I had an hour or two to paint, so I grabbed my kit and headed out. Driving towards downtown Larkspur, I remembered how much I liked the view by Redwood High School, so I promptly turned east and made my way there. The weather was fair, although a little windy. Here’s the view looking back at Piper Park from across the water on Doherty Street.
Say that ten times fast.
It was a windy afternoon at Piper Park in Larkspur, and I had to hold on to my canvas to keep it from flying away. Despite the wind, the light was great – bright but not blinding, though.
It was raining too hard to go out and paint so I stayed inside and worked from some stereoscopic reference pics I took last week. This is the salt marsh creek near Kent Middle School on a high tide. I really wanted to paint this one in person but I didn’t have the time.
The weather was very dynamic today in Corte Madera. Dark rain clouds and blue sky. I didn’t want to get caught under a downpour so I just set up on the trailhead across from the mall and painted the view north towards Greenbrae.
We got rain the other day and between showers I sloshed over to the salt mash trailhead to paint some puddles. I was followed by a very brave preschool teacher and a wild gang of little explorers. Instinctively the children ran straight towards the slippery mess like bits of iron pulled to a magnet. I could see a calmness in the teachers eye as the boys and girls begged him forward. Like Daniel walking into the lions den, he stepped forward with grace. This is when the clouds parted and the miracle occurred.
I watched those kids run up and down through the mud, splashing doing all the stuff that toddlers do, and then he called them back and to my amazement no one was soaking wet. No one was muddy, no one fell, slipped, splattered their cloths, splashed another, nothing. It was a true miracle. I would have put money on one of them putting their hands in the mud at the very least. I was shocked and a little disappointed.
Instead of a dove a wild California Vole popped up three feet from my easel as the kids were passing. I called the teacher over and the kids gathered round to watch the vole play in the grass. Then it started to rain and the brave teacher and his troupe giggled their way back to the school. I tipped my hat to the vole, and started to pack up. I didn’t want to get stuck in the storm without my umbrella. I was on my own now. There’s a grace period between miracles, you got to wait at least three day before you can ask for a second one.
There are a lot of drawings, paintings and films I’ve made over the years which I find hard to enjoy because they remind me of whatever was going on at the time I made them. I guess I’ll file this one in that category.
I was just leaning into this painting when I got a call from my girlfriend who was en route to the emergency room. She broke a finger in a cycling accident. That was the end of the painting . Cleaned up as fast as I could, took a quick picture and then was on the road north. I cleaned the painting up a little after we got her all bandaged up and on the road to recovery.
Quick oil sketch this afternoon of the marsh across the street.
There was a very lovely peach colored sunrise this morning. The light cut through the low misty fog and colored the hills a pail rose color. I walked across the street with my gear and setup looking north over the salt marsh towards Kentfield and Ross. I got lucky, the tide was rising and there were nice dappled sky reflections in the reeds towards the end of the session.
The first pass of this painting never sat right with me. I was waiting for another over cast morning with a lowering tide to continue it on location but those conditions never came. Then the season changed and now the colors have started shifting green. I missed my window of opportunity to continue it en plain air so I decided to just clean it up from memory at the apartment.
Walked across the street to see what the heavy rains and flooding the day before had done to the salt marsh. The damage wasn’t too bad but the storm had left the grass and reeds in a tangled twist which was rather pleasing to look at. That was enough for me so out came my easel.
