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| Alameda Plein Air Paint Out 2021 - my 3rd time here |
Joined the 16th Annual - Alameda Plein Air Paint Out Event from August 2 to 7. It was my third time joining the Plein Air event since 2018. Didn't apply in 2020 as Coivid-19 changed the world.
August 1 in the evening, I moved into my host lady Ros' house on Bay farm island. I was so welcome by her, her dog Sparky and three of her bunnies. Not a good first night's sleep, might be the airplanes over head or the new place. Met many artist friends while we checked into the event the next morning.
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| Ross' friendly dog Sparky |
Always started my first painting at Grand Marina, actually I painted at Fortman Marina at the Alameda Yacht Club. It was a gorgeous morning, met the Club manager Mark. He showed me the watercolor
paintings his grandmother and his mother did in his office and told me that he was an artist too. People were passing by and gave me some compliments. I remembered to give them the flyers inviting them to see our Plein Air exhibition.
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| "Morning at the Alameda yacht club" showing at the Frank Bette Art Center |
Afternoon I continued to paint at the Grand Marina Boatyard. Met the shop owner Mike, just because I painted and blocked his door. Felt a little tired. There was an interesting divider next the boats I was working on. In the end, I wasn't able to complete my work, the workers removed the divider. So I decided to cut my painting from 14"x11" to 10"x8".
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| Can you see the reflection of me waiting for the painting to dry? |
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| "Working at the Boatyard" showing at the Frank Bette Art Center |
On the way back to my host lady's house, checked out a location that Ros told me about and saw the beautiful sunset. Met another artist at the Ros', her name was Sarah Lam, her husband is Chinese, they live near Davis.
Next morning we decided to check out the lagoon and houses on Bay Farm Island. It was gray and chilly, we painted nearby each other, sun came out later.
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| "Living on the Lagoon" painting with Sarah out on Bay Farm Island |
Searching for restroom and saw three artists painting in from of Aeolian Yacht Club. Lucky that I got to use the restroom there. Because of Coivid-19, many public restrooms were closed.
Afternoon painted at the Alameda Community Garden. Sunflowers were my subject. Met a couple of local people, kept passing the flowers for invitation. Photographer Charli called me and took a couple of photos of me (The first image I use) and my work. Later, I found a little red charming house and painted nearby. Three 8"x10" small works completed on the second day.
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| "a charming Alameda House" showing at the Frank Bette Art Center |
The third day morning was gray again, I started by using the Art Center's restroom. Then drove to the Marina Village, saw two other artists were painting there. By chance I got on to a pontoon deck, and set up my station to paint there. I had no idea how unstable it was. Wind and each person passing by, even thirty or fifty feet away from me, I could feet the shaking. And there was the tide of the each hour made the deck moving almost thirty degrees. I was super worried that my work station could fall into the water. There was a cute cat was meowing to me, I thought that she would love to be pet, but actually I had blocked her regular way of jumping from one house to the other. Could not loose up to paint because of the unstableness, but fortunately I don't get seasick.
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| "Boat House at Marina Village" |
After checking in at Park St. for the "Quick Draw" preparation next day, met two artists near the
Dan's Farmers Market. It was quickly getting windy, but did another loosen up painting. Got a lot compliment by the people passing by. Several Ethiopian guys chatted with me, and I had a photo with them.
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| "Dan's Farmers Market" - Sold! |
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| Fans posing with me. |
Day four started out gray. Thought to paint a barn, but I changed my mind to paint at the Marina Village again. But everything looked so dull without sunshine on it. I had no idea what this building for, but it was very interesting to draw and paint. I didn't manage my time well, had to leave it unfinish to drive back for the lunch together, and for our quick draw stamps in the afternoon.
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| Old industrial building - interesting. |
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| Old industrial building - result. |
I drove my car to the Park St garage after my watercolor paper been stamped, then realized that I did not know what I should paint. Had to drive around one more time to make sure where I painted. I set up my station in front of La Panca Azul restaurant to paint Town Tavern restaurant as a background. My roommate Sarah Lam painted in front of the Town Tavern. There was no sunlight again. I guessed that the light would come from my right side. Later sun came out and proved that I was totally wrong. Well, there was so little I could corrected in watercolor after 80% was done. Another lesson to learn.
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View of my quick draw reference subject
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Our "Quick Draw" exhibition was awesome. I had learned so much from other artists. Especially, Barbara Tapp, Marti Walker and Durre Waseem gave me great feedback.
Drove home for framing my paintings, saw the big yellow sign "Stop Asian Hates". Thought most people were friendly and welcoming in Alameda. Though, there were increasing cases in California had made us Asians worried so much....
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| Stop Asian Hate |
Four days I did 4x 10"x8", including "Quick Draw", 5 x 14"x11", including one unfinished, and one cut down to the 10"x8".
Friday I signed and framed my paintings. Saturday early morning, my husband and I brought my framed work to the South Shore Center. Many artists had hung their work already around nine o'clock. Photographer Charlie and my husband helped me to handle all the work.
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| Me at my booth |
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| Another Angle |
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| Back Wall of my booth |
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| Another Angle of the booth |
There was a young lady with her daughter passing by my booth many times and asked for a photo to share my painting with her husband. Later on she bought the painting I did in front of the Dan's Farmers Market. I was thrill that work was collected to a new home. She told me that she had collected several local artists' Plein Air work near by.
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| Happy collector purchased my painting |
Richie Vios, Philippe Gandiol, Marti Walker, three of the artists did wonderful watercolor, oil and pastel demos during out show. Of course awards only went to a few artists. Congratulated those who won prizes, they were the juries' personal chooses. Many great works didn't get the awards. But it was great to see Paul Kratter visiting us and our work. Got precious feedback from him. Wish all the juries could give us feedback as generous as he did. I remember that Paul was the judge at the Capitola Plein Air Event. After giving away the awards, he went to talk to each artists, gave his professional advice. It was a huge benefit to each artist, don't you think so?
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| Richie Vios's watercolor demo |
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| Philippe Gandiol's oil painting demo |
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| Marti Walker's pastel demo |
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| Paul Kratter was visiting us. Got great feedback from him! |
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| with award winner Durre Waseem |
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| With more artist friends |
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| Three happy award winner Barbara Tapp is in the middle |
All the effort to artists made, family, volunteers and community supported for Frank Bette Center of Art organization, we together were able to successfully to host the event. Because of Corvid-19, I didn't invite any friends, but my paintings were viewed by many visitors at the location, feeling grateful!
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| Me at my booth |
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| Another booth picture |
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| Someone surveying the artwork |
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| More art admirers at the booth |
