Cypress Sunset

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Abstract landscape.  Abstract is sooo not my thing, but I tired.  I took this image driving home from the beach.  I loved the way the sun was setting behind these trees.  It would not have been safe for me to paint this in real life as I would have been staring directly into the sun.  This is my first piece this semester (besides the midterm) not done on location.  I wanted to capture how huge the sun is on the horizon.  I think it has a sort of Van Gogh feel to it :)

Crashing Wave

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Abstract landscape.  Done at the beach en plein air, trying to capture the movement of the waves.  Much easier said then done.  This is my first attempt at an "abstract" landscape. I actually started this yesterday and finished it today by adding some blue ink into the wave. 

Plein Air- Costal Color Studies 1 & 2

Coastal Color Study 1

watercolor on paper

  6 x 9

For Landscape Painting. Colors studies for a larger final painting.  This one is nice and realistic.  I really love the colors and textures in the ocean and the sand.

Coastal Color Study 2

watercolor on paper

  6 x 9

For Landscape Painting. Colors studies for a larger final painting. I wanted to really push my colors on this one.  I tried not to mix too much and just use the pure from the tube color. 

Plein Air- Mugu Lagoon Morning & Night

Morning at Mugu Lagoon 

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Same scene different time of day.  Back at the Mugu Estuary.  This is become my fave place to paint.  This was done in the late morning.  I was really attracted to the way the light hit the mountains and the pattern of the water. 

 

Night at Mugu Lagoon 

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Same scene different time of day. My first attempt at painting at twilight.  I started this around 8pm hoping to catch the last light of the day.  I didnt get to spend as much time as I would have liked since the sun quickly went down.  The nice colors I saw when I got there started to blend into each other. What also made this interesting is there wasnt much light on my paper or my palette sooo I had to sort of guess what colors I was mixing.  I am really glad I tend to set up my palette the same way every time :)

Wedding Ring Tattoo

 Wedding Ring Tattoos

ink in skin

A different kind of art. Today was our 5th wedding anniversary and to celebrate the occasion we got wedding ring tattoos. Mine hurt a bit but the tattoo is small so the pain didnt last too long.

Plein Air- Mugu Marsh

Mugu Marsh 

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Waterscape. I wanted to play with reflections in this one and I think I succeeded.  I didnt like it when I finished it but the more I look at it the more I like it.  

Recently I bought a product called Masquepen which mas made it easier for me to block out white areas of my watercolor paintings while on location.  It is really an awesome solution to using masking fluid while plein air painting.  My only complaint is that I wish it had more of a brush look then a hard line look.  I could remedy that by going over it with a brush but then that defeats the purpose of the product. 

Plein Air- Wave

Wave 

 watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Waterscapes.  I went and painted the pretty waves at the beach.  I used a camera to get a picture of a wave in motion and then I did the colors and shading from observation.  I am happy with the result.  

The humidity at the beach proved an interesting challenge.  I am used to my paints and paper drying pretty fast but while at the beach the paints and paper dried much slower.  I was also using more water on the paper because I wanted the wave and the water to blend smoothly.  

I plan on going back to this location in the morning to complete my other waterscape for this week. 

Plein Air- Verona Trattoria, 2145

Verona Trattoria

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting. Urban Landscape.  I had almost no inspiration for this assignment.  I went out once late in the day to find a place to paint and ended up just driving around for an hour.  Today I decided I needed to get these done so I went to old town and tried to find some compositions I liked.  

I was drawn to this restaurant because of the awesome cadmium red umbrellas. 

2145

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

For Landscape Painting.  Urban Landscape.  I liked this composition because of the white umbrella.  As I was drawing in my composition someone came out and took the umbrella away so I had to paint it from memory.  About half way though I wanted to scrap it and go home, but I didnt and I am glad that I stuck with it. 

Conversation

I had a wonderful conversation with a family today who were visiting from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  We talked for a couple of hours.  I helped them with their English and they helped me with my Portuguese.  We discussed the differences in life between here and Brazil among many other things.  It was an awesome conversation that made me miss the experiences I had when traveling and living overseas.  I only wish I would have learned their last name or have given them my business card as I would have loved to keep in touch with them. 

This experience has reminded me of how much I love to travel.  You meet the most interesting people and I love sharing and hearing life stories.  We are all really not very different. 

Questions: Have you ever had an instant connection with a perfect stranger?? What is your favorite part about traveling??

Catalina Vacation Plein Air Painting- Catalina Hills, Catalina Palms

Catalina Hills 

 watercolor on paper

 9 x 12

 For Landscape Painting. 2 paintings from the same location. 

For me vacation and painting do not mix.  My husband and I took a trip to Catalina to celebrate 5 years of marriage and doing these were very difficult.  You would think beautiful island, lots of inspiration, but it just wasnt working. 

Of the two I think this one is stronger, but I also think I have done better.
The weather here is a bit nutty.  It will be beautiful all day then out of no where the clouds will roll in and it will get cloudy and overcast. I technically did three paintings but the first one was really not working so 1/2 way through I scrapped it.
I really wish I could have captured the beauty of Catalina/ Avalon better but it doesnt seem that that was in the cards.
This remind me of some prehistoric landscape. 

Catalina Palms

watercolor on paper

  12 x 9

For Landscape Painting.  2 paintings from the same location.  This was done when it was cloudy and overcast.  I tried to capture that in the clouds.  Originally when I was inspired to do this painting the sky was a beautiful bright blue but by the time I grabed my gear and got back to the location the weather had changed.  These arnt totally horrible but like the other one I could have done better.

Evening at Channel Islands Water Tower

Evening at Channel Islands Water Tower

 watercolor on paper

 12 x 9

For Landscape Painting. Paint the same scene at different times of day. Earlier in the day.  This was as difficult as the other one but for other reasons.  I was still being bothered by bugs and because it was late in the day I found myself chasing the light.  It is less finished then the other one because the sun went down before I could finish it. 

Rancho Sierra Vista Casa

Rancho Sierra Vista Casa

watercolor on paper

  20 x 24

For Landscape Painting.  My midterm project based off of this study.  Finished.  I just refined all of the different bits and pieces to bring it to a completed piece. 

Previous step. 

Plein Air- Morning at Channel Islands Water Tower

Morning at Channel Islands Water Tower

 watercolor on paper

 12 x 9

For Landscape Painting. Paint the same scene at different times of day.  I have to go back here after work and paint this again.  I really dont want to as painting at this location was miserable.  It was hot, I was being attacked by bugs, and the tops of my feet started to sunburn.  It was not a nice fun relaxing painting experience.  I hope it is nicer this afternoon. 

Despite how not fun it was to paint this I like the result.  My favorite part is the color scheme.  The blues and blue-violet with a splash of orange.  

In real life there is a tree next to the water tower but I feel like the composition is stronger without it.  I really like the simplicity of it.   

Plein Air- Westlake River Bed

Westlake River Bed

watercolor on paper

  12 x 16

For Landscape Painting.  Limited Palette- Cadmium Red, Lemon Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue. I met up with a friend this morning and he showed me this beautiful spot.  Thank you Keenan.  

I love this.  The limited palette presented a few challenges but they were fun to overcome.  I love the colors.  As I was doing this I really concentrated in getting the values correct.  My watercolors tend to be too light so I am trying to work on getting darker values. 

Plein Air- Hueneme Tree

Hueneme Tree

watercolor on paper

  12 x 9

For Landscape Painting.  Limited Palette- Cadmium Red, Lemon Yellow, and Ultramarine Blue. Not my fave painting but not all of them will be.  Usually I use a big round brush and on this one I used almost only a flat brush. I like the look of the flat brush so I think I will use it more :) 

WIP- Jessica and Baby Evelyn, Rancho Sierra Vista Casa

Jessica and Baby Evelyn WIP

watercolor on paper

  16 x 20

As a Mother's Day present I was commissioned to do a portrait of our friends wife and baby daughter.  Previous step.  

Ahh!! So I was done with this right? And then I went and mucked it up.  I worked out the hands, darkened the hair, got the values all right then I laid it down on the table paint side down and covered the back with water and put it under some books to flatten it out.  I turn it over and there is something right on the shoulder.  I try and clean it with water and it doesnt come off.  I try and blend it and it looks ok.  Then I get the bright idea to try and sand it off with some sandpaper and it all when down hill from there.  I was working it and working it and then I just had to stop and walk away. 
 

Besides my little boo-boo I think this painting looks awesome.  I hope I am able to fix it.  I have a couple of things I want to try in the morning and if those dont work I am going to buy Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground and fix it that way.  From what I have read it is pretty much liquid watercolor paper.

Rancho Sierra Vista Casa WIP

watercolor on paper

  20 x 24

For Landscape Painting.  My midterm project based off of this study. I began with a wash of cadmium yellow and then a warm green and a cool green.  Just building the layers.  Looking good so far.

QOTD

"All paintings are lessons for the next. It's an ongoing learning process, increasing skills for future works."

Plein Air- Eucalyptus Path

Eucalyptus Path

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

 Done en plein air for Landscape Painting. There is this really beautiful path by my house where I like to walk my dogs and every time I walk up it I think "Ive got to paint this."  So today I did.  I had a hard time beginning this piece.  I wasnt getting the composition correct and I was getting caught up in the little details instead of just going for it.  Once I put brush to paper all was well.  This is quite a busy path so I had a quite a few people stop to chat with me. 

I think it is pretty successful.  I like the way the light falls across the path, the colors, and the way the trees look.  I am not totally happy with the direction of the path.  In real life it slopes down and I was unable to capture that slope in my painting. 

200: Plein Air- High Water at Castaic Lake

This is my 200th post.  Wow I cant believe it!  I began this blog 17 May 2009.  I cant believe that I have been updating this blog regularly for over 2 years.

This began as a place to post paintings for my summer project to create A Painting A Day.  I wasnt totally successful in that project but it got me started.  7 September 2009 my Painting a day project ended and I "changed this blogs name from a Painting A Day to Drawings, Paintings, Thoughts- A Creative Dump."  and it became "a place for me to share my art without any constraints." Then 10 January 2010 "I changed the name from A Creative Dump to A Creative Spot.  "Dump" made me think of poop or of trash and my art is not either of those so a name change was needed."And it has been a creative spot ever since that change.

It is really awesome to be able to look back at 2 years of my artistic growth posted right here.  I feel like I have a lot of really great thing going for me and a lot of really awesome things yet to come.  So thank you for reading and watching and hopefully enjoying the art that I post here.  Today's post is for you :)  

High Water at Castaic Lake

watercolor on paper

  9 x 12

 Done en plein air for Landscape Painting.  Today we went to the lake and my husband encouraged me to bring my painting supplies along.  After a great morning of wakeboarding and driving around the lake we docked the boat and I had some time to paint.  I went exploring and found this cool scene.  The water is super high at the lake right now and I found this cool tree growing out of the water.  I used making fluid to mask out the lighter parts in the grass and the bush.  I usually dont use making fluid in my outdoor paintings but I felt this scene would benefit from it and it did :) I bet I looked pretty silly standing on the shore painting in my bikini.