Santa Clara Historic Railroad Station, February 23, 2012

This site was chosen for the opportunities available to try out some perspective challenges, along with a presentation, and a handout on basic perspective, and some "tools" to help get it all down on paper.

Another great day painting in the sunshine. We are having an early spring after a non-rain winter. Our paintsites group gathered in Santa Clara at the transit center. Morning commuter Caltrains thundered in and out, picking up and disgorging passengers traveling to and from San Francisco or the Peninsula. Buses came and went, a construction crew in hardhats worked nearby, and our artists tackled perspective. Leaders Jenny and Sylvia offered a wonderful concise lesson with handouts. I even received a nice plexiglass viewfinder for attending. This painting truly was a perspective challenge.   Mary Paquet

We had a fine day at the Santa Clara train station for the "perspective" refresher led by Jenny & Sylvia.     The venue worked particularly well as there was a range of small structures, simple to complex, on which to practice both one- or two-point perspective.      The "rules & principles" review was useful but I found the simple tools they'd made for us and then demonstrated to be even more helpful --- easy to use and very portable, I anticipate using them frequently in the future.    Brad Santos      

Jenny Tero   The yellows on the building were enhanced by the light shining through the trees at the end of the platform.

Campbell Heritage Theatre, February 16th, 2012

A beautiful crisp, clear day in bright sunshine, but we certainly needed jackets.  The reflecting pool was a huge challenge!
 

The Campbell Heritage Theater is a handsome building and really shines on a bright day.    We could only get about 20 yards from the building which presented some challenges as far as perspective.    In discussing this with Jenny & Sylvia we concluded that painting buildings like these plein air presents problems one wouldn't face painting them from a photograph -- things I hadn't considered before.    So I definitely plan to attend the Santa Clara Train Station session next week focusing on "Perspective" -- just the short discussion we had in Campbell was very useful.Brad Santos

Mary Paquet

Jenny Tero

Sylvia Waddell

Thanks for the opportunity to really see this beautiful building I've overlooked many times before.
Caroline Garbarino

  

Overfelt Gardens Park, San Jose, February 2nd, 2012

Laurie Barna

Chris Edwards

Anne Foster

Leslie Grimm

Mary Paquet



Quince bushes at Overfelt Gardens,  Jenny Tero



Another great day to be out painting with Jenny & Sylvia and the group; a fine memorial to a great man (Confucius -- in case you didn't recognize him from my painting); and another so-so painting.    Still, two out of three isn't bad.  Brad Santos

Caroline Garbarino

Sylvia Waddell

 

Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose, January 19th

We had an impressive turnout for this paintsite considering how cold it was! Our shivering artists were rewarded with wonderful Egyptian architecture to paint. After lunch we visited the Triton Museum and the viewed the 2011 Statewide Painting Exhibition.

Anna Jacke

Caroline Garborino

Mary Paquet

Jenny Tero.   The planetarium at the Rosicrucian. This was my second attempt using a view finder, the first one finished up with a dome that was way too big - the eye deceives

Sylvia Waddell

Palo Alto Baylands, January 5th

For our first paintsite of 2012 we painted at Palo Alto Baylands. It was sunny and very peaceful, apart from the occasional small plane buzzing overhead. A large Egret fished right in front of us and lots of other birds busied themselves in the water and reeds. After lunch the tide went out and presented a whole new view.

Caroline Garborino

Jane Saltman

Brad Santos

After enduring the near blizzard conditions at the Cupertino Paint-Out before Christmas and weeks of greyish Spare-the-Air days since, Sylvia, one of our Weather Goddesses (Jenny, of course, being the other), ordered up a clear, sunny, and unseasonably warm day for us to paint the popular Palo Alto Baylands.  Some of the salt marsh plants are an interesting shade of rusty-orange -- something of an unusual color in a landscape.  A bonus: a high tide and calm conditions made for distinct reflections in the sloughs.   And, yes, those are waterfowl flying over my landscape, not UFOs.  Brad Santos

Sylvia Waddell

Cupertino Memorial Park, December 15th

Two weeks ago our hearty band braved gale force winds in Santa Cruz. This time we were tested with a grey, gloomy, and bitterly (at least for us native Californians) cold day at Memorial Park in Cupertino.   But we hung in there and painted!  Several of us painted the small pavilion on what would normally be an island in the middle of the ponds -- if the ponds hadn't been drained. We chose it not only because it was interesting but because we could quickly find shelter in it if it started raining. Brad Santos

Mary Raftery

Caroline Garbarino

Brad Santos

Santa Cruz Mission, 1st December 2011

Our plein air painting was made extra challenging today by gusty winds that had us clutching on to our hats and painting supplies. However, the sun was shining, the sky was a brilliant blue, and the little square at Santa Cruz Mission provided an abundance of painting material for us to enjoy.
Our group gathered for a festive lunch in the courtyard of the Mission. Everyone brought some food to share and there were all sorts of homemade goodies to enjoy. Our members have great skills in addition to painting! Thanks to everyone for sharing and making the day a fun trip out.

Leslie Grimm, Holy Cross Church

Laurie Barna, Santa Cruz Mission & Mission Plaza

Janice Faulstich

Mary Raftery

Brad Santos

Brad: Beautiful day, albeit a bit windy, in a hidden little corner of Santa Cruz.    I'd seen the Holy Cross Church many times and always admired it from the highway but never made the effort to see it up close.   I think it looks better from afar.   I painted the Mission reconstruction after lunch --- I think the sugar rush from all of the wonderful desserts the group brought helped me finish the painting in record time.    Maybe sometime we can have a dessert 'paint-out' where we lay out the desserts in some scenic location, paint the spread as a still life, then dig in.

Sylvia Waddell - Watercolor Canvas



The Adobe at Santa Cruz Mission, Jenny Tero