Its is day four of the San Luis Paint Out.  I just finished the sixth required painting this morning. Beautiful day! The fog left yesterday and there has been nothing but blue skies. Being in a plein air competition, you get to spend a lot of time by yourself.  You also see the landscape not as a landscape but as a composition full of light, shadow, warm and cool tones.  The other day, my art student was laughing at me.  I had been connecting her mood with her artwork.  It is easy to get so immersed in the artwork that the world beyond ceases to exist.

  

San Luis Obispo

Day One-

 I drove straight to San Luis on Sunday.  One tank of gas later, I arrived at the art center to get my canvasses stamped.  Then it was time to pull out the map once again and find my host family.  It turns out they live high on a hill in a beautiful castle.  Well maybe not a castle, but a beautiful home.  I was exhausted upon arrival.  I had a two page list to help me pack for this event.  There is no way I could remember all the parts that include, tools, painting gear, framing gear, food, clothes, maps, camera, computer, homework, etc.

Monday morning I awoke early to a very foggy day.  I decided to go to a spot I was familiar with from a previous trip.  I spent about four hours painting at the first location. Then I spent the rest of the day driving around scoping out new spots.  There is not Internet access at my host home so I found a coffee shop for this entry.  It is Tuesday and guess what? Its foggy again.  So I am off to paint another lavender and grey painting. Send some sunshine my way.

I have returned to grad school. This is my second week so the time I normally spend painting landscapes is now full of assignments. Though I am currently painting tedious exercises, I am happy. I know in a short time I will be doing much more complicated pieces and that the school is going to push my limits. I am taking two online classes and one in the city. Tomorrow will be my first class in SF and I will be catching the 5:30 bus to get there. Below is my assignment # 2 which required us to do a value study only using black and white. Of coarse a little color did sneak in. Above is an ocean studio I did last week.

Last Friday I taught a workshop in my Petaluma studio to a wonderful group of artists. During the week I teach art at a private school to 3rd through 8th grade students. On Fridays I teach painting lessons to adults in my studio. One of my students told her friends in Walnut Creek about my class and a group arranged to come last Friday. It was lots of fun. I was nervous about teaching a larger group of adults but everything went so well that we are planning another workshop next month.

Summer has whizzed by. I spent today teaching in my ranch studio and finishing up number eight of my small studies for the Tiburon Art Festival. My original goal was to paint twelve new ones but I think I will have to stop at ten to give a few days to be completely dry. I am going back to grad school in two weeks and am very excited/nervous. I am looking forward to being challenged and I am hoping to add portraiture to my abilities.

Two weeks until the Tiburon Art Festival. I am only allowing myself to paint small 8" x 10" paintings this week in hopes to increase sales with more affordable work. The above picture is of pelicans on a boat in Quimixto. Since no televisions, phones, or computers were available in Quimixto, I found my favorite past time to be watching the pelicans. They are quite entertaining with their bulky awkward bodies. It was amazing they could fly! In the afternoons they would fish by gliding low over the water then dive bombing making large splashes as they entered. Maybe they were stunning the fish instead of being sneaky.

I apologize for being remiss about posting this summer. I am back. I began my summer with having Art at the Source open studios followed by two weeks in Mexico with my mother and son. We stayed in a small fishing village North of Puerto Vallarta on the edge of the jungle. Very beautiful and inspirational! I returned to take off for another week to Alameda where I was in a plein air painting competition. It was a great week and I was able to paint twelve plus hours a day with no interruptions. The prior month between working shows and travel I had began to feel I was not an artist. I always feel that way when two many days pass without painting. The above painting was done in Alameda during the paint out.