California in the Rain

California in the Rain – 9 x 12 – acrylic on canvas on board

It’s coming down in buckets – really big buckets. Which is a good thing for our thirsty land and I’ll just have to put up with the people who don’t know how to drive in it.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog you know how I love our California eucalyptuses, a gift from our friends in Oz. Well, eucalyptuses are absolutely ethereal looking in the rain. Those towering masses seem to slip into the fog and mist revealing their forms in different ways.

This painting was done with just a handful of colors – viridian, yellow, black, white and burnt sienna. Using fewer colors lets me concentrate more on value and composition.

Here’s a good quote I saw today that relates to color:

“One can define the shape of every object in nature by showing the precise color tones of everything that surrounds it. Nature is not to be rendered with the colors one buys from a merchant, but by accurately imitating its color in relation to space and to the light that illuminates it.” Jean Baptiste Chardin.

Comments

1. 

   vivien
   January 5, 2008

   this one is lovely, you’ve got the wet, misty, rainy atmosphere beautifully – I think it’s one of your best

2. 

   Agnes
   January 5, 2008

   I’m so glad you’re getting the rain. Can you hear the ground slurping it up? I’ve never seen a California picture with rain, and yours looks beautifully wet. Your snow pictures also look convincing. That’s quite an achievement considering that you don’t have much opportunity to observe either one.

3. 

   Linda
   January 7, 2008

   Oh, I LOVE this! It’s one of my new favorites… You’ve really captured the feeling of shapes in the rain — some sharp edges and some just fading away. Lovely!