More Arboretum Mayhem

Some more paintings from the Cal Poly Arboretum.  This on is a fountain in an english garden.  All the plants are cut with very specific shapes.  I really just wanted to paint the fountain, but have yet to figure out how to do it without quite a bit of greenery around it.  It was really hot today.  Had to be about 90 while I walked up to the arboretum, so I was glad that the place I sat while painting this was in the shade.  I actually think I was a bit too hot to paint as I had sweat rolling down my face while I was painting.  I'll revisit this at some point in the future.

This is a sign leading into..... you guessed it, the California Collection.  I don't know that I really got the wood of the sign the way I wanted to, but there are some things I like about this painting.  Using my trick of red in front and blue in back, it looks like the ground goes from front to back in the painting.  The rock in the front partly because of the red in the ground looks much closer than the sign or the rock behind the sign.  I don't know if you can tell, but the sign is not specifically perpendicular to our viewing angle.  The left side is just a bit smaler than the right.  I love the way the planter and plant came out.  It is just a mass of green coming out of this fantastic red pot.  I actually tried to paint the leaves individually, but quickly decided just a few splashes of a darker green would suffice for the leaves.

Hope you all enjoy these paintings.

steps

Well, I went back to the arboretum today.  It was really nice.  Yesterday there was a group of people at the gazebo and they were making a bunch of noise.  Today there was nobody but me.  I sat in the same chair, but instead of looking down the hill I move the chair into the walkway, and faced it up the hill.  You can see some crazy plants at the top of the stairs, and there was a huge terra cotta pot on the left hand side.

I chose this because I like the rocks so much from yesterdays paintings that I had to do some more.  I don't think I quite got the contrast in the rocks that I wanted, but I think i got a fair representation of the rocks on the path.  I didn't have enough time to do all the shading that I wanted to.  I might go back and put some in later.  I might, also, to make the individual stones and rocks stand out a bit more, outline these in black pen.  I havent really decided yet.

I purposely left a lot of white in this painting.  There was mortar between the stones that make up the stairs, but I thought it might be a little better to leave those spaces white.  I'll bet yo that until you read that last sentence and looked at the picture again, you didn't notice it the white spaces.

I painted this whole painting with one brush.  Usually, I use two or three.  My travel set came with a very small pure sable brush.  I had never tried it before, but it has the benefit of being small and easy to carry (I know, all brushes are small and easy to carry).  Having tried it, I can definitely see why so many people love sable brushes.  Not only could I do thin lines with it, i could so a larger wash and every thing came out pretty good.  I might have to invest in one, or in a set soon.  I'll keep you informed.  In the mean time, hope you enjoy the paintings.

A Little Urban Sketching

Yesteday and today I decided to do a little urban sketching.  I suppose that is the new term for painting plein air.  Urban sketching sounds a bit less hoity toity.  I have been walking around campus trying to find places to sit in the shade and paint.  The shade part was crucial for me, and as I found out, was also the limiting factor in what I paint.  It turns out that nearly all the benches on campus are in direct sunlight at noon.  Who would have figured.  Anyway, in my hikes around campus, I found 3 places to paint.  They all seemed to fit onto one sheet, but the sheet is bigger than my scanner.  The first picture, Bench on Dexter Lawn, is actually on the bottom of the sheet.  You can see part of the Building 52 Plaza in the top right.

This is the picture that is above it.  This is Building 52 Plaza.  Or at least part of it.  I don't think I got this quite right, but you get the idea that it is a bench with mulch around it, and (absent detail) brick walkway in front of it.  I assume you all can tell it has a tree behind the bench?

This third picture is actually the first one I did.  I wanted to get the little taco stand next to this, on the left side of the tan building, but i didn't have a clear view from the bench I was on, so this got chosen by default.  Some different types of bushes and shrubs with a few rocks, and a wooden wall behind, just in front of the building.  I'm extremely happy with the way this turned out, I often have trouble working in different colors of greens.  The fact that you can see 4 distinct colors of green and a little shading in each is, for me, a triumph.