Plein Air on the Mendocino Coast

My 4-week intensive workshop came to a close yesterday, and that means I’m coming up for air and sharing here! :)

Back in late September, I went up to the Mendocino Coast to paint in their annual paint out. This is always a lot of fun- you connect with other artists, get to be somewhere spectacularly beautiful, and really just focus on art for 5 days straight. Like always, I had throwaways, average pieces, work I didn’t finish, and pieces I was really happy with.

Starting Off on the Wrong Foot

a lovely scene. perfect for studio work, but a real paint plein air…

Things started off less than stellar. Day 1 for me (Tuesday) was a total wash. It’s hard going through all that trouble and thinking your work stinks. I didn’t even save the paintings. Just crumpled them up and threw them away. I got sucked in by the camp-smoke drifting through the backlit trees. Dangerous! Why? Because in real life (versus a photo) the light changes quick. It’s incredibly frustrating to see a lovely view, set everything up, and then basically have the lighting totally different a half hour later.

everything had changed by the time I had set up.

Painting plein air really helps you pick strong shapes that don’t rely completely on lighting effects. Because if you don’t… disaster!

I hoped to paint more that same day, but sometimes I just have to hike the area and take pics, figure out the lighting experiences, and plan out later paintings. Here I saw this subject, but it was too late in the day and light behind the tree was no longer vibrant. So I planned on coming back later.

I even started painting another subject (practically out of desperation!!), but again- the light was gone basically by the time I set up. I never finished it. Very frustrating!!

The good news was that all these failures and missteps set me up for future success later in the week.

Getting Rolling at the Beach

I followed the advice of a lovely Parks Ranger, and went down to Navarro Beach the next morning. Put my pack on and hiked out. Just really lovely out there. Even if you don’t end up painting, who cares when things look this good? :)

I took my photos and then did a little trick. It was foggy out, and I knew I’d never get my first wash to dry. So I marched all the way back to the truck, did my sketches and my first wash for two subjects, and dried them on my dashboard with the heat full blast. Then I marched back out, set up, and got to work. By then, the light was changing, and there was a lovely shine on the water. I decided to warm up with a quick little one to get rolling.

Success, even unambitious success, can make everything feel better. I set up my tripod and got to work on a faraway view, with the little green and white waves rolling in. Life is good sometimes.

Maybe eventually they make a camera as good as the eye, but for now… there are subtleties in the shadows and the highlights that disappear through my camera lens. My toes in the sand, a bit of shade from my umbrella, paying… very close… attention to each wave rolling in, its shadows and colors. I didn’t even mind that I didn’t get to the second painting I’d prepped! :P

Planning Helps

The next day, I had a leg up on things. I’d been driving around some, and saw this shot in the morning on the way to Navarro Beach. Plein air painting (probably very much like photography) can take some planning to get the best results. If I can go somewhere one day, see what I like, take my photos, and time out when I need to get there… well, it makes good results much much easier.

I knew when the sun came up, so I made my coffee on the tailgate of my truck early, down at the beach, and was prepped for things. Had enough time to get my sketch in and my paints prepped. Results came out good. Who knew that planning helps!?!! LOL.

Of course, planning doesn’t always work out. I saw a gorgeous sunset the first night I was up in Mendocino. After totally flubbing a rushed painting, I decided to prep a piece and go back the next day. Of course, there was not another sunset of similar quality. !! I went back 3 times, but eventually had to let it go, and paint it back in the studio. It’s always a crap shoot.

Back into the Heart of the Woods

By now I was rolling, and feeling like I could do no wrong. I don’t know how it works for others, but when I make a painting I’m satisfied with, I feel like a god- like I could take on the world and never fail at a painting again!!! …until I do. But that’s the mindset I’ve always carried with me, and it’s hard to let it go. So I hiked back into the woods a few miles, to the spots I’d seen a few days before. The fog lifted. It was quiet and green and smelled good. I wasn’t alone- folks were hiking in the canyon- but everyone was thoughtful and curious and polite. Hikers are almost always good people. The trail is a good place to be.

First, I painted that little redwood scene I had missed the light on at the beginning. I love stuff like this. It’s almost an abstract, but it still tells a story. I had prepped it ahead of time with the first wash and a rough sketch. So I was able to really dig in when I got there!

Then, I went back to a spot I’d painted back in 2018. It had changed, but just a few yards down was a new view. This is a subject I never would have painted a few years ago. It’s a crazy mishmash. It’s hard to separate out all these shapes, and yet still have them read as ferns and bushes and the magic over-the-top aliveness of spaces like this. I want to express that overabundance of the forest but also express the nature of watercolors. Bit by bit, I worked my way down the page, and deeper, layer by layer.

I was there for something like two hours, painting away. Patiently working wet into wet, saving some edges, responding to the shafts of light that would appear down through the canopy of the redwood forest, the changing light and highlights that would appear. I just felt so… blessed that I was had painted long enough, and spent enough time dedicated to watercolors, that I was able to pay homage to that place with my work. Such a great day.

The Heart of the woods