Made it to Forty

8" x10"
Bel Marin Keys #40

 I painted out at Bel Marin Keys yesterday. It was such a beautiful fall day (there was actually some sky action)  and this meadow caught my eye. Those telephone poles run along a levy that goes all the way out to the Bay and on the right is a huge meadow that seems to go on forever, or at least, all the way out to the Bay.  This view has some of those brown weeds that I love to cut for arrangements and, yes, they really are as dark as I painted them.  The painting came together well and there was no struggle for the most part.  I'm thinking a lot more about my composition before I begin painting and it seems to be making a difference.  I'm also working on clumps of trees that are backlit.  When I set up in the morning, I've been facing the sun so that I can get some darks in the composition.  With this however, comes dark blobs of trees.  I've been looking at other artists' works and seeing how they deal with this and I feel like I'm getting better equipped to handle this situation after a week of dealing with the distant Blobs.

6" x 8"
Sorich Park looking our at the marshlands beside the Bay #41

Here is another backlit tree-blob.  These blobs can be super-dark with no sky holes - well, maybe some tiny sky lights on the edges and that makes it tricky.  It seems that the Pros grey the Blob out and make them look misty and out of focus, so that's what I tried to do here and I think it works pretty well.  I must say, I really like that piece of marsh way down there in the distance.  I omitted the shopping center and highway 101.  This is probably what the scene looked like 100 years ago.

8" x 10"
Tidal Marsh behind Nordstroms #42

This is what I did today.  It was so pretty out this morning and so I set up facing the sun and found some Tree-Blobs in order to get some darks in the painting.  I pushed that far away mountain blue and played up the red marshy grasses.  I'm not so sure about this palette - the marsh colors are always challenging to me.  I definitely experienced some "friction", as Mr. Paquet recommends.  Also, I had to pack up a little sooner than I wanted to because the tide was coming in and beginning to surround me.  

Check out the before and after photo.

no water in marsh

lots of water in marsh

I think I need to do some copy-cat paintings of marsh scenes that have a good color palette.  I'd love to go back to this spot again this weekend if I have time between ALL THE FOOTBALL games that need to watch.  I really need to beat Cordelia this weekend in Fantasy Football, so that I can have a 4-4 record.  I went on a losing streak for a while, but now I'm back in the game and she's currently number one in our league - she needs to get beat bad.  So, Cordelia, if you are reading this, you better watch out because I'm primed for a WIN.  Love BadMammaJamma

Sorry to digress.  I'm obsessed with fantasy football right now, and painting, of course.