My brother wanted to go surfing out at Salmon Creek this morning so I tagged along to catch the sunrise. The offshore winds were really strong and stepping out of the car I could barely hold onto my painting panel. There was no way my easel was going to stand up in that wind. I came up with a pretty good workaround though, I clamped my canvas to one of the information signs next to the trailhead that leads down the cliff to the beach. That worked like a champ.
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.
I couldn’t sleep so I drove over to the bay to paint. I set up on the north side of the estuary looking south across Corte Madera Marsh State Marine Park, aka the running trail behind Trader Joe’s. While I was roughing in the underpainting, the high school running team passed by on their morning loop and then the sky exploded into a brilliant wash of pink and lavender. It was a lovely sunrise.
Spent the morning reading good reviews for The Bad Batch, which was nice, then walked behind the house and painted the eucalyptus grove as it caught the last of the morning light. The grass really started to bleach out, it’s nearly all golden now. the green is hanging on in places but its days are numbered. I think I need to add a cadmium yellow light to my pallet.
