Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts

Monday, November 26, 2007

Interior landscapes with food - a Sketchbook

Lots of my sketches on my travels end up being done in restaurants, cafes and tea rooms. One day I may do a book.........

In the meantime, this summary post:

  • lists all the sketches by title, with their locations. I've organised it geographically in case anybody else fancies having a go at sketching the same view.
  • links to the locations in the title of the place

I'm also planning to post more of my sketches in various restaurants and other eateries which have already appeared on my other blog - see 'Making A Mark' - Interiors. While most of the sketches are of interiors (hence the title), a few involve facilities where the eating and drinking frequently takes place on a terrace outside eg Kew Gardens. Some are purely are of my view while I was taking refreshments.

Also ...... a post about my tips for people wanting to sketch in restaurants and other eateries.

10 "Dos and Don'ts" for how to draw people while eating


An Orangery Afternoon Tea
Kew Gardens

London (from west to east)

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Chelsea

Kensington Palace

Rex Whistler Restaurant 
Tate Britain, London

Tate Britain

Piccadilly - Royal Academy of Arts

St James Restaurant
Fortnum & Mason, London

Piccadilly - Fortnum and Masons

Mall Galleries

National Gallery

The National Cafe
National Gallery, London

National Portrait Gallery: Portrait Restaurant and Portrait Cafe

    Tate Modern

    "Fish! Restaurant, Borough Market
    Bankside, London

    Bankside


    City of London - Smithfield

    Northern England

    The Ferry Inn, Cookham
    Berkshire, England

    Southern England


    Europe

    Menu du Terroir, La Grillade Gourmande, Épernay
    Auberge du Terroir
    Servon, Normandy

    France

    Italy

    Trattoria alla Madonna
    Venice
    Venice:


    USA

    USA - California
    Tommys
    San Clemente, California

    USA - Arizona

    Cafe on Route 66
    Grants, New Mexico, USA

    USA- New Mexico

    USA Massachusetts

    Burdicks, Walpole,
    New Hampshire, USA

    USA - New Hampshire

    USA - Vermont

    USA - Maine

    In Good Company,
    Rockland, Maine


    More travel sketches 


    You can see more of my travels with a sketchbook on my website or by clicking the links to the summaries of blog posts for different areas in the right hand column. These are the links to my travels with a sketchbook in London; England; Venice and the USA.

    This post will be updated as new sketches are added to this blog.
    Posted by on 2 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Friday, September 29, 2006

    Sunday 30th July: The end of my drive down Highway 1 and the start of "concrete freewayville"

    Hideaway Cafe - looking towards Zuma Beach
    Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
    10" x 8"

    Mel Gibson got caught speeding on Highway 1 in Malibu on 28th July and was arrested for drink-driving. I came through on the 30th July with no such excitement but there again I was observing the speed limit and it was daylight.......... I even had sun for the first time in what seemed like a long time!

    By now I was really tired from all the driving and just wanted to get back to San Diego. Unfortunately, first of all I had to negotiate the mammoth concrete freeways of Los Angeles which was not something I was looking forward to!

    I prepared for the onslaught by stopping at the Hideaway Cafe in Malibu for brunch. For such an out of the way place (it was up a very steep drive) I was really disappointed that there were not more stars to collect autographs from ;) and was about to sniff with disappointment when the couple next door sent a small child off to collect an autograph. I know not who it was from or indeed whether it was for the child or the Dad - but I suspected the latter!

    I sat on the outside deck and first of all sat one side of the table and drew the scene out to sea and then swopped around and drew the view inland. I can't look at these sketches without hearing the sound of Harley Davidsons which would periodically roar down the highway - indeed the first sketch records that I eat Eggs Benedict to the sound of Harleys - par for the course on Sunday morning I guess!

    Hideaway Cafe - looking inland
    Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
    10" x 8"

    Malibu was really weird. There were no real stopping places and the houses were jammed up together right at the ocean's edge - it was basically just one long strip. I kept wondering what would happen if they had a really high tide. But there again, I was passing through a state where many people live on or near a place where two major tectonic plates collide so I guess my overall conclusion was that Californians have a built-in aversion to worrying about where they live.

    I then proceeded to drive very many miles on concrete freeway (with all the associated noise) and hated every minute - especially the bit where they created a diversion that didn't have very good signposting and I had to navigate and keep up with the traffic with a map on my lap..........

    And so I arrived back in San Diego - to the news that the weather had not picked up at all and that Louise and her dearly beloved had been under cloud all week!

    Technorati tags: , , , , , , , , ,


    Posted by on 2 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , ,

    Tuesday, September 05, 2006

    Saturday 29th July: The best breakfast of the trip - at the Big Sky Cafe!


    Saturday Morning at the Big Sky Cafe, San Luis Obispo
    Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
    10" x 8"

    I left Morro Bay under a cloud - you think I jest? Take a look at the photo! I know they do things bigger in the USA - but I wasn't quite expecting this to apply to the clouds.

    I should be able to see a great big rock sticking up out of the ocean instead of which all I could see was a bit of rock and an awful lot of cloud. The marine inversion was obviously going to persist for a bit!

    I drove down to San Luis Obispo for breakfast. Nice small town with a proper main street and proper traditional shops and trees on the side walks. It had a really nice human scale to it. I looked around for somewhere to have breakfast and ended up heading for the place where people were congregating outside. Turns out they were queuing to get in - but seating 1 person is easier than seating 3-4! ;)

    I had the best breakfast of the whole trip at the Big Sky Cafe - highly recommended by me for anybody who's ever in the area (are you listening Ed?). Apparently the LA Times agrees - check out the Big Sky Cafe website (and the sound track!). The menus were great - with good healthy food with leanings towards organic. In fact it was so good that I got them to make me up a lunch as a take-away! I've only now discovered while finding the website and the reviews that they were voted the Best San Luis Obispo Restaurant in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005! I can't say I'm surprised.

    This sketch of the cafe was one of those weird ones where it almost draws itself - it went amazingly fast considering the detail and the fact that I was eating breakfast. I cheated on the backboard as they had two columns - but I don't write that small. I loved their stars on the blue ceiling.

    There's also a great photography shop/suppliers on the main street - with friendly staff.

    I continued down Highway 1 but it swung inland away from the coast. The weather improved as a result and I began to see some of the Californian countryside of the sort I associate with Californian landscape paintings. As I drove along, I began to realise that each day of the trip down Highway 1 had to contain a fair degree of slog in the car to get to the next place - and it was getting tiring.

    I stopped the night in Ventura - and had this view from the balcony of my room.


    Ventura palm trees
    pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
    8" x 10"

    Links:
    Technorati tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted by on 5 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , ,

    Monday, September 04, 2006

    Friday 28th July: Driving down Big Sur - at last!


    Bixby Bridge, Pacific Coast Highway
    8" x 10"
    Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook

    After I left Point Lobos in the early afternoon, I continued down Highway 1 and along the coastline of Big Sur.

    Big Sur is the coastline and immediate area inland which stretches some 90 miles (145km) along the coastline between the Carmel River and the San Carpoforo Creek. It extends about 20 miles (32km) inland. It's a truly amazing coastline with great views - both along and down(!) and seeing and driving down Big Sur is something I've wanted to do for a very long time.


    The marine inversion continued for the most part. Here's an illustration of what I mean.
    Note also the steep sides - this is not a road to take your eye off the road so you can admire the view - you need to use the various stopping places en route to do that - and you'll be in good company as everybody else is doing the same thing!

    Driving south down Big Sur (as opposed to north) means you get to maximise your focus on the road for some 90 miles as you're driving hairpin bends on the side next to the very big drop!

    As I began to drive down the Highway, I began to realise that driving the Big Sur was going be very tiring, would take some time and that stopping a lot was maybe not the best idea. So sketching was limited and I skipped a visit to the redwoods and San Simeon and the Hearst Castle and still arrived in Morro Bay rather tired.....well actually I could use a lot stronger expression than that - but not in public! I'd definitely recommend taking your time travelling down Big Sur. Also be aware that it's a very popular place to visit and accommodation can be booked up a long time in advance.

    The sketch is of the area next to the Bixby Bridge. The bridge was one of the largest and tallest bridges built when it was constructed in the thirties. It transformed the life of people who lived in the area. When I sketched it the bottom of the cloud was only just above the aurface of the road!

    Read more about Big Sur and conservation aspects of the coastline at the sites listed below

    Links:
    Technorati tags: , , , , , , , ,
    Posted by on No comments:
    Categories , , , , , ,

    Sunday, September 03, 2006

    Friday 28th July: "The greatest meeting of land and water in the world"

    "The meeting of land and sea, Point Lobos"
    12" x 16.5", Coloured Pencil sketch on Colourfix
    copyright Katherine Tyrrell
    Where on earth could be described as "the greatest meeting of land and sea on the earth? Point Lobos is the answer according to the artist Francis McComas and the Point Lobos State Reserve website
    Landscape artist Francis McComas's brief but extravagant comparison remains unchallenged. All who come here agree that the beauty of this tree-clad headland is unequaled.
    The Reserve is 3 miles south of Carmel just off Highway 1 and the website indicates it has a very great deal to offer - and I agree...........
    Point Lobos State Reserve has outstanding passive recreation values, such as sightseeing, photography, painting, nature study, picnicking, SCUBA diving, and jogging. In addition to the spectacular beauty, nearly every aspect of its resources is of scientific interest. There are rare plant communities, endangered archeological sites, unique geological formations, and incredibly rich flora an fauna of both land and sea.
    I was totally knocked out by the reserve but rather less so by the number of parking spaces available. I guess that's the price that is paid for avoiding it becoming too overrun with tourists like myself - even if I am wielding a pencil and trying to record it.

    Point Lobos - coastline, cliffs and kelp
    copyright Katherine Tyrrell
    Highlights for me included: the totally stunning wild flowers, plants and trees; the enormous kelp forest seen from above(!); the pelican beach (see the photo) and the brown pelicans diving for fish; Bird Island; the clear aquamarine of the water - and most of all the colour palette of the area. I'm really going to enjoy developing future artwork arising from this visit.

    Brown Pelicans on the beach at Point Lobos - and the marine inversion
    copyright Katherine Tyrrell
    The sketch at the top of the page is a larger one than others on this trip and was done on 'Blue Haze' (a very pale teal blue) Colourfix not dissimilar to the colour of the sky and sea. It's a colour study for (probably) a pastel painting. The subject is a marine terrace - created from clay and pebbles from eroded rock which was laid down as sediment 2 million years ago (ie it's recent!) and compressed and folded to create new rock. I majored in Geography for my degree and have studied geology - hence the odd geological diversions on this trip!

    Marine Terrace
    The flattest piece of "comfy rock" I could find to sit on!
    copyright Katherine Tyrrell
    It wasn't the most interesting view I saw while I was there but the paths near the more spectacular views were very narrow. Instead, after a good walk round, I opted for a more 'comfortable' seat on a sloping rock - I invariably opt for the comfortable spots!

    As with many other places which are popular with artists, there in the car park, when I got back to the car was another artist packing up to go home. We exchanged notes about day - and then another artist joined us. It's great painting out doors - just like being part of a club without a name where you don't know any of the members but you know who they are when you see them!

    Thanks again to Ed Terpening of Life Plein Air for giving me the tip off about Point Lobos in his draft digest of plein air painting locations on the Northern California coastline which I was 'road-testing'!

    Note:
    Francis McComas is an Australian who worked his way to California as a merchant seaman at the end of the nineteenth century. He was a watercolourist who painted the southwestern states of the USA

    Links:
    Posted by on 3 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , , , , , ,

    Saturday, September 02, 2006

    Thursday 27th July: Carmel by the Sea - and a marine inversion

    Leftovers from lunch
    Pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook 8" x 10"

    On Thursday I decided to go to Carmel pr 'Carmel-by-the Sea'. I've always been intrigued by it as a place, ever since I learned about it when Clint Eastwood was Mayor!

    The above sketch is as colourful as it got that day as the whole of the Monterey peninsula seemed to be suffering from a marine inversion. The sky was grey, the clouds were very low, the sea was grey - and the 'plein air' was hovering just above 60 degrees - where was the sunshine?

    I did try to do a plein air pastel painting on the beach - honest - but it was soooooooooooo cold! Sitting still means you get a lot colder than when moving around. I found after not very long that I just couldn't focus and was continuously thinking about long it would take to turn back to my hotel and go and find as many layers as I could. It wasn't as if I hadn't come out prepared - but I was still very cold. So I have a pastel which has been started and which I will probably try and finish - but it'll have to be with the aid of photos and my very vivid memories of that morning on the beach! This is the view I would have been doing if it had been warmer - and the view would have been bluer instead of grey!

    This is the very uninteresting sketch of the view from table at lunch at the Portabella restaurant. I had the option of sitting outside but inside was warmer! This was compensated for by the much more interesting view on my plate - the remnants of which you can see in the sketch at the top of the blog. The restaurant gets great reviews in Trip Adviser whereas I'd have characterised is as good but not stunning.

    In the afternoon, I decided to have a tour of the art galleries in Carmel to see what rated as art in a place like Carmel given that it is a small community which was founded by artists and writers. There are an enormous number of artists associated with the galleries - and there was a very wide range of work on offer. However most of the art had little or no association with Carmel or Northern California and I didn't 'rate' quite a lot of it.

    Looking back there's only one gallery where I can remember contemporary and/or plein air local landscapes which I liked. Given its location and artists, I think it was the Nancy Dodds Gallery which describes itself as a world away from the rest of Carmel Galleries - which this gallery certainly was!

    This sketch of a tree at one of the intersections on Ocean was largely done because I'd been on my feet for too long and desperately needed to sit down for at 10 minutes!

    In the evening I decided to walk around the corner from the inn I was staying at in Monterey and visited Stokes restaurant. It has some appalling reviews in its entry in Trip Adviser and I can only assume that it has changed hands or management recently as my own experience was very much better. In fact I'd go so far as to say it was probably the best restaurant meal on the whole three weeks.

    Stokes Restaurant
    pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook 8" x 10"

    It's a bit silly though - having two large sketches of the meals and restaurants as the highlight of my visit to the Monterey peninsula!

    Links:
    Technorati tags: , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted by on 6 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , ,

    Friday, September 01, 2006

    Wednesday 26th July: Driving Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway


    Pescadero Marsh (neat to Highway 1)
    Wednesday 26th July 11.45am 60 degrees F (foggy)
    sepia ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook 8" x 10"

    Louise dropped me off at San Diego at about airport at about 5.30am so that I could catch the 6.45 flight to San Francisco and then the connecting flight to Monterey which would get me in about 9.00am. Almost the first thing I heard when I got to the check-in queue was that the San Francisco flight was late and I'd miss my connection.

    We'll draw another veil over the next hour or so except to say I declined the offer from United Airlines of a replacement flight which would get me into Montery at 8.00pm in the evening [raised eyebrow smiley!] and accpted the offer of a credit voucher to be used on a subsquent flight. Instead I flew to San Francisco and picked up a car there which fortunately was not a big deal as it could have been (thumbs up for Alamo!).

    We'll just have a minor digression here while I remember what it was like in the airport car park trying to drive an automatic car for the 2nd time ever. Here's the car later on in the trip. Fortunately it was a car which I had driven before - with gears.

    I drove from San Francisco International down to Half Moon Bay to the south and west of san Francisco to pick up (State Route) Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway. It is reputed to have some beautiful coastline and is designated an All-Americian highway. My intention was to drive down it as far as a I could.

    I was following Ed Terpening's (of the "Life Plein Air" blog) draft resume of places to to paint down the coast of California - which was excellent at leading me to the two locations identified in these sketches.

    While Ed's instructions were excellent, I wasn't quite prepared for the extent of the fog (marine inversion?) along the coastline - everything was very grey - and the temperature had dropped 50 degrees from that experienced on Monday - only two days earlier. It was quite an adjustment trying to get the colours right after days and days of bright blue skies - in fact it felt very like the grey cloudy day we had going through the Sonoran Desert on Monday morning.

    The first sketch (at the top of the post) is annotated with my code for different colours in order to provide extra assistance in working this one up at home .

    Bean Hollow Beach
    26.7.06. 12.25pm 61 degrees F
    sepia ink and coloured pencil on Mole sketchbook 8" x 10"

    Dinner that evening was at "The Fishwife" on Sunset Drive at Asilomar Beach This is the dinner menu. It's reputed have very good seafood. I know I wasn't disappointed - and I got a good table to sketch from. The people on the right came over afterwards - they had realised what I was doing and were delighted to be in the sketch!

    The Fishwife (seafood restaurant), Sunset Drive, Pacific Grove
    26.7.06. 8.00pm
    pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook 8" x 10"

    Links:
    Posted by on 5 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , ,

    Wednesday, August 30, 2006

    Tuesday 25th July - a 'rest' day

    Kathy and Gordon flew back to New England and I washed and repacked for the next leg of the trip - including the pastels - and fixed final bookings.

    The weather continued to be distinctly odd - it rained and then continued to be humid!

    My plans were as follows:
    • Wednesday morning very early: fly to Monterey and pick up a car
    • Wednesday/Thursday: stay in Monterey/Carmel area for two nights
    • Friday: drive down Highway 1 - the Pacific Coast Highway - stopping enroute in the Big Sur area between Monterey and the MorroBay/San Luis Obispo area
    • Saturday: drive down to Ventura, stay overnight
    • Sunday: drive via Malibu and then avoid as much as I could of Los Angeles and back to San Diego
    • get as much drawing done as I could...........
    Did anybody notice the use of the past tense? ;) More tomorrow..............

    Technorati tags:
    Posted by on No comments:
    Categories , ,

    Wednesday, August 09, 2006

    Dick Blick in San Diego

    I visited my very first Dick Blick store in San Diego on Friday 14th July (to get supplies for the pastel workshop) and then again on Monday 17th July! That meant art store shopping four days running! Only true hard bitten art supplies addicts will know what that feels like!

    Kathy and Gordon (of which more later) had flown in on Sunday for THE BIG ROAD TRIP. On Monday morning, they went seal watching with Louise while I fixed up my flight and car for the last week and enrolled in AAA (for the last week of my trip). We then all went down to the Little Italy part of San Diego to the Blick Art Material Store so Kathy could see it. Gordon parked himself in a location of his choosing and the female contingent hit the store. He had a long wait...........

    I have to say that I have a very positive impression of art stores in the USA. In my opinion, they are hugely better than some of the well known and very large ones I use in London - at least from my perspective for the type of things I buy. I oohed and aahed my way round both stores. I gather Kathy (from Maine) was also impressed - and I hadn't realised until the visit how few places actually have a Dick Blick store.

    The Dick Blick store (like the store in San Clemente) has a great range of paper of all different types plus illustration and museum boards. The two stores I visited also had well stocked shelves - ie if they stock it they make sure they keep on top of reordering. A big contrast to some of the very large stores I visit in London who sometimes let stockouts occur. London stores also tend to stock European suppliers rather than American ones - irrespective of who produces the best product (or the fact that products are different). In contrast I found good quality European supplies in both the San Clemente and San Diego stores. And my vote goes with the store who stocks quality irrespective of the country it comes from.

    I also liked the fact that the Dick Blick stores had a very good range of drawing boards/desks and other furniture for storing paper and art materials - a big thumbs up for that one. Allocated parking spaces in the adjacent lot were also a plus point. About the only area of supply I could identify which I thought they could improve was the very weak range of art books in store (people who like art supplies invariably like art books too!)

    I have English artist friends who regularly order from Dick Blick - because of the impossibility of getting certain supplies in the UK. Having seen the store I shall now be paying more attention to their mail order catalogue!

    [Note: sorry for the 'break in service' but my broadband link went down - but has now been resurrected ]

    Links: Dick Blick, San Diego (link includes directions and a map)
    Posted by on No comments:
    Categories , , , ,

    Monday, August 07, 2006

    "The big cheese on the pond" - eating and sketching in San Clemente, California


    On the pastel workshop weekend, we set off early and then ate breakfast both mornings at Tommy's Family Restaurant at 1409 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente CA 92672 (link to directions below - it's just off the exit from Interstate 5). Louise told me that they're known for their great breakfasts - and she wasn't wrong. Enormous also ought to be in that sentence somewhere! Service is also friendly, fast and efficient. The restaurant is decked out with movie star photos and posters from old films, and iconic images such as Betty Boop - who has a starring role in the centre of the above sketch. And that's a Blues Brother's hand stopping the traffic on the right!

    On both mornings, I eat my breakfast and sketched in pen and ink in my large Moleskine sketchbook at the same time. The post at the top of the page is the better of the two sketches I did. Louise took photos of me sketching on Sunday - so this is me sketching! Louise is not one to let you linger over breakfast when there's a workshop to go to so this all had to be done pretty fast - and benefits from the 'try-out' sitting in a different place the previous day. Afterwards - and while the memory was still fresh - I added coloured pencil for the main colour areas. This is so I have something to use when the digi photos can be seen on screen - as the colours and values are usually distorted. I can now use both sources of info to develop this into a larger work if I want to - which I may well do!




    The previous evening we arranged to meet up with Louise's and Rosa's husbands at the Gordon James Grill in San Clemente - and a lot of the other workshop participants came too. The surroundings were very pleasant, the menu offered a great choice and the meal was excellent. Prices are not cheap but are reasonable. I'd recommend it highly to anybody wanting to eat in the area.

    I did a couple of sketches over dinner. One of Louise and her husband doing what all married couples do when out to eat with other people - talk to those other people. ;) Louise, Rosa and I talked art and the husbands talked Harleys! And a very quick 2-3 minute one of Dianna talking to one of the workshop participants further up the table.

    And "the big cheese on the pond"? A memorable case of me mixing metaphors in conversation while sketching over breakfast at Tommy's on Saturday morning. We didn't do much better on Saturday evening when the restaurant we were supposed to be eating at - Gordon James Grill - was christened "Jack's place" by Louise - as we tried to describe its location to one of the husbands traveling to meet us! What can I say? Art is right brain and talking is left brain!

    Note: click on an image to see a larger version

    Links:
    Technorati tags:
    , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted by on 2 comments:
    Categories , , , , , , ,

    Service with a smile - San Clemente Art Supply


    The place where the Dianna Ponting Pastel Workshop was held really deserves a special mention in this blog as it was outstanding.

    The workshop was held in a large room to the rear and side of the San Clemente Art Supply and Framing building at 1531 N. El Camino Real, San Clemente Ca 92672. (that's the spanish style building with two big palms either side!)

    Patti Herdell, who set up and runs the store, is one of the most helpful and hospitable people I've ever come across in an art supply store - and this is reflected in the range of services and supplies they offer and how one is treated as a customer. As the website says "We provide service with a smile" - and they do too!

    They have an extensive range of classes and workshops - from ones for children to regular classes for local people on a variety of subjects to one day or one week workshops from some of the best tutors around. I see they have a Sally Strand teaching a workshop on 'The Color of Light' in the first week of October - which should be of interest to any pastellists who can get to it (that's if it's not sold out already!)

    Running workshops, classes and demonstrations by instructors from major suppliers on a regular basis means that they are well used to having students in the building - which probably explains why they are so good at hosting classes. Each workshop participant had an easel and a decent amount of table top space - so essential when working with pastels. The wash-up and rest room facilities were fine. They also had a great map of all the local places to get lunch. What was best though was the very easy access back into the store proper where you could find anything you knew you wanted - and a lot more besides.

    This store has a fabulous stock of paper and supports of all different sorts - I came away with all sorts of new goodies which I just can't get in the UK. In this respect, I even thought it was at least as good if not better than the Dick Blick store in San Diego (see tomorrow's post), If you can't find what you want at your local store try giving them a ring! They don't currently run a mail order service from their website but I'm currently thinking along the lines of contacting them next time I want something not stocked in the UK!

    They also had an excellent range in both pastels and coloured pencils - and pens and pencils. I can't find my notes so I'm not going to say exactly which ones they had but will update this page once I've contacted Patty. I do know though that they were stocking the Terry Ludwig pastel sets - including the Terry Ludwig dark set which helped to produce lush darks in the workshop.

    The store is also fantastic for having a great supply of small pieces of kit and useful items which make one's artistic life easier at times - and makes browsing filled with lots of loud sqeaks of "Oh look what they've got here!" They had all the material and tools which Dianna had recommended to hand - which was great as some of them were very difficult if not impossible to find at other stores.

    You have been warned - DO NOT ENTER this store with any plastic in your hand unless you're prepared for a large bill or can exercise masterful restraint or have spent your art budget for the next six months already and have promised to be really good!

    Links:
    Technorati tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted by on 2 comments:
    Categories , , , ,

    Sunday, August 06, 2006

    Dianna Ponting Pastel Workshop weekend - 15th-16th July

    On my first weekend in California I took a pastel workshop up the coast in San Clemente with Dianna Ponting SFCA, PPC, MPAC, PSA. Dianna is the current President of the Federation of Canadian Artists. She has also been awarded the status of Master Pastellist by Pastel Artists Canada and Premiere Pastellist by the Pastel Society of Canada.

    Pomegranates in Pastels
    produced using Dianna's techniques
    from my own reference photo
    The class had been booked out for some time with a number of pastellists in the southwest USA anxiously trawling for a cancellation. Everybody was quite taken with the fact that I had come all the way from England for the workshop - although I did say that I had a few other plans for my visit as well! It was great to meet all the people from Wet Canvas behind all the online names - not least my very dear friend Rosa Weitsel, who has now been officially designated by Louise and me as a 'hoot and a half'.

    I've never sought to emulate the pastel style of Dianna (mainly because I never thought I'd have the patience!) but am always interested to learn new things and wanted to know how she produces the pin point realism of her pastels.

    Being largely a self-taught pastellist, I learned a huge amount of practical information about Dianna's approach to pastels in terms of:
    • working with La Carte pastel board (what you can and can't do with it) - an abrasive surface which I'd only used once or twice before
    • transfer and registration of an image on the support
    • particular tools used to help achieve her 'look'
    Key learning points for most people - and me - included:
    • how to transfer a planned image on to an abrasive and coloured support media
    • how to keep a pastel work in good condition while working on it
    • how to get saturated colours and good contrast
    • the benefits of using General Pencil's white charcoal pencil
    • how to get really ace DARK darks - and which pastels work best for this
    • how much pastel is needed before blending can be truly effective
    • how to use blending and erasing tools (you'd be amazed!)
    • the best sharpener for pastel pencils (I subsequently bought one!)
    • how to simplify and exaggerate the reference image while retaining a sense of detailed realism.
    One of the things I learned was how fast Dianna works! Truly impressive - and a great lesson for anybody who thinks detailed works must necessarily take hours and hours and hours - although they might take a bit longer until you've built up the expertise in working as Dianna does! ;)

    All the workshop students were able to produce really good work from the reference image during the weekend using very different pastel sets plus a selection of the dark pastels used by Dianna and the tools on her supplies list. All were slightly different - but all demonstrated how they'd built on the lessons learned in the class.
    Style wise, I'm still not going to try and emulate Dianna - not least because our colour signatures are completely different. However, I'm sure I'm going to be able to use the lessons learned within my particular approach to pastel. I tried to do this on the second day with the pomegranate work at the top of this post - it's a combination of the way I normally work and some of the things I learned during Dianna's workshop.

    I'd highly recommend a pastel workshop of the sort I attended for those who have found their feet with pastels and want to progress to producing highly finished work of a realist nature. However, I'm sure any artist interested in pastels pastellist will learn something new and of value at one of Dianna's workshops. She is also a well organised and enormously patient and helpful teacher - even with a workshop which has sold out!
    Participants in Dianna Ponting's workshop at
    the San Clemente Art Supply Store (July 2006)
    For those who'd like to register for a workshop with Dianna Ponting, check out her website for details of future workshops (or see the links below) - but do note that most seem to get booked out pretty quickly! The next one seems to be in Arizona in September and there will be another workshop in San Clemente in July next year.

    For an alternative perspective, see Louise's take on the workshop in "A Ponting Class". I'm also going to finish with an image of the work she did from Dianna's reference image during the workshop. Bear in mind that Louise doesn't normally work in pastels, learned lots of new ways to work and that I photographed this the next day straight from the workshop - with no final tidying up done as yet!


    Links:
    Technorati tags: , , ,
    Posted by on 3 comments:
    Categories , , , ,

    Saturday, August 05, 2006

    The Grand Tour of San Diego - Friday 14th July

    Prior to visiting, I had no idea that San Diego, in the exteme south of California, has a population of 1.25 million and consequently is both the second largest city in California and the seventh largest in the USA.

    San Diego is BIG and has LOTS of freeways as well as lots of people but it doesn't quite have that sprawling feeling that engulfs the metropolitan area called Los Angeles. Historically, it's been known for a long time as a navy town with a large number of naval bases. One quarter of the area's economy and employment is estimated to be linked to the presence of a major part of the American military. Latterly it's become much more technology oriented and has been dubbed Telecoms Valley

    Louise gave me a very fast tour of the city on Friday 14th July but kept emphasising that she was only scratching the surface! Here are some of the sights I saw.

    The first photo is of the wall of bells at the San Diego de Alcala Mission.

    This Mission is the first and oldest in the chain of Missions founded by the Jesuits and latterly the Franciscan along the 600 miles of the El Camino Real near the coast of California. It was established on 16th July 1769 (237 years ago) and has been relocated a number of times and rebuilt due to earthquake damage.

    Then comes a shot of part of Old Town San Diego. This was recreated during the city's bicentennial in 1969 to be a State Park for the historic sites in the original location of the Old Town. An area which has fortunately not been ruined by the worst ravages of tourism.

    Some of the cacti flowers I saw were large and very spectacular - with this being a prime example.

    Next is a photo of HMS Surprise, the replica of a frigate used in "Master and Commander" which, along with a number of other ships now forms part of the Maritime Museum in San Diego Harbour. Across the harbour, I could see ships of the USA navy tied up in the main naval dockyard while aircraft from the Naval Airforce flew overhead on a regular basis.

    Finally a panorama shot of part of San Diego Bay from the Old Point Loma Lighthouse (part of the Cabrillo National Monument). Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo led the first European expedition to explore the west coast of North America and found a good enclosed port in dan Diego Bay in 1542 and claimed the land for Spain before heading north to Monterey bay - a journey I make later on this trip.


    We didn't have time for me to see the famed San Diego Zoo or to get more of a glimpse of Balboa Park and its museums - as Louise said we just 'scratched the surface' before we paid the ritual visit to Ben and Jerry's for a well earned ice cream!

    Technorati tags: , ,
    Posted by on No comments:
    Categories , ,
    Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)