the cranes seemed to pop out, so that's where I took the color. This day I experimented using the texture throughout the painting rather than just at the end—not confining it to specific shapes but giving it a little more leeway, like the red into the sky. I may try to deepen the water shadows just a little.....

Marilyn Hill
Watercolor
15 X 11"

Mare Island Ramp

This enormous ramp divided Waterfront street. I was distracted by my dog who got cold mid-painting, and by the wind. Later the sun came out, but by then I was nearly done with this 20 x 16" oil. I made the sky first and simplified the structure a little. At first I could not decide whether to give more space to the sky or the water, they were equally beautiful to me. I used a very cold, primary palette made of alizarin crimson, lemon yellow, ultramarine blue and of course, titanium white.
Rebeca

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.