Watercolor painted en plein air at Blake Gardens on Arches 9×12 watercolor block
This afternoon the weather was gorgeous and knowing that plein air painting time will soon be over (at least for wimps like me who hate being cold) I grabbed the opportunity to go paint at Blake Gardens. I love this area of the garden, with the rows of trees and reflecting pond. Unfortunately a professional photographer and a perfect little yuppie family were also using the area to take family portraits.
For the entire two hours I was there painting they were alternately posing for pictures and trying to keep their little son from falling apart as he became increasingly bored and tired of all the phoney posing together. They were all perfectly groomed, in matching blond hair, white shirts, khaki pants (father and son) and khaki skirt (mom). They enthusiastically worked on keeping little Griffin engaged (Dictionary: “Griffin: a fabulous beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion”) in silly songs, teddy bears, slinkies, hugs and tickles, snacks, bribes of lollipops later, and discussion about his favorite tools (he’s got a hardware fixation and prefers monkey wrenches to screwdrivers). They were a really nice, loving family but I had really been hoping for serene communing with nature, not yuppies.
By the time we all left when Blake Gardens closed at 4:30, I had a headache and they were moving on to another park for more pictures. I was happy with how the painting went today–there were many moments of enjoyment as I became more closely aquainted with these grand old trees and as the paint appeared on the paper in ways I liked.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
11 replies on “Blake Gardens – Trees & Yuppies”
Beautifully done, Jana! So many touches of color and light and they all cohere, too. This is what plein air paintings should be, fresh and sparkling.
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BEAUTIFULLY DONE, mia cara!!! and I too like you HATE the cold .. and yuppiness! GLAD you could overcome the distractions and FEEL the fabulous painting you did!!! LOVE the trees —
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Jana, I just have been going to your blog for a short time now found you through Lauralines a good thing as Martha would say .I love your work and being or trying might be a better word to do painting and journaling drawing on my own has been an adventure at least. Thanks to talented people like yourself and laura there has been alot Ive learn from you both. I just love the paintin
Lindag of the park where or how did you start this painting the trees first and then filled in the rest ? Since Im doing wc on my own this is where I get confused.
Thank-you, and have awonderfl day:)
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Beautiful painting! You make it look so serene and peaceful, I would never have guessed you had so many distractions.
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Nice, it reminds me of the small faces, of cezanne playing in the aixois countryside (france again, i’m afraid); i think the paint will get up and start dancing. It’s very vibrant. I especially like the shading beneath the tree. I’m learning a lot from this.
I gotta say, though, that I suspect what you think is cold will be what i think is a good temperature to be out drawing in! I used to freeze to death trying to draw outside in London in winter months (not to mention the intermittent rainspells). When I did the sketchcrawl in davis last december i actually liked being outside in the brisk morning air with a sketchbook. I’ve found drawing in California summer heat to be sweatier than I’d like. Then again, the Valley is much warmer than the Bay.
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Beautiful Watercolor. My mom teaches Watercolor, up in Oregon. This is very lovely. Thank you for the nice feedback on my Chameleon.
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this is beautiful and looks so calm and serene – no sign of that family in this 😀
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Love that last line, “and paint appeared on paper in ways I liked”.
I can see why you liked it, this is so serene, great job on those massive trunks.
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It is wonderful.
Shape between tree and tree.
Rhythm feeling where they are consecutive.
Depth feeling.
Translation of light.
I like it very much.
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Why do people want their family lives represented like that? So perfectly bland, I mean?
This is a lovely painting, full of real life, not at all bland.
Best, BL
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I do believe that you have conveyed the translation of light and the mixture of tones well from a acknowledged watercolour technique. Have you ever considered publishing or selling your works? These are certainly good enough.
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