Friday, March 25, 2016

Mission Santa Clara, Santa Clara. Thursday, March 24, 2016

Two perfect days in a row for plein air painting:    Wednesday in Jane Kwant's exuberantly exciting garden and then on Thursday at the serene and very intimate Mission Santa Clara on the Santa Clara University campus.   Last week we were on the equally interesting (and almost as historic) Stanford Campus so that makes three first-rate paintouts in the space of just eight days -- we've set the bar pretty high for the rest of 2016 but if anybody can keep up the pace, it's the Paintsites crew.

For additional information about Mission Santa Clara, the official website is
https://www.scu.edu/missionchurch/

Upcoming Paintsites:
  • Thursday, March 31, 2016:   Wunderlich Park, Woodside.
  • Thursday, April 7, 2016:   Southern San Mateo County - site to be determined -- where the wildflowers are in bloom, that's where we'll be. 
  •  Thursday, April 14, 2016:  Nola's Iris Garden, San Jose.
  •  Thursday, April 21, 2016:  Gamble Garden, Palo Alto
  •  Thursday, April 28, 2016:  San Jose Heritage Rose Garden
For details, see the SCVWS website and the March & April Newsletters.   And please remember, check your e-mail or the SCVWS website Home Page for cancellation notices.

Working from the north side of the main entrance mall, close to the De Saisset Museum, more or less looking south, with a wide angle view were ...

Dan


Jane

Jane's painting.
Helen
Helen's painting captured all of the main structural elements.

As did Candy's first painting of the day.

Dick & Salinda on the side entrance steps to the De Saisset Museum with a good view of the Mission Church.

Salinda's painting of the Mission Church

Rich

Rich's painting from a slightly more acute angle than the others.
 
Liz working on her preliminary sketch

More focused were ....
Joe --- back on campus for the first time since receiving his law degree from SCU ....
... this time as an artist:   Joe's painting of the entrance to the Mission Cemetery.


Anna

Anna's painting of a secondary entrance to the Mission Church.  Behind the low wall to the right is the Mission Cemetery ...

...where Sylvia captured the essence of an appropriately named old "Angel Trumpet" tree.

Sylvia's second painting of the north side of the Mission Church and the big square tower in the back.


On the other side of the main entrance mall, looking West,  were .... 

Nora

and Sharon

 And with an almost head-on perspective were ... 
 
Mary --- painting the Mission Church from up-close.

 
and Brad --- painting from the formal fountain on the entrance mall from a long ways away.


The Mission Gardens to the south of the Church with its long wisteria arbor, the bell tower and remnants of the old convent / padres quarters were popular  set-up spots ...

 
Candy in the Mission Gardens



Candy's finished painting from the Mission Gardens.

Annie


Annie's painting with just a slice of the bell tower showing.

Joy

Joy's painting of the bell tower and old convent / padre's quarters.

Lisha's painting focused on the bell tower ...
 
... as did Leslie's ...


... as did Alex, (Leslie's handsome and talented young grandson, who was visiting the Bay Area on his Spring Break) ...

... and Marilyn ....


.... and as did Iris.

That's Mary enjoying the glory and fragrance of the wisteria while she paints.

Mary's unfinished painting of the wisteria.
Leslie's painting of the wisteria in the Mission Gardens.

Seems like there's never enough time to finish a painting in a place like this but one works up a real appetite painting plein air so we stopped for lunch and our show-and-share critique ....

 
Lunch first (well fed artists tend to be less 'critical'), then our 'critique'.  (photo by Rich)



Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Jane Kwant's Springtime Garden, San Jose. Wednesday, March 23, 2016

We tried something a little different with this paintout:  In order to meet the Newsletter deadline, we typically schedule Paintsites up to 7 or 8 weeks in advance which makes timing for garden sites a hit or miss proposition and we sometimes hear the old refrain:  "you should have been here last week" or "next week the garden will be even better".    Jane volunteered a couple of months ago to host Paintsites but, with the weather so unpredictable, we didn't want to commit to a specific date.   Paintsites coordinators Marilyn and Jane S. came up with the idea of a 'flash' paintout whereby Jane K. would tell us when her garden would be at its best and then Marilyn would send Paintsites e-notifications three days before the paintout.   So that's what we did and, considering the very short notice and a different day of the week (Wednesday), it couldn't have worked out better --- an excellent turnout for a special day in a special place.  Couldn't have been any better last week.   Won't be any better next week. 

As to the garden:  Many of us know Jane as a  marvelous watercolor artist but may not realize she's also an artist in the garden.  As a watercolorist, she's adept at avoiding "mud" - as a gardener, she revels in it.    Her gardening technique is very loose - an interesting collaboration between Jane and her plants -  she does the basic design and then lets the plants take over, freely naturalizing until every square foot is perfectly coordinated color & texture wise with shadows and shady spots providing strong contrasts.


Jane in her front yard.
 Upcoming Paintsites:
  • Thursday, March 24, 2016:  Santa Clara Mission, Santa Clara.
  • Thursday, March 31, 2016:   Wunderlich Park, Woodside.
  • Thursday, April 7, 2016:   Southern San Mateo County - site to be determined depending on where wildflowers are in bloom.
  •  Thursday, April 14, 2016:  Nola's Iris Garden, San Jose.
  •  Thursday, April 21, 2016:  Gamble Garden, Palo Alto
  •  Thursday, April 28, 2016:  San Jose Heritage Rose Garden
For details, see the SCVWS website and the March & April Newsletters.   And please remember, check your e-mail or the SCVWS website Home Page for cancellation notices.


Some of us focused on a single blossom, a stem with multiple blossoms, or an individual plant ....
Carol up close and personal with her subject ...

... this lovely Dutch Iris.


Paintsites co-coordinator Marilyn

Marilyn's painting of a trio of tulips in the style of Birgit O'Connor.
Pat


Pat also worked in the style of Birgit O'Connor.

Kaaren was in an adventurous mood and worked on slick Bristol sheets.

Kaaren's first painting of a Bearded Iris ...

... and her second Bearded Iris (with some small white flowers to keep it company).
Sylvia

Sylvia's portrait of an iris.

Lois'  journal entry of a clump of Dutch Iris.

Painting from the sidewalk in front of Jane's house were, left to right, Candy, Helen, Lisha and Annie.

Candy's study of two Dutch Iris.


Candy's second painting of the Dutch Iris.   This time there's three of them - My! Jane's garden does grow fast!
Candy's painting of potted cyclamens.
Candy's painting of a hanging geranium.
Candy's sketches of an assortment of blossoms.
Helen's sketch of a yellow Bearded Iris.

Her finished painting of same.
Annie liked the look of this clump of California Poppies.    And captured it perfectly.


And some of us wanted more than a single plant or blossom but not the whole garden ... 
 
Joy

Joy assembled this lovely bouquet of iris, poppies, and tulips.
Another of Kaaren's fine paintings on Bristol paper


And Kaarens' final painting of the day.
 
Berni


Berni's painting of Joy at work

Berni's painting of  "The Lady in the Pink Hat" - she's everywhere!

Lois' journal entry of a bed of iris and poppies.

Lisha's painting of a Bearded Iris and it supporting cast.

Sylvia's second painting - this of a varied planting including, I think, the only one any of us did of a Foxglove.
 And some of us wanted to capture the overall feeling of the garden ...


Jayne
Jayne's unfinished journal entry - note the chickens peeking out of their hen-house "playhouse" (or is it a playhouse "hen-house"?)

 
Kay

Kay's unfinished painting.  That's Marilyn in the pink hat blending in perfectly with the flowers.


Uma spent her lunch break with us -- just enough time to create two wonderful paintings ...

Uma's quick sketch.


Uma's second, more detailed, painting.
Brad's painting of artists (including Marilyn of course) in Jane's spectacular garden.