| Path To The Beach © Marian Fortunati 16" x 12" Oil on Wood Panel |
On Monday a few weeks back I drove to Carpenteria Bluffs. It's pretty far away but that was where David Gallup's Advanced Painting Class was meeting. The class meets outside when the weather is nice and in his studio when it's not. Most of his students are driving south from Santa Barbara and beyond. I drove north. I love this class because I so enjoy trying to learn what David generously shares with us AND when we're in the studio, I'm fascinated by seeing the progress on his various paintings and hearing the stories about his Channel Island adventures.
I had never been to Carpenteria Bluffs. I arrived there ahead of David, so I explored well into the area and ended up on the other side of the train tracks and down a path that led to the beach. I took one look and decided that I didn't care if everyone else was somewhere else... THIS is where I wanted to paint. As it turned out David had to go back and forth quite a bit to work with us, but that was fine with me. He did get a workout but I liked my spot and I was having a great time on this beautiful day.
David would come and sit on the bluff above me looking down. I tend to work from the top down and he often has reminded me that I should cover the support with paint so that I can better compare values and color. I had chosen a 16" x 12" toned and gessoed board rather than canvas or linen because sometimes it's fun to work on a different support. Gessoed boards show more brushwork, it seems. At first I felt my mountains were too dark,
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| David's view of my painting spot on the path |
As I left, David walked me to the car and took a last look at my semi-finished painting. (I hadn't yet added in the branches for the tree, but I wanted to do that when the paint was a bit dryer.)
He was satisfied and so was I! YAY.
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