Anne

Another spectacular retreat - it’s been over for almost a week and I’m still on a creative high from painting with all these talented artists in our picturesque setting of Two Harbors. We had the perfect 3-day weekend on Catalina. I’ll post more pics, of everyone’s art and our activities: a focused lesson each morning on the patio, followed by guided practice and independent study, a group lunch, more plein air painting in the afternoon, wine & cheese happy hours, followed by dinner, games and critiquing sessions. Watercolor vacations are the best!

Yesterday’s subject was this group of Rainbow Finches. Fun to use all the colors! I usually use a pretty limited palette. Not this time :)

8x10” watercolor on Arches cold press.

9 views of Two Harbors. Acrylic on 4x4” cradled panels. These were really rewarding to make.

Cat Harbor the very beginning / inland. The shoreline is so interesting to me with the dark shadows in the crevices of the rock. I overworked the first one; dangers of working into damp especially with these Viviva colors, which are all plant-based dyes and don’t have heavy ground pigment particles to weigh them down. The bleeds are what I’m going for, but they’re challenging to control. I like this result better.
7x10” Watercolor on Meeden.

2 views of Cat Harbor in Viviva on Meeden block. 7x10”. Gonna keep painting this view.

Sketching Catalina’s bison on Earth Day. While painting this weekend in Two Harbors, I was sitting next to a table of grown men and one of them was telling his buddies that he was so happy that California would likely be getting a Republican governor, because he thought building land bridges over our freeways for our wildlife was a waste of taxpayer dollars. So they’ll get hit, he said. So what, he said. Animals get killed by cars all the time. It took all my willpower to mind my own business in that moment.

This is our one and only planet, and by our I mean all creatures who live here . Let’s treat it, and each other, with care. It’s not that hard to be kind and thoughtful and respectful of others.

Another small watercolor painting of Bird Rock. I really enjoy painting this subject and will be tackling it in acrylic next.

From my first demo of our Two Harbors art intensive retreat. Cat Harbor done in direct watercolor, from the back patio of Banning House Lodge. I enjoyed painting with an incredible group of artists this weekend. Talented, kind, funny, interesting. Also, the Lodge staff is so gracious and accommodating. We had perfect weather and views. This is plein air painting at its best.

Various stages of finished at Two Harbors
Ahhhhh it’s so peaceful here and we’ve had two days of perfect weather so far!

Slide 1: Isthmus Cove demo
Slides 2&3: Cat Harbor from above at Banning House Lodge, #3 was a demo of direct watercolor approach

*A proud moment: 2 separate people offered to buy one of my student’s paintings! She was taking no offers - keeping it for herself 😊

I chose this watercolor as my logo pic 7 years ago. I chose it because it was one of the first plein air watercolors I painted that felt 100% my style, juicy and fresh, not tentative like so many of my previous attempts. I would still choose it today.

It’s strawberry season

Enjoying painting with watercolor but thickly. Who has the best pretzels, pretzel lovers? I have to admit, I just discovered Walgreens pretzel sticks and they’re perfectly salty and crisp. For dipping, I love Whole Foods Unique Splits.