Laguna of Santa Rosa

This was painted at the laguna of Santa Rosa. I love the colors there, which change from week to week.

The laguna....again!

I love to paint the laguna! I am always astonished by the variety of color found there; it is different each & every time. I need to fix the sky holes in the trees, but the colors in this little painting make me very happy!

Cows at the laguna

For one of my first paintings of the summer, I went to the laguna in Sebastopol...on that day there were cows grazing there, something I had never seen before. I like landscapes with cows in them, though I need a lot more practice. 

Pelicans and Painting

Yesterday, I had the day off. I needed to go to Sebastopol to run errands, so I took my pochade box with me so I could paint a view of the laguna on my way to town. It was beautiful, as usual. What made it extra spectacular was a group of American White Pelicans that landed in the laguna while I was painting. At the moment they landed, I was looking at my painting and did not see them. I heard an impressive noise (as they swept their large beaks through the water) and looked up to see a group of birds such as I'd never seen before. At first I thought I was seeing swans; then I noticed their huge beaks. I was trying to figure out what I was seeing when a woman walked over to take a photo. She told me what they were and said they usually were found at the other end of the laguna. She also told me that they have an 8-foot wing span. We both stood watching them, and then they took off. They circled up slowly in ever widening circles; underneath their wings is a distinctive black pattern (on top they are pure, bright white). It was truly a magical experience to see them.

Final paintings of Spring Break

Rain will start tomorrow, so today was my final painting excursion of this vacation week. The sky was full of perfect clouds today. The painting on top was done on Green Valley Road in Sebastopol; the other painting was done overlooking the Laguna down the road from Analy High School. Yesterday, I began using a different, lighter yellow: cadmium yellow light, as recommended by artist Kevin Macpherson for a limited palette. For both these paintings, I used only 4 colors---the cadmium yellow light, along with ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, and titanium white. It makes the whole process simpler to use so few colors, without really limiting any color possibilities for the paintings, since so many colors can be mixed from those four.