Lang Ranch woods

Lang Ranch woods
Originally uploaded by Spencer Mackay

I have started using Flickr more to post my work, but there is also the capacity to post onto my blog from my Flickr Photostream. Just trying that out. Had great fun painting this Tuesday afternoon.  Watercolor on Arches 140 lb. block.

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Lang Ranch woods

My head drawing class was cancelled again and I had some afternoon time Tuesday to do something, so I decided to drive to a spot about 2 miles from my house to do some sketch painting.  There is a Chumash Indian museum in an area called Lang Ranch.  Back in the day, we used to go camping here with the Boy Scouts, but now there is a nice museum on the land and a park.

I set up a folding chair under the oaks and found a spot where the sunlight broke through the tree canopy.  There was an interesting tree with a dry creek behind and I decided to paint that.

Watercolor on Fabriano 140lb block.  Took about an hour.  Beautiful and restful, a great use of an hour.

Steam Locomotive Travel Town, Griffith Park, LA

Sketched this locomotive Friday in Travel Town, part of Griffith Park.  I met my son Craig on our lunch and we only had a half hour to sketch after we ate our chicken tacos.  I got the ink sketch down but had to add the water color at home.  I think next time I'll try something more close up.  There are lot's of interesting shapes and castings on the trains.

Himeji Castle

I had a chance on Saturday to visit Himeji Castle while on business in Japan. Himeji is about 20 minutes south of Kobe by bullet train. They've started a multi-year resoration project on the castle, but fortunately the scaffolds are only over on the end of the West Bailey at this point, so the beautiful Keep is still a great subject for photos and sketching.

I sat by the main gate on a retaining wall and did this sketch in my Moleskine sketchbook. It was really cold and I was wearing a knit hat and had my scarf wrapped around my neck and face.

A number of Japanese tourists were curious and came by to look over my shoulder. One little lady smiled and clapped her hands together as she bowed. It was very cute. She only spoke Japanese and left me a little note that I couldn't read, but had translated later. It was a recommendation on another castle she thought I might like.

Upper Treasure Lake cliff

During this week off, I've been wanting to try another Pastel piece. I did not do this one outside, but did it from a photo from our backpack trip this summer. I'm posting it anyway as an example of experimentation in media. Actual size is 13x20 on gray Canson paper.

Zuma Beach on a rainy day

I had driven past Zuma Beach the other day and it was so lonely looking with the food stand closed and the beach almost deserted. I wanted to go paint something Wednesday and remembered the scene. I went back, but it was too wet to sit outside and paint, so I took some shots and went back to my studio to paint it. I kept the colors and values light to give the feeling of the gray cold day drizzly day. 9x12 on 140lb wc paper block.

I've been posting traditional media sketches up to this point, but I decided to post an image I did on my i-phone while waiting in the Cleveland airport for my flight to be called. The subject is not especially interesting, I just wanted to show what cool stuff you can do on the iphone touch screen with programs like Alias Sketch. The ability to paint with light is a cool departure and there is nothing to clean up! I'll continue with the traditional media, this was just for fun.

Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland - Town Center

I get to Yverdon several times a year it seems. I posted a view of the old 1800's church facade on the square a few weeks ago, so I decided to sketch the square from the steps of the church facing the other way. The old castle dominates the square in the other direction.

Here is the result.

In Paris last week- Moleskine sketches

I had a wonderful Saturday morning sitting on a park bench for about an hour and sketching this view of the back of Notre Dame cathedral on its island in the Seine River. A couple of homeless guys were asleep in blankets behind me and occasional couples would stroll by, but I was pretty much alone. Weather was in the 60s and gray, but certainly comfortable for this time of year. I would have done additional sketches, but I had to catch a taxi for the airport to catch a plane to Geneva.
Paris has such great architecture. I sketched this dome on a department store near my hotel from the square in front of the Hotel de Ville, the "City Hall" of Paris. There was an old guy not too far away playing traditional French accordion music for tips while I sketched this. It really made it a Parisian (sp?) moment.

Morumbi, Sao Paulo, Brazil

I sketched this auto repair shop last week in a neighborhood in the Morumbi area of Sao Paulo. I leaned up against a tree and was a bit uncomfortable, but it was the best position available. Done in my highly portable Moleskine notebook.

Yverdon-les-Bains

I did this sketch in my Moleskine sketchbook back in September on a trip to Switzerland. I didn't post it at the time, but decided to put in on the blog.

Sam's No. 3, Denver, Colorado

I had a few minutes while waiting for a collegue to return before we took off to the airport. I walked out of the Curtis Hotel and found a planter wall to sit on and sketched this funky restaurant at the corner of Curtis and 15th in Downtown Denver. I sketched it in my 5x8 Moleskine notebook and added a little color later. Nice breeze and pretty warm too.

Just this last week, 3 of my sons and I backpacked into Treasure Lakes, which is very up hill from Bishop, California. (My fourth son sadly had to miss the trip and take care of escrow closing on his new house.) We had all been looking forward to this trip for months and I made sure I brough along a small sewn sketchbook of Arches waterolor paper and a few brushes and my portable palette. The pages are loose, so it was more troublesome than a block, but it worked out in the end.

It was wonderful to sit on a granite outcrop on the shore of one of the lakes and try to capture the fantastic scenery. It was a bit overcast and the light kept changing, but it was so great to be far away from regular life and connecting with the scenes around me.

I would have painted more, but the fish were calling too.

I just came back Saturday from Milan, Italy. On Friday, I had a little time to walk around the Grand Canal area and get some gelatto and sit and make these sketches in my Moleskine sketchbook. Each are about 5x8 inches and sketched in line on the spot, water color added later in my hotel room. A nice relaxing afternoon and a good way to experience the place. Somehow sketching a place connects you at a deeper level that just taking a photo.

I just came back from the coolest trip to Dingle, Idaho (north of Bear Lake, if you know the area).  It's been raining all spring and the hills are really green.  Kathey and I and her brother Sid and his wife Vicky went to a farm house out in the middle of nowhere.  It was great!

I got to give some water color instruction and paint for several days.  We also took some side trips to Star Valley Wyoming, south of Jackson Hole, Preston Idaho, etc.

I love old farm junk and tractors.  Almost every farm has a place where they just dump old stuff that doesn't work, but they can't bear to get rid of.  The old truck was right behind the yard of the place we stayed and the faucet was just pure "rural" with the cast in letters and red paint.

Done plein air in my Moleskine sketchbook with water color added on  the line work.  I've got the sunburn to prove it.

Kirtland Temple and graveyard, Kirtland Ohio

I had a chance last week on a business trip to Cleveland to go out to Kirtland and visit the old town that was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1830's.  I had never walked through the graveyard before and I was pleased to find old headstones of family members who died in the 1830s around that time.  I sat in the passenger side of the rental car and painted this gouache sketch of the graveyard and temple in my Moleskine sketchbook.  You can see where I painted across the fold.  As you can tell, it was a cool overcast day.

Vila de Canoes favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

I got a great chance to tour a favela while in Rio at the end of April.  It's generally not recommended to go in without a guide as the only govenment in the favela is the drug sellers. I tried to communicate the visual impressions I got with the makeshift powerpoles and the rat's nest of borrowed power, the activity of the people as they go about their business.  This was one of the more prosperous favelas called Vila de Canoes.  Favelas are squatter shanties that become towns on lands that were formerly public land.  Often they are right next to very expensive resort properties and sometimes the views of the beach and mountains are unrivaled.

Water color on 7x10 Arches 140 lb. block.

Zuma Beach, Malibu, California

OK, back to the landscapes.  We went to Zuma Beach Monday with Christy and her girls.  It was just beautiful.  I brought my small sketchbook along and did this really quick impression of some kids digging in the sand in the low tide area.  The other images is a quick sketch looking down the coast towards Point Dume.  One with some pen line work and one without.

Werewolf

Yeah, I know this is not a landscape.  I was painting Disney princesses with my grand daughters and I got tired of so much refined cuteness.  I guess my counterpoint was to do something scarey, so I grabbed a blank piece of copy paper and using the cheap watercolor set glued to the front of the princess book, I started with a mouth, leaving the white paper as the teeth and this is what came out.

Alexa (5 years old) was painting across from me and as the painting developed, she put up her hand by the side of her face to shield her eyes and said: "I don't think I'm supposed to see that!"

Shame on me!