California Art Club put together a “Paint Out” in Gualala, California this last month. I participated and really enjoyed it. There were about thirty-eight artists from all over California. For an artist, it is always fun to be around other artists. Two or three artists can be painting the same scene and they will all look entirely different.
The only downside was that I stayed in an old-world waterfront hotel. The room had a wonderful view, but It took at least ten minutes to get water warm enough to shower. The breakfast was either a stale wrapped Biscotti or a muffin of the same nature. I passed on both. There was no room service, so no clean towels, and I was there for six nights.
The beaches were clean and beautiful. The first day I painted at the park, with an expansive view.
I loved the view for viewing, but not particularly for painting. I’m not sure if that makes sense. I attempted to capture the beauty; but I felt something was missing for a painting. My opinion has not changed. Maybe it’s just too much information?
The next day, I visited a beautiful estate named “Barking Rocks.” It was named for all the seals that live on the rocks. There were about twenty of us painting around the waterfront property. I chose to paint a small and quick painting of the rocks.
I was happy with this 8 x 10 and entered it the last day to be critiqued. No one found fault with it, so that was quite nice.
The third day I drove to Cooks Beach, where several of the group were painting. I joined on the cliff above the beach. Several others took the trail down to the beach and were painting on the beach.
I painted this on a 9 x 12 panel. I liked it when working on it.
The next day was too foggy to paint. I reworked the rocks in my hotel room. Gualala is a beautiful place, but does have fog that rolls in and you can not even see the beach. I drove south to Sea Ranch first and the further I drove, the thicker the fog. I chose not to stop at places where you had to hike quite a ways to the beach. I was by myself and did not want to run into “critters”.
I turned around and drove north toward the Pt. Arena lighthouse. When I got the road that takes you to the lighthouse the fog was fairly thick. I drove out to the lighthouse, but the fog was so thick I hardly saw it. I did not paint the foggy wonder, but it is one of the tallest lighthouses on the West Coast.
The effort to find a place to paint did not work well. I painted in my hotel room that day. The final day of the Paint Out, one piece of our work was critiqued by two well-known artists. It was fun to see what other people had painted. I would have loved to have seen the other pieces they had painted, not just the one. After the critique, it was time to head home.
I met many fun people and hope to do more with the California Art Club in the future. Here is the photo from our lovely cocktail party at Barking Rocks on Thursday night in their gallery. It was my second paint out. There were no awards, so it felt more casual than others.
‘So we all worked on a photo taken at Port Gamble in the mist. Here is my rendition. This week we have two homework assignments (Oh my) and to bring in a piece we are working on. I don’t have anything in process, so will start a new Airstream and take it to class.
