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)