2008-12-31

a closer look



here's the pochade box i put 2gether for this outing. acrylics, oil pastels and a quiver of pens, pencils & markers. but in a limited palette to explore small outdoor abstracts. even though i snuck in a few landscape studies... the binder clips held down the postcard size sheets.

2008-12-27

hazards of painting en plein air


kyle & i endured sisters arguing if he was painting a dog or cat. "dog, cat, dog, cat, dog, cat" (but in mandarin). no, it's a SEAL!

another family w/1 precocious art progeny, thought kyle's yet unpainted, but nicely gessoed cardboard was a perfect substrate for him to place leaves on. he kept carefully rearranging the leaves, several in corner w/a parking garage ticket in the middle, trying an all over cover, whilst dealing w/his younger brother removing them. AND when kyle joined in and moving a leaf, he carefully put it back to where he had it. the kid had natural talent and passion. too bad it will b squashed and pushed into medical school...

then there was the eccentric who drove them all away, who asked "hey, want to see the angels i paint?" no, not really.

all of this was expected, and yet we decided to paint out among the public. we want to go back for more: figure out where it goes, to react to people—i found myself painting a bunny since the sisters were only interested in kyle's work and not my abstract explorations. but nothing prepared us for the above hazard.

painting en plein air @sj mlk library



that's kyle (pellet) painting on cardboard, above my pochade cigar box & contents. we are just north of tower hall @sjsu, @the southeast entrance of the mlking library. we started painting around 12:30pm pst so we have until (civil) sunset or whenever campus police decides...