10/27/09

Pacific Ocean

Sketchbook Journal entry at Fort Ross In California
This is what I was painting in the photograph in the previous post. While I was sitting there it became so foggy that I couldn't see those rocks at all.

I'm having a little trouble with "re-entry". I loved Glen Ellen, and really got into the history there regarding Jack London. I have been reading so much about him, that I actually feel sad that he died!!! Get a grip! He died in 1916. I've been going through my pictures and my sketchbook, missing the kids (!), missing the weather, and then I hear "California Bloodlines" on my mp3 player. . .

Tomorrow morning my class will be here - they'll get me back in the groove.

3 comments:

Marj said...

Beautiful picture, thoughts, and wasn't that Hwy#1 a great experience. Looking for MORE Calif.
sketches!

Gwendolyn said...

Love your sketch! It gives such a good feeling for the coastline of California.

The last time I tried to paint a scene like this (en plein air), the result was hideous! (Of course, I'm barely more than a beginner now. Then, two years ago, I was a rank beginner.)

That said, I know that it is challenging for those of us from green areas to figure out the colors, and to figure out what to put in and leave out of a painting or sketch. I have LOTS of practice rendering our trees and woods and zero experience rendering the upheaved rocks and drab greens of the southern California coast. (I was in San Diego.)

Thanks for giving me the hope that someday I might be able to do something like this -- even if it takes me the rest of my life to develop the skill! ;-)

Catherine said...

Thanks Marj and Gwendolyn - the gray is so hard to get! Here on Lake Michigan we don't have gray water. I really have to get into my right brain to get that color and to leave the white of the spray. Guess I'll just have to keep going back until I really get it down :)