Mrs. Texas and I chose to have a second beach day, this time in Monterey. While there for a weeklong painting retreat last year, I still didn’t have enough time to do all I had hoped. One of those things was to tour the Point Pinos Lighthouse, a place I painted while perched on the […]
Plein Air Painting in Gilroy
Mrs. Texas is at the edge of a pumpkin patch, a big “patch”. Okay, a pumpkin field. We mistakenly thought it was summer squash, that yellow crookneck stuff that prompted a friend of mine to say, “‘Squash’ is the past tense of ‘squish’, and ‘squish’ is not a food.” (Right on, Ben!) But pumpkins? Yes! […]
The Central California Artist Went Back to Gilroy
Mrs. Texas was in California for another handful of weeks, and I felt compelled to go back to see her one more time. So, I did. (There is a lot to be said about driving a car that isn’t potentially on its last gasp.) We did a number of wonderful things, and I even did […]
Away in Gilroy, Chapter Three
QUICKETY CORRECTION: Yesterday’s flowers were NOT zinnias; they were dahlias. I couldn’t remember the name so made a substitution. Thank you, Jane, for setting me straight! After finding lunch on our beach day (easy drive from Gilroy to the beach), we thought about heading back to Gilroy, but there was way too much traffic heading […]
Away in Gilroy, Chapter Two
Yesterday we were at Rio Del Mar beach with my Texas friends who were staying in Gilroy (hence the title of this series of posts). Mrs. Texas carries a bag at the beach to collect pieces of driftwood for making mobiles, one of which hangs at my kitchen window. The sun came out in the […]
Away in Gilroy, Chapter One
Do you remember (or care?) that I went to Texas last year? (Here is a link to the opening chapter.) My Texas friends are in Gilroy, California (yeppers, the garlic capital of the state or maybe the country or even the world), and since that is only 3-1/2 hours from me, I went to see […]
Your Central Calif. Artist Went to Hume Lake
Well, why not? It’s my blog and I can digress if I want to. It doesn’t have to be all about Mineral King, drawing, oil painting, and Three Rivers—okay, the beach, odd jobs, drawing lessons, the business of art, editing, or plein air painting either. This is the eighth summer reunion with my childhood friend […]
Oregon Beach Day (chapter 3)
Beach #2 We passed this air museum multiple times on this day of geographical challenges. It is enormous, and finally, I shot a photo through the windshield (as a passenger, fret not). This beach is known for a giant sand dune. I climbed it two other times and wanted to test myself, SIXTEEN YEARS LATER. […]
Oregon Beach Day (chapter 2)
Lighthouse On my beach day in Oregon, we visited two beaches and one lighthouse. We didn’t have a paper map, the cell service was spotty, I’m not very good at that electronic navigation stuff (who wants to operate a cell phone when the scenery looks like this?), and we were rather geographically challenged. Eventually we […]
Oregon Beach Day (in three chapters)
I love the beach. Any beach. All beaches. While in Oregon, my sister and I had a day to go to the beach, so we went to 2 beaches and one lighthouse. Beach #1 We had the address of some old friends from Visalia and decided to surprise them. This is the road that led […]