Painting Catalina Island - the final day

"Buena vista morning" 6x12 plein air pastel.

"Buena vista morning view" 9x12 plein air pastel.

Me, Louise and Terry on our way to another painting location.

On the last day, we all woke up to another beautiful day, and were tired, but sad to have the wonderful thee days coming to and end. As usual, there was a few clouds/fog, but as usual, we knew it would be burning off soon. On this day we headed up to Buena vista point, to paint the vistas and I wanted to paint the beautiful eucalyptus trees that are up there. We got a taxi to take us up there, and all started to look for a painting location. My first painting was, looking past one of the large eucalyptus trees, down at "lovers point" and the bay around it. The fog hung around for most of the painting, but all of a sudden the whole are was bathed in sunlight. After finishing the first painting, I walked over into the eucalyptus grove and was drawn to the light shinning on parts of the big mature trees in the grove. I decided to focus only on the lower portions of the three trees. The light was shinning through and casting light beams throughout the grove. We then needed to call the taxi and head on down for a great late lunch, and head for the boat back to Long Beach. All good things must come to an end, but I will be back, I love painting on this beautiful little island.

Day two, painting Avalon

On our second day of painting, we were joined by our friend and fellow PAAR member, Ghislaine Gargano and her friend Robin. They came for the day to join in on the fun of painting this beautiful Island. Above are (L-R) Me, Ghislain and Terry, in the background is the Avalon harbor. Such a beautiful view and again, a gorgeous day.

" Avalon Bell tower" 7x12 plein air pastel. This was the first painting of the morning, and the light was shinning brightly on the front of this colorful old bell tower overlooking the the town of Avalon.

"Via Casino beach vista" 9x12 plein air pastel.

"Sailboat afternoon reflections" 6x12 plein air pastel.

"Lonely seagull" 6x8 plein air pastel.

In the morning we decided to get a taxi and ride up to the overlook by the bell tower to paint the vistas from that viewpoint. We had never been up here, and it was fun to see the town and views of the casino from a whole different angle. As noted above, we had been joined by our friend Ghislaine and her friend Robin, so it was a fun morning of new experiences and vistas. I decided to first paint the colorful bell Tower, as it is such a classic fixture in this town. I also painted a view from up there of the Casino, but I do not like that painting as well, so have not posted it.

In the afternoon, we went down to town, had a great Mexican lunch with margaritas, and then headed out to the beach areas to paint the people sunbathing. I attempted to paint both the archway to the casino and the beach area, as it is a classic view in this town. While I was painting, I noted that fellow painter Joan Coffey had sat down on by the beach to also sketch the people and I could not resist putting her in my painting. Can you find Joan in the painting of my Via casino beach? If so, let me know!!!

We ended the day by painting reflections in the water from the boats. I also could not resist, painting the seagull that landed on the rock in front of me. Another day at the office!! I do love my job.

Final day painting Avalon

The night painting was done Wednesday night after painting up on the hill overlooking the bay. I truly enjoyed the night painting here as the lights on the water and everywhere seemed to shine and glisten. This view was from the beach looking at the Busy Bee restaurant. The last day we painted a view on the other side of the Casino in the morning, and in the afternoon before packing up, I painted this view of the pier from a nice umbrella on the beach. I enjoyed painting the pier on this long paper, (6x18) as it seems to go with this scene. We had a late lunch and then after packing up, we were off to the dock to board the Catalina Express back home. A wonderful time with great artists friends, and a nice time painting, painting, and more painting. I look forward to next year. Truly inspiring.

Day two in Catalina

On the second day of our Catalina painting trip, we got up early had breakfast, and headed out to paint. We went down the walkway along the beach towards the casino, and pass the Yacht Club, I turned around and started painting the atmospheric view with the Yacht Club in the view. Shortly after I started painting, the clouds started to lift, and the blue ski started peaking through at the top of the hills. It was quite magical, and I hope I achieved it. It was now about 11 am, so we stoped by the local Vons and picked up deli sandwiches and came down to get a taxi to take us up to the vista point, overlooking Avalon, on Mt. Ada. When we got there I noticed a nice park like area, we could walk into with views of Avalon on one side and another bay on the other side. Also up in this area was a large grove of Eucalyptus trees of various types and ages. It was such a beautiful location, I had a hard time deciding what to paint. I finally settled on the view of the Casino looking through a grouping of Eucalyptus trees. When I finished, I went to check on what Terry and Joan had done, and found that Terry was finished with her lovely painting of Avalon bay, and Joan was finishing her painting. I turned around and did a quick painting of one of the trees in view from where I was standing. I do want to come back and paint this location, and we all decided it will be more beautiful even later in the afternoon. That evening we painted night scenes again.