The wife and I had an opportunity to tack on a few days after a conference she was attending down in San Diego. I painted around the area, trying to get my plein air chops on as I hadn’t gotten out all winter.
I hit the waterfront, Balboa Park and did my best to avoid freezing even though the sun was warm. Ideally painting outdoors is best if you can find shade. With the wind and still cooler temperatures it gets a little cold. Luckily I packed my heavier fleece jacket.
After the four day conference, I’d finally got my ‘sea-legs’ about me and felt like I was getting a few things right. 
I was even lucky enough to make it up to La Jolla, which I’d never experienced before. A short Uber ride over and it was be swaths of beachfront. Gorgeous weather and great color. The tourists were out in full force too but they generally kept to themselves. I hadn’t realized it was Spring Break and that’s why there were young ladies braving them beaches in their swimwear. Oh, lordy! Further on down the beach were these covered huts which made for perfect painting places. Unfortunately they smelled like piss. The things we have to endure, right?
Marine wildlife was abound. Seals and tourists alike, flopping around in the sand, catching waves and trying to avoid the dive-bombing cormorants. 
Awful birds really. They’re loud and have a tendency to foul up the place…much like the tourists. Go figure. Some of the cooler aspects of the light was painting into the sun made the water appear deep rich Prussian Blue. The light sparkled on the waves and the angle of reflection made it a little hard to determine color as the light was just bouncing straight into my eyeballs. I realized this and would turn my palette and head away to lock down the color. It helped some but I still struggled a little bit for various reasons.
Once the conference was done we headed to Laguna Beach and then further on to Topanga Canyon just north of L.A. It was a great relaxing time with fun hikes, good food and a chance
to see friends we hadn’t seen in awhile. Really can’t wait to go back. So-Cal just felt friendly and chill overall. Just what we both needed to get out of the Pacific Northwest chill.
So, if you see any studies you like, hit me up. Most are about $200 for 5″ x 7″ and a little more for larger ones. I updated my Landscape Section of the site so check it out and let me know what looks good to you. Until next time…happy painting!
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September is upon on us like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Where’d the summer go? Well I’ll say this, it’s the only time I remember that we had rain every other week or so in the last 20+ years of living in the Pacific Northwest. Last night, it culminated into one of the first thunder and lightning storms I’ve experienced out here. It was great!
All 5-issues of the 2017 BRAUN, my sci-fi series, is now available on GUMROAD. I’ve decided it’s a heck of a lot easier to upload and sell things through them than my own site. Also, while Comixology has a great reader system people still prefer reading .PDFs on whatever device they choose, so by all means, I want to make sure people have the options they care about most.
