Finally, I got out to paint!!!!

"Balboa Island reflections" 6x8 plein air pastel.

"Back bay evening vista" 6x18 plein air pastel.

Whew, I really was rusty, but it felt soooo good to get out to paint, after two week of not plain air painting. My friend Terry d Chacon, and I drove down to the Laguna Beach area yesterday for a day of painting. This time we decided to check out Balboa Island. We got there around 11 am, and walked around the quint streets and alleys, and looked at all of the beautiful harbor vistas, and fabulous homes looking over the harbor area. We couldn't seem to find anything we were interested in painting, so we went to have a lunch and see if the afternoon light would be a little different. Since both of us seemed a little rusty, and the day was somewhat hot humid and still, which added to our difficulty picking a painting spot. So after a great lunch, we decided to just pick any spot with reflections in the water. We walked along the canal areas in Balboa, and found a little spot with shade, and painted the refection's along the canal, thus the "Balboa Island reflections".

After finishing this small painting, we drove to Irvine, to pick up some frames, Terry had ordered at "Frame and Art" , and decided to head to the Newport Back Bay area, for a late evening painting. There were beautiful clouds overhead, but the sun was out and when we drove up to our favorite spot to paint across from the big white banks across from the water, the sunlight was just right on the ridges in the back bay. We set up our gear and started, to paint, as soon as we had started to paint, the sun, went behind a cloud, and did not come out again. We however proceeded to paint, and I had a great painting started, when all of a sudden, "raindrops"!! Not something a pastel artists can deal with, but I backed into the back of the car, and set up my umbrella, and soon the rain stopped and we were able to finish our paintings. The sunset was gorgeous, and and we both felt like we got the "painting rusties out" Wow, what a relief...