Sketchbook

My life lately has been full of physical therapy. I’m working to get back to 100% after a late summer injury. Just this week, I’ve started going on walks … outside and everything! For now, it’s just a loop around my block under my husband’s supervision.

Today, I noticed a neighbor’s rhododendron was blooming. I think of rhododendron blooms as a spring confection so it was a delight to see these second blooms. Early this spring, I was able to spend several days painting in a beautiful private garden in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Their Rhododendrons were in full bloom. So … I pulled out a photo.

When I was up in Lake Tahoe at the beginning of September, I managed a pretty spectacular fall on scree covered granite. The results include scrapes and scratches, 2 ankle fractures, a broken tibia and a sprained wrist. There is good news though:

#1 – This is only temporary and it looks like I won’t need surgery as was originally thought.

#2 – My husband is amazingly helpful and my wrist sprain is on my non-dominant hand.

#3 – I’ve been receiving some stunning flower bouquets and I’m painting them.

The paintings I did on this trip to Lake Tahoe are divided in my mind into two chunks. The paintings I did before I broke my ankle in 2 places (and leg) and those I did after.

The  painting above is an “after” painting. If I had to be stuck on a porch, the one I was on at my friend’s house in South Lake Tahoe was pretty much perfect with shade and a view through a trees of a meadow. The lake is just behind the trees in the distance.

I painted this at the peak of the Silicon Valley morning rush at Vasona Lake and Park. This is such a mellow place 0f reflections and waterfowl, it was impossible to think that I was only a few hundred yards from the bumper to bumper traffic.

I recently had a wonderful and very productive (3 painting) day at Guglielmo Vineyards in Morgan Hill. It’s a place I’ve enjoyed painting before and wonderful to take in the changing light from morning through the end of the day. I’ll be signing and varnishing a small 8″ x 10″ oil painting and putting it in my section of finished oil paintings.  Here I’m sharing the other two.

Dancing Vines:  This 16″ x 20″ is large for me as a pleinair piece. It was very fun to use a big brush and to intentionally create out of my comfort zone.

Vineyard Path:  I started this one late in the day and had to move to complete it in the diminishing light. It’s a 9 x 12 painting.

I’ll need to get back to Guglielmo to paint bare vines this winter. They have some lovely old growth sections with beautiful gnarled grapevines that will be fun to capture after the leaves go. And … their petite sarah is pretty wonderful too!

Though it’s all sunshine in the photo above, it was a misty morning at Santa Cruz Harbor. The sun didn’t make an appearance until I was nearly wrapped up and it was COLD. My solutions were lots of hot coffee and simplifying the scene to a single orange sailboat. I used this as an exercise to closely observe the colors from life as subtlety can be lost photographs. I’m looking forward to another Santa Cruz Harbor paint day soon.

This is the last post for now from our time in Switzerland. We ended our trip in Geneva. I painted this on the bank of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) early in the morning as the light was reaching the Swiss Wheel and the Savoie paddleboat ferry.

When I think of the Alps in Switzerland, I hear cowbells. We enjoyed hiking in several places on our trip, this cow and the scene below is from the top of Wispile … a short gondola trip from Gstaad.

There would be no Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) without the Rhone River. The charming town of Aigle is located on the Rhone close to the lake in the Rhone Valley.

The turrets of Aigle Castle are what stands out architecturally … but … the magic is really in the location. Aigle Castle is surrounded by stunning vineyards. A friend who is originally from Switzerland raves about the wines from this area. Fondant is the local white. Dole is the red.

Some of these vineyards remain connected to the castle. Most, are owned by small local wine producers. Entrances to individual vineyards exhibit unique personalities.  Some entrances can accommodate vehicles while others lead to footpaths. Each differs from the next.

One of the gates provided me with great shade stone steps to sit on. I took advantage of both for the painting I did at the top of this post.

Such a wonderful memory I have of the day. Views, grapes, old stone walls and charming vineyard signs at every turn. And then there was lunch overlooking vineyards and the castle on a stone terrace underneath a grape arbor. It was almost too perfect. Almost.

We were completely charmed by the town of Vevey which is situated on Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). The watercolor above is of the vielle ville (old town) section along Rue du Lac. It’s lovely that the old town section is so close to the lake and I didn’t miss the cardio workout of steep streets that you have in Montreaux and Geneva. The town benefits from being low key while having two ferry docks to venture beyond to other Lac Leman towns.