Some after work sketches

Preparing to say farewell to after work, early evening painting sessions. Hoping to squeeze in a few more before the dreaded time change.

Santa Venetia Marsh in Marin near China Camp 6X8 O/P

Hills above China Camp 6X8 O/P

Fresh Air

Earlier this month, I took a little birthday backpacking trip into the Eastern Sierra (The Big Pine Lakes Basin) with my buddy Frank and my dog Kirkby. It was a tough slog straight up to 10,250 ft. above sea level, and I cursed the heavy painting gear, but it was all worth it when we caught first sight of the lakes. Still, next time I'm hiring the mule train to carry the gear!

Temple Crag at 6:30 am(ish) 6X8 O/P

Beach Rocks at Second Lake 8X10 O/P

I struggled with my paintings as well as the altitude and ended up scraping most of them down. My gear, process and site selection seems to need a little tweaking for mountain travel and light, but I had a great time nonetheless.

My trail buddies

Second Lake from our campsite

Temple Crag from Second Lake

View from Third Lake

Some new-uns

I've been panicking lately, feeling that I've been wasting precious summer daylight. Gotta step it up!

Mt. Tamalpais from Big Rock Ridge 6X8 O/P

Return of "The Hat" 6X8 O/P

Marin Headlands from Land's End (S.F.) 6X8 O/P

Had some fun paint sessions lately with good buds Ian and Richard. In the first two paintings, I was experimenting with a full value scale block-in in warm tones to try to brighten up my palette, only it seems that I covered it up a little more than I wanted. It may be worth further testing.

Ford Econoline Pickup

The COOLEST truck, where else but the Berkeley Marina?

1960 something Ford Econoline Pickup in my 3.5"x 5.5" Moleskiene Cashier notebook. Pen, watercolor, and bodycolor.

Hauled Out

At the Berkeley Marina on a gorgeous sunny day.

The Hazel 'A' 6X8 O/P

Mayday!

No, not a cry for help, yet... Went painting yesterday with two amazing illustrator/artists and wound up in Tilden Park in Berkeley. This is what I ended up with.

Little Farm, Tilden Park, Berkeley. 6X8 O/P

Mike and Tiffany were working in gouache, a medium I've always struggled with, and came away with beautiful images of this scene. Hopefully they'll post!

New pochade in the wild

Finally got to take the little Alla Prima Pochade outside for a proper session.

At the Berkeley Marina 6X8 O/P

It's been forever, but I finally got to use the new box. I actually "took it for a spin" way back when I first got it, but that session was unsuccessful, gear wise and especially painting wise. I ended up sending the box back to Ben for a quick modification, he put magnets on the top side of the lid to store the side tray when packed up rather than the bottom (the standard location). It's a small point, but without the change, it meant hving to screw the quick release plate on and off every time I set up and again when packing up. Kind of defeating the purpose of a "quick" release plate. Again, awesome service from a real craftsman, he didn't even charge me for the work, and I'm happy to report that everything works great! I thought I might have an issue with how small the mixing area is (it's REALLY tiny), but it actually made me scrape down the palette more often, which in hind sight is a good thing for me when trying to keep my colors clean. I'm still building my little kit ( I just got a new bag to carry it all in) but that's half the fun when you're a gear junkie : )