After a productive summer in Belgium, I began to dream of doing something similar here at my new home in Oceanside. I spent about a month refining the design of my pochade box to reflect the latest changes I have found helpful in the field. I bought a new travel stool and discovered I could carry all my stuff around in my bike bags–and also in the back carrier of my golf cart. Nice!

So in early November I began scouting for locations. The first and most obvious choices were the amazing coral trees planted near the front entrance to our community. I’ve admired them for years. There are three ancient mariners there whose gestural limbs astound. Their silhouettes are highlighted in the afternoon light as the sun goes down. I wanted to try out my chops.

The first painting of the first tree is still in progress iIt may or may not be salvaged). But the second attempt of the middle tree is pictured here. With a few caveats, I’m pretty happy with it.

I’m learning as I go, adapting my palette to the more intensive colors of Southern California. In this case, I broke out into titanium white (I usually use lead white) and cadmium orange (totally new). Also used a whole new-to-me range of purplish tones by mixing ultramarine blue with cadmium red (brought to earth with raw umber). That last combo helped me to describe the tree trunks. (I did go too far in one area but that will be easily remedied when the painting dries a bit more)

My last session was pure bliss. I was able to achieve that gentle, toothy grab from the surfaced glazed medium of my new, sable, oil-laden brush strokes. A dip into my egg yolk emulsion assists in their on-panel integrity while also assuring a quick dry. Soft, sensuous, like the Merovingian in the Matrix II would have said (referring the French language): “It’s like wiping your ass with silk”. Ahhhhh….. the private pleasures of the en-plein-air painter.