View East from Topaz Ave. - Balboa Island - SOLD

Today I went down to Balboa Island to do a painting for our upcoming show at the Socalpapa Gallery: "Islands". I arrived  and found a view looking east into the late morning glare. It was such a beautiful day that to just say so doesn't seem enough; the sun and the slightly cool breeze were perfectly balanced to make a truly perfect day. We are so lucky here in Southern California.   Lots of people walk around the island everyday. Walking for exercise, walking with friends, walking their dogs, or their Cockatiels! Yes. I met a couple of people I knew even, several very friendly dogs and one cat. This back lit view is my favorite kind to paint because the busy background is simplified and greyed out, while leaving the foreground boats still sharp and colorful. I may have made a sale of this one, so no buy now button until I hear for sure.

Tomatoes on the Vine

Here are some tomatoes still on a vine, on a dish. Very homey. Now I can slice them up for a sandwich.

Magic Key

A little something different today. I have a small collection of objects I've been wanting to paint for a long time. Here is one of them. I found this old key amongst some stuff of my husband's in a box and asked if I could have it. I like keys, especially old ones. I like them because they are heavy, and the metal has aged, and the shapes suggest large old locks on lovely large old doors. But really it's the symbolism of a key that I like the best. A key opens whatever is locked. It's so simple but also so profound. A key like this lives in two worlds, the mundane and the metaphorical. So here is my magic key.

First Plum

Is it Plum season again already? Well, here in California I guess it is. Here is Plum #1 for 2010. I love painting these. The light grey purple blushes streaking through the wine dark reds and purples are something I simply never get tired of painting.

Tea Lemon

Ah, life is good. I breathe. So here to commemorate this turning point, is a lemon, from amongst those I used to make hot lemon and honey. I saved this one out, thinking it would be a good subject, because it looks lumpy and odd. Not the market-perfect ones I prefer not to paint.

Chicken Soup Onion-SOLD

An 8 day cold, and counting. Incredible! I suppose I'm making up for lost time, since I don't remember having a cold in at least a decade if not longer. The flu, yes. But not this tsunami of mucous. Sorry if that's too much information, but I just can't get over it; pun intended.

Anyway, yesterday was a bit of a reprieve; I felt hugely better and tackled this onion, one of several I used to make myself some chicken soup. Today, well, sort of like the previous week. So no painting for tomorrow.

View Over the Vernal Pools - NFS (Private Collection)

This painting was done at the Santa Rosa Plateau on Tuesday, this time looking south over one of the Vernal Pools, as they are called. Every winter and spring when rain falls, depressions in the earth there fill with water, providing an environment for all manner of water creatures to come to life after remaining dormant through the dry months. These include everything from microscopic organisms all the way to tiny little shrimp and most miraculously to me tadpoles, which of course will mature into loud and sonorous frogs.

Breezy Santa Rosa Morning - SOLD

I just got back from a glorious day painting at the Santa Rosa Plateau, (see blog posting 9/30/2009). It was very cool & breezy, with big puffy grey and white clouds flying across the sky, making for a constantly changing mosaic of light and shadow moving over the landscape. We arrived pretty early and found just a couple of people there ahead of us. The spring flowers are just starting to open, and the bird song punctuating the silence made for a near perfect morning. This view is looking west I think, back up the trail from the "Vernal Pools" which are immediately to my left as I painted this scene. This is really still a wild landscape, however groomed these small dirt trails are. There are signs of coyote on the trail every few feet, not to mention tarantula and snake holes, and at this time of year, hundreds of short, furry caterpillars criss-crossing the trail trying to get to one side or the other; we couldn't decide which.

Indian Canyon Afternoon

Here is a second painting I did while visiting Andreas Canyon, south of Palm Springs. I painted this looking back  toward the canyon from another palm grove at the same site. It was shady and cool from the vantage point I had, and it was just heavenly to sit there quietly and listen to the breeze through the palm fronds. The quiet of the desert is totally unique.
I'm off to the Santa Rosa Plateau tomorrow to paint spring flowers, and vernal pools, and maybe some cows.

Andreas Canyon - Morning

Ok, I want you all to know that I have felt guilty for not posting these last almost 3 weeks on the "Judith Cameron - A Painting a Day" blog, (which name btw, I have since frequently regretted choosing: why not "A Painting a Week", or "A Painting When I Can Manage It", or "A Painting Now and Then"?). It's just that "life" seems to intervene, and I don't mean Life with a capital L, the big life of real crisis, or challenge, or change, but the little life of chores, and moods, and distractions, and the inertia of all of that. Being retired with no schedule has left me with no discipline at all, (though I had barely enough to get by before). So, at the risk of being a bit too confessional about all this, and without hopefully putting too much of a burden on either of us, I am vowing to jump back in with a renewed sense of purpose.

So, here is a painting I painted when I accompanied my husband to Palm Springs, the last week of March. He attended a week long photo workshop, and I did a few paintings. The first full day there I met with a friend and we drove south of Palm Springs to Indian Canyons. These are beautiful canyons filled with natural groves of fan palms, and it's truly gorgeous. This first one we did in Andreas Canyon which is the easiest to access. This view is of the trail head leading to a one mile loop through the groves.