a fish on land

Me, oil painting at Duncan’s Mills (CA)

Don’t worry.  The train is a museum, so it’s a safe place to paint.  Well, at least safe from the train. . . Notice, I’m not going to show you that painting – it turned out to be a sampler of me trying to get the right greens with this lovely, but unfathomable oil paint that Bill squeezed onto my palette.

Bill Jones

Look at him!  Look at the fancy easel set up and the nerve of him to paint in a white shirt and not get a single drop of paint on it.  No wonder he’s smiling.

our sketches done on the paper table covering at lunch

While we were waiting for lunch at Cape Fear we sketched each other on the paper table covering.  The mask over Bill’s right shoulder is one that hangs on the wall there.  His sketch of me was a great likeness, but done in irridescent blue gel pen, so hard to see.

If you want to try sketching at Duncans Mills – it’s a perfect spot with old buildings, gardens, art galleries, cows, hills, a train, etc.  And it is the spot selected for the next international Sketchcrawl  day here in Sonoma County, this Saturday, Sept. 19.  Just meet there at 10 am.

two 5 X 7″ oil sketches

It got really windy and chilly in the afternoon so we went back to my house to let the chickens out to pose for us.  They made a bee line for the rose garden where they scratched holes for themselves and took dirt baths in the loose soil – not something one would want to paint! I was tired, so I sat in the shade and did these two little sketches to use up the oil paint on my palette.  My hen model disappeared on me so I was left with my memory, and the last bit of paint.  I enjoyed the oils, especially painting on a toned background.  I’ll get back to it again some day.

But then I attended the drawing Marathon in Oakland on Sunday.  I’ll try to post those sketched tomorrow!