SF Botanical Garden

there is a free day at the SF Botanical Garden once a month, but I rather accidentally ended up there on the free day! I happened to have my painting kit with me and so I thought I would find plentiful subjects there. I wandered around the 55 acres for over an hour, ending up near the main gate where there were some magnificent crabapple trees blooming. I have never had a lot of luck or skill at painting flowering trees, but they were so beautiful I had to try again.

It was pretty late by the time I got back around to that location, and the sun was streaming over the lawn from a low point, making these great shadows that are really fun. It seems the trick is to simplify the trees, just making them into shapes.

Art in the Park at America’s Cup

This was pretty fun, they actually thought to include an artist-focus on a quiet race day last Saturday. They were good to us, gave us coffee in the morning, lunch at noon, some cool schwag, and a show at the end of the day. ArtSpan was a partial sponsor, and documented the day http://www.flickr.com/photos/artspan/sets/72157635362810297/

Here’s my second 2-hour oil sketch from the day — the water needs work, but I like the colors. It’s an impossible view of the Bay Area, with Mt Tam in the background just for fun!

This was a beautiful black boat, moored next to what was reputed to be Larry Ellison’s floating hotel, not shown…