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| California Coreopsis © Marian Fortunati 14" x 11" Oil On RayMar Canvas Panel Click on the link above for more information and how to purchase this painting. |
Plein Air
One of the things I love about painting with David Gallup is that he has been taking his class to places I've never painted before. I always love painting outdoors and exploring new places. Monday's class met at Point Dume on the coast just below Oxnard. It was a fabulous day. There were many beautiful scenes to paint but I had gone with the intent to paint the coreopsis in bloom. David sends out a newsletter and his painting of a coreopsis plant in the header just captured my heart. I wanted to see if I could paint coreopsis too. Although I have painted among the coreopsis before, I hadn't attempted to paint an actual plant before. Monday was my day.
David reminded all of us about planning out our painting ahead of time to help delight the viewer. The quote of the day to remember was, "Paint the inspiration of the thing... Don't paint the thing." ... or something along those lines. I may have to hear it for another 50 times before it sticks in my poor brain. He came over many times and reminded me not to repeat my shapes or to place them too evenly. He talked about unifying the darks so that they carry the viewer through the painting..... even if the darks weren't actually part of the "thing".
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The day was gorgeous and we were able to see a HUGE pod of dolphins traveling north along the coastline. They were about 1/2 mile out, so you couldn't see the individual animals, but you saw the path they left and tiny little spots of spray as they jumped and played at the head of the pod.
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My only complaint was that the glare was so bright that I felt like I was going blind. It was too breezy to really use an umbrella correctly, so I was trying to use my knees to hold it over my shoulder and behind me while I painted so it would shade my palette and the canvas. However, each time I looked up and out the brilliant sun and vibrant colors just about blinded me. No matter... I still had a terrific time. I had decided to paint on a 14"x11" canvas, so the other artists who were doing smaller work managed to do more than one. I was happy with one. I may use some of the reference photos I took to try to capture some of the other beauty of the place. David painted the light hitting a jumble of rocks and one of the other painters' dog.
Coreopsis gigantea (Giant Coreopsis)
This species of coreopsis is a woody perennial plant native to California and Baja California. The stem is a trunk 1-2 m tall, 4-10 cm diameter. Bright green leaves and flowers are on the top of the trunk, the rest of the trunk is bare. The flowers are yellow, daisy-like, 6-20 cm. It is summer deciduous, leaving a bare trunk in summer.
It is distributed on the South California central coast, north and central Southern California coast, the California Channel Islands, and further south.
I had an absolutely glorious day out painting coreopsis on the coast of Southern California near Point Magu. I absolutely love these strange-looking plants which have a short blooming period but which burst out in glorious color and light up the coast. Some of my happiest days out plein air painting have been when the coreopsis is in bloom.
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