Our drive home from the city takes us past the Palace of Fine Arts – which we’ve drawn many times during the day. I’ve alwasy wanted to come back after dark and draw the spotlights on the sculpture. I found a good view from the ‘far’ side (opposite the Exploratorium entrance) where the lighting makes a great light-on-dark-on-light counter changed silhouettes. If you’re out here Friday nights you might meet a crazy group of skaters that descend on the place with a mobile sound system. (Link: The Midnight Rollers).
Here’s a snapshot of my new night drawing setup. An LED bike light taped to an ultralight tripod, and a fisherman’s ‘ball cap light’ clipped to my hat brim…makes drawing in places without streetlight a lot easier! Added bonus – it makes raccoon eyes glow green! A little creepy at first!
Spent part of the halloween weekend sketching with some friends – it seemed appropriate to visit the cemetery :) There were a few people out taking a gothic stroll – but really, it was such a nice day – was hard to feel very spooky…
10 am - Mount Vision
2pm – Chimney Rock Trail
5:30 pm – McClure Beach
Just back from two more days painting at Point Reyes. Same as last session – 9×12 oil paint on panel, all knife work.
The thing I like about the palette knife - every stroke is clean color – no loaded brushes messing up your pigments. I can’t imagine cleaning my brushes between every stroke out in the field – but that’s what you get for free with the knives. As well – the paint is always completely opaque. Every mark is clearly articulated.
These sessions were either incredibly windy, doused in surf spray, or plagued with flies – so anything that gives you the color you want with less fuss is full of win!
I guess the bottom line is – I like the strokes you get! I try not to get too ‘artistic’ on the blog – but I have to say, I’m mesmerized by the expressive marks!
I hesitated before posting these – I think Laurel”s photos are so much better than my paintings…but oh well – in the interest of art blog disclosure – here’s the paintings in progress :)
Something I’m doing for a group show with an erotic theme. 30×40, oil on canvas – the largest thing I’ve painted since art school – I wanted to approach it in the same way I might do any work – same kind of paint handling – just with bigger brushes :)
Here’s a couple plein air paintings from this afternoon. I’m trying something different here…painting oils on panel, 8×10, working entirely with pallette knives…the results are a little out of control, a little too abstract – it’s probably not for everyone, but I enjoy the really juicy surface! I’m going to have to keep at this – see if I can refine the edges, do better at ‘rendering’ the scene..
Sea Lion overlook, just next to Point Reyes lighthouse.
Up on Mount Tam, looking at SF. This one is became a bit too abstract – you’re looking down at Tiburon and SF from 2500 ft.
so…am at lunch time sketching, nothing much turning out…but then she did this pose. I had this weird feeling that it was essential to get this down right – even if nothing else from the session came out I wanted this one!
Photos: Laurel Holmes
I don’t know if this is something other people want to do…but I’m kind of a nerd, so I thought it was fun to plot the best of my San Francisco sketches in a Bing Maps collection. The interface can be a little wonky – there’s a small link on the upper left that says ‘map all’ – kind of gives you a pulled out view of the city :)
here’s a link to the Citizen Sketcher Map Collection
