This afternoon I drove to the family ranch to enjoy a social distancing mother’s day BBQ. Emerging from self isolation I found just seeing family in person to be a great joy. After lunch I stood off to the side drinking a cold ale and painted our rickety old barn. How this pile of dry fuel wrapped in a thick blanket of kindling survived the Kincaid fires is a mystery to us all.
My painting kit is light and small enough now that I can fit it all into a back pack. Today I rode my gravel bike out to Alpine Lake and painted a tree next to the side of the water.
I made this oil sketch back in February during a lunch break. It was a holiday for most people so there were no cars parked near Lucasfilm which was rather unusual. Looking West from the east end of General Kennedy Ave. in San Francisco, CA
I painted the unkept hillside to the south of my house from my living room window. Gravity is slowly pulling this little staircase down the slope. I probably should do something to fix it before it rolls off a small cliff and into my car. That sounds like a lot of work to fix though so instead I’ll just ignore it for a little longer and keep painting.
I hand ground and mixed the green paint from some Gamblin Chromium Oxide Green Pigment.
A battle with a hive of yellow jackets was once waged here, many lives were lost, today it’s just the location of a quarantine painting.
Lunch time Plein air, quarantine addition. Today I sketched a corner of my kitchen .
A lunchtime oil sketch from back in February. Standing on the east side of the pond looking west.
Random side story about this one. The guys who parked behind me pulled out a drone and started flying it around. They took off and a cop showed up asking about them few minutes later. I didn’t want to narc the guys out but the cop seamed well meaning so I played along and then he ran off to track them down. Not long after all four returned to the park car and we learn that there had been a string of break ins at tourist sites that day. The kind officer just wanted to make sure their stuff was safe, thinking they would be a target because of the drone. The cop was a pro. Everyone had a good time and nothing got stollen. The end.
Back in February I did a little painting outside the Saini tasting room. Honestly if you haven’t tried their wine you are miss missing out, the Saini family really knows their craft. Angelo’s paint brush is beyond good.
The only upside to this Covid-19 pandemic is that I get to spend a lot more time with my boys. Today, I sketched the twins while they were sitting down for their morning Zoom meetings.
Spent the day social distancing in my moms garden, painting some lovely echium flowers. It was a beautiful warm afternoon until a large storm front snuck up behind me and it began to rain. I escaped back to my house to finish the sketch.
