Weekend Paintsites Rapid Fire Paint and Sketch, Esther Clark Park, Los Altos Hills, CA July 18, 2015

Commentary by Uma Kelkar, Weekend Paintsites Leader:

"It was the morning of July 18 and we had a special plein air session today - Rapid Fire - a short 1 & 1/2 hour of quick sketching before we headed to the Town Hall in Los Altos where 3 artists were to demonstrate their portrait skills. Allison Turner and I perched ourselves in the open space after calculating that the current large cloud would give us cloud cover for the next 20 minutes before unveiling the sun. Our precise calculations, rapid & confident sketching even when Allison had a horse come by to say hello - really - paid off. Allison made 4 sketches, all while giggling and enjoying herself and I made two and didn't say hello to any horse. My summer's aim is to paint eucalyptus trees better. They have a characteristic athletic look about their trunks with leaves which are still deciding on their color. So, they end up with many different hues and shades all in at once and for watercolors that easily mix, it becomes a challenging topic to handle. After doing a semi ink + watercolor painting, I focused on one tree in a parting attempt. Not satisfied with just under an hour of actual sketching, I also took my book and pens to the demonstration afterwards. While the demonstrators toiled away, I sketched them and the camera man who was recording the session."

Alison Turner painting the field

The Field

Alison's rapid-fire paintings

Uma's rendering of artist Alison

Uma's textures and colors

Uma's sketch inside the Special Event

Uma's sketch of the cameraman

Picchetti Ranch Open Space Preserve and Picchetti Winery, Cupertino. Thursday, July 16, 2015.

This is another site which lends itself to either hiking & sketching or settling down in a comfortable spot with plenty of interesting subjects from which to choose and just painting.   So basically, there were two groups:  (a) the "Hikers", led by Sylvia, undeterred by mountain lion and poison oak warnings, who chose to hike hot, dusty trails with 20 - 30 minute stops to sketch; and (b) the Sit & Paint crowd who chose to stay at the Winery and paint in the shade.  Which group would you have chosen to paint with?    You couldn't have gone wrong either way.  

For information about the Open Space Preserve with links to the Picchetti Winery, see:
http://www.openspace.org/preserves/picchetti-ranch

 Upcoming Paintsites:

• Saturday, July 18, 2015:  Esther Clark Park, Palo Alto - Special start and end times - 8:00 - 9:30 AM to accommodate artists who plan to attend "1 Model, 3 Fabulous Artists, 3 Points of View" paintout at the nearby Los Altos Hills Town Hall.
• Thursday, July 23, 2015:  Japanese Friendship Garden, Kelley Park, San Jose.
• Thursday, July 30, 2015:  Moss Landing - our big mid-Summer road trip.   Plan to make a long day of it.  Bring lunch or eat at one of the many little restaurants in town with friends before an afternoon of painting.

 For additional information and details, see the SCVWS website or the July Newsletter.

 On the Trail.  The Hikers at the first 20 minute stop:

Hikers (left to right):  Leader Sylvia, Lisha, Helen, Broncha, Pat, and Liz in the distance.  (Not pictured:  Marilyn, Leslie, & Brad.)

Lisha's painting of the bridge.

Liz's sketch of the bridge.

Marilyn's painting of the bridge.

Pat's painting of the bridge.

Sylvia's painting of the bridge.

Brad's painting of the Hikers at the bridge.

While the rest of the Hikers took the Orchard Loop Trail back toward the Winery, Leslie pressed on for another couple of miles to the where the trail ends in the Stevens Creek County Park.   It was there that she painted:

  

Leslie's painting of Stevens Creek (upstream from Stevens Creek Reservoir).

 I finished this painting in the studio - added shading to give depth and "plant" the rocks, worked on background, got rid of distracting white spots, etc.  It shows the dry stream bed much better!    Leslie


The first leg was comfortably level.   The second was mostly downhill with lots of slippin' & slidin' at the end of which we were looking for a shady place to sit, catch our breath and paint.   We found one with a view of the reservoir.

Broncha's painting of the trail, the reservoir and the Fremont Older Open Space Preserve hills beyond.

Helen's painting of same.

And Sylvia's.

After which we headed back towards the Winery.    I don't know why I should have been surprised by how steep the climb back to the main trail was after our earlier daring descent - but I was.    Mid-way, Sylvia relented and gave us a few minutes for a "shade break" which we all thoroughly appreciated.
 

Hikers (left to right): Liz, Sylvia, Broncha, Pat, Brad and Lisha. (photo by Helen)

We considered stopping here for another sketch but decided instead to head back to the Winery and eat lunch with the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, back at the Winery, those who chose to "sit and paint" produced some wonderful paintings:

Candy's finished painting of the oldest ranch building at the Winery.   (She's going to put a rooster in every painting we do at a farm from now on - they're always a welcome bit of color.)

Mary R.'s sketch of the old barn.

Mary R.'s painting of the old barn using her new Winsor & Newton Watercolor Markers.

Melanie's painting of the old barn.  Inspired by the Frank Eber workshop, she now paints on Arches 'rough' paper.

John's painting of the old barn from the side opposite which Mary and Melanie painted.

 Lunch:

You probably can't read the small print under "RESERVED" - it says "For Exceptionally Fine Watercolorists Only".

Seems like everywhere we paint these days there are handsome roosters.

 Which leaves us no choice but to paint them:

Rooster by Helen.

Roosters by Lisha.

The Critique: showing and sharing ...
 

... some of what we'd done both on the trail and at the Winery.

After Lunch:

John had been waiting for the shadows to change on the oldest building on the ranch and when they did, pounced on the opportunity to paint it.

After lunch Leslie went for a 2-for-1 painting:   a rooster and the old barn.

She has this to say about her painting:   The paper I'm using is very smooth - like hot press - and difficult to use.  Also, I had a new palette with fresh paint and I kept picking up globs of paint instead of little dabs.  And it was a smaller set of paints than I usually use (only 11 colors)  so I had some trouble getting the colors I wanted.    Leslie

While Brad did a sketch of the just the old barn.

 

Emma Prusch Farm Regional Park, San Jose. Thursday, July 9, 2015.

When we visited the Sunset Gardens this past May, there were a few chickens wandering around that piqued Laurie's interest in painting them.   Her suggestion to find a "chicken-y" site met with enthusiastic approval.     Hence our visit to the Prusch Farm Park which, even though it's in the shadow of the I280/101/I680 Interchange, has lots of chickens and much more: an old Victorian farmhouse, a large barn, old farm equipment, and a variety of livestock all of which conjure up the past agricultural history of the Valley --- just as Emma Prusch intended.

For more information about the Emma Prusch Farm Park, see:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/Facilities/Facility/Details/131

Upcoming Paintsites:

• Thursday, July 16, 2015:  Picchetti Ranch Preserve, Cupertino.   Either Sit & Paint or Hike & Sketch.  (Jenny won't be leading the Hike so, if there is one, it'll be a tame affair -- nothing to test our mettle.)
• Saturday, July 18, 2015:  Esther Clark Park, Palo Alto - Special start and end times - 8:00 - 9:30 AM to accommodate artists who plan to attend "1 Model, 3 Fabulous Artists, 3 Points of View" paintout at the nearby Los Altos Hills Town Hall.
• Thursday, July 23, 2015:  Japanese Friendship Garden, San Jose.
• Thursday, July 30, 2015:  Moss Landing - our big mid-Summer road trip:  drive, paint, eat, paint, maybe eat again, drive home.

For additional information and details, see the SCVWS website or the July Newsletter.

Today's action:
We've all heard the old joke about "Why did the chicken cross the road?"  The answer is pretty obvious:   "To have its portrait painted by..."
 

Laurie

Note:  University Art in San Jose (a supporter of SCVWS) currently has ten of member Laurie Barna's "Liberty" series paintings hung throughout the store.   Visit and see some of Laurie's fine, award-winning studio work.

Laurie's high-stepping rooster.

... and ...

Candy

Candy's chicken sketches.

 ... and ...

Helen

Helen's sketch of a particularly colorful rooster ...

and her finished painting of same with another, less colorful, chicken.

 ... and ... 

Iris

Iris' painting of the same two chickens.

 ... and ...

Lois

Lois' painting of one of the golden roosters - of which there were a few.

... and ...

Melanie

Melanie's chickens appreciating the view (most of the time they spend eating so it was nice to see this little group sharing a more contemplative moment together).

 ... and ...

Sylvia

Sylvia's portrait of a particularly beady-eyed rooster.

 ... and ...

Lisha

Lisha's unfinished painting of a couple of bright colored roosters.

 ... and ...

Oops, no photo of Mitsi but she was there as evidenced by these to paintings...

One chicken by Mitsi,

Two ducks by Mitsi.

... and ...

Leslie

Leslie's painting of a rooster - he's not worried about crossing any road, he's king of the road with a rig like that.

Seen enough chickens?  Good because there's plenty more to paint in the Prusch Farm Park:
 

Roger agrees - it's time to move on to ...

 The Big Barn, biggest in the county in fact::

The big barn by Melanie.

By Candy (darn chickens insist on being in every painting).

And by Jenny

 Emma Prusch's old farmhouse was another popular subject:

John

John's painting of Emma Prusch's handsome old farmhouse.

 

Lois' painting of an old tractor parked next to the farmhouse.

Brad's painting of the Wishing Well.

And there were other interesting buildings to paint as well:

Nora got off the beaten path (but not away from the chickens) to paint another barn.

Nora's painting of the new barn near some of the micro gardens.

Jenny's painting of another of the farm buildings framed by some colorful thistles.

Kathy's finished painting of one of  the "working" farm buildings.

And there were other animals to paint too --- not as colorful, not as active - in fact pretty drab and lethargic - but equally interesting and worthy subjects (at least Melanie found them so):

A goat by Melanie.

Two pigs by Melanie.

And there were the East Foothills:

Janice

Janice's painting of the foothills.

Mary R.

Sylvia's painting of the East Foothill with a man and his pet chicken in the foreground.

 And finally, in a category by itself:

Liz chose a subject which Leslie had also chosen the last time we visited ...

the large plywood cows (top to bottom: Hand Cow, Smiling Cow, and American Cow) painted by kids

 A good morning's work and it was time for lunch and our critique:

After which John showed us his new, big-wheeled, go-anywhere, complete art supply and equipment cart which he designed and built himself.  It's a great concept and you'll be seeing more photos of this as he refines the design.