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.