Days of Future Past...

 

 Ebb Tide (24x30) o/c

I was able to paint several times in California this year, and grateful for it - the land of my nativity...and first 26 years. Interesting how the environmental imprints of your youth have an effect lasting the whole of your life. Living in the Pacific Northwest, I naturally miss the sunshine thru the winter months, but not the crowds... Still, I find I need to visit as often as possible the older I get.

 

Canyon Morning (9x12) o/c

Instead of a little red sports car or a tawdry affair, I can quell any mid-life crisis with a painting trip to Southern California - especially the coast. Even the coast of Oregon will work if the whether permits (summer time mostly). As parents and relatives pass away,  it's becoming more and more important to visit those places of my youth and connect to the memories of the past.  Painting does that on an entirely new and often deeper level - satisfying and enriching. And I appreciate my encouraging wife who supports me on these trips; I don't believe she understands it fully, but that doesn't matter as long as I get recharged and back home to her again. 

Our daughter who is building her own memories for the future will experience this longing too; memories that will haunt her back home to Oregon someday when she's grown and gone...

So Cal Sketching

Autumn Sycamore

A couple of weeks ago we went down to Southern California for some vacation time, and to celebrate our daughters birthday. I have several family members in the area so it was a kind of reunion time too, and we were also able to spend a few days over the border in Mexico where my folks now live.

Painting at Moss Point in Laguna 
 (photo courtesy Thomas Kitts)

As it turned out, our daughters birthday fell right in the middle of the Laguna Plein Air Invitational (I knew this ahead of time) so I took the opportunity to bring along my paints and with my family's permission, was able to slip away on several occasions to sketch in Laguna Beach and the Pasadena area where I was born... In fact, I was able to spend time with several artists who were in town for the show, but since I was mainly there for family time, I only brought along a little pochade box and kept my sketches to a small 8x10" size.

Quick Colour Sketch

On Thursday, the LPAPA artists all congregated at Crystal Cove to paint the historic cottages there. I figured it was alright to party crash the event since I knew many of the participants (besides it's a public beach anyway) and it was fun to see everyone and the great work they created there.

Moss Point PM

Moss Point Morning

Trabucco Cloud Patterns

I also went to O'Neil Park -- one of the few remaining places in OC where you can pretend to paint like Hanson Puthuff or Maurice Braun (when no ones looking). Unfortunately, I had just missed the Edgar Payne retrospective show in Pasadena by 2 days, but getting out here gave me plenty of inspiration anyway...

San Gabriel Mountains

The day before we flew home, I painted with my friend, Tim Solliday -- I credit him with getting me interested in plein air painting when we first met a number of years ago. Tim is a real inspiration and a dedicated painter of the old school style, working directly from life whenever possible.  He's the one who told me to do a lot of 'starts' and don't worry about the finishes, they'll come along in time...one of the best pieces of advice on painting I ever received.