Morning painting at the ranch, looking north towards Uncle Jim’s house. The daisies were out in force and the weather was perfect. I had a lot visitors which is rare while out in the field, my mom, aunt and cousin all stopped to say hello.
Stressful day painting escape 1.5h
Post dinner color study of my brothers garden. 1.5hr
I painted the garden behind the pool house while the twins went for a swim with their cousins. 2hr color study.
View from my mom’s porch, overlooking Alexander Valley.
Funny story, I am in the process of selling my house and in preparation to put it on the market I painted and ended up with a bunch of empty house paint cans that needed to be recycled. Because of covid rules the guys at the county recycling drop off let you pull up and they grab all the paint from the car for you. Totally forgot that the box with all of my good oil paints were also in the car… I spent a week looking for my paints before I figured out what happened. I mourn the loss of my Genuine Vermilion from Rublex
On the upside, I got to go on a paint shopping spree today and rebuild my pallet! Wahoo! Nothing like clean un-mashed-up tubes.
Plein Air 1.5hr Study of one of the ponds on the family ranch.
For our second round of covid stay at home orders the boys and I have been trying to use our time wisely. They have spent the last few weeks speed running Super Mario Bros, mastering Punch Out, and boldly adventuring in Zelda while I have been documenting their progress in oil.
This is my first large oil in a while (3ft x 4ft) and I’m much happier with it than previous attempts. All the practice in the field is slowly paying off I guess. This time it was much less a roll of the dice and I got the colors more or less where I wanted them. It helps that the lighting in the living room never changes and the kids don’t move much when glued to their screens.
Oil on Canvas. Mostly Rublev paints from NaturalPigments. Lead titanium white, vermillion, bone black… walnut oil. 4 main passes with scrape downs in-between. A few nights of work over the last month. From life, no photo reference.
I took the boys for a swim and was able to get a quick oil sketch in.
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.
Avoiding C19, people and our iPads, my boys and I escaped the house for a hike up Ring Mountain. It was a lovely day so I started a painting of neighboring Mt. Tam but by the end of an hour the kids had lost their patience and water so I was forced to make a premature retreat to the car. Back in quarantine, I continued to clean up the painting a bit while they continued their adventuring in Minecraft.
