Montara Beach

Enjoyed a beautiful day hiking near Montara Beach.  Before the hike I did a couple of seascape sketches.  I'm trying to work on rendering waves and tides.  Definitely challenging but I'm convinced if I really observe and practice I'll eventually get the hang of it

Learning from the Masters 1

There is so much to be learned from the masters.  Rodin when sketching his models his eyes never left the model.  He understood human anatomy and he wanted each and every line to flow from his eyes to his hands to the paper.  Sargent when painting watercolors was most interested in how light played off of objects and forms.

Portola Vineyards

I spent a beautiful day Plein air painting with a group of artists that meet regularly.  Today enjoyed the sun, scenery, and wine of Portola Vineyards.  Here is an 8x10 oil painting after about 4 hours of work.

Classic Greek male torso

it was a beautiful day in California today so after my morning jog, a little work, and some lunch I headed down to the Stanford Cantor museum to hang out in the Rodin garden and read a book.  After a while I went into the museum where I enjoyed a display of Souix Native American drawings that told the story of the Battle at Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand).  Then I stumbled onto a sculptor of a classic Greek male torso circa 50 B.C. and decided to sketch it.  Here is my sketch.

Salsa dancers 1

I have taking some Salsa dancing lessons off and on and admire those couples that turn, spin, and step with such rhythmic beauty.  Here is a sketch were I first did a gesture drawing and then refined it with some line and form.

Antenna

It's been about a year since I did my last plein air painting.  I met up with the Burlingame Plein Air Painters Meetup group at Princeton Harbor in Half Moon Bay to exercise my artistic abilities and get some fresh air.  Here is the result of a few hours dabbling with my oil paints.  A few people walking by complimented me on the painting and as I was packing up my supplies one couple offered to buy my painting.  Maybe I'm not so bad after all.  Anyway, I do it more for fun than anything else.  If I had more time I would have worked out the values and forms a bit more.