Sketches from my garden

On days when I can't get out into the desert, I do plein-air painting in my backyard garden. I've planted it with over 80 different species of native Sonoran Desert plants over the years.

These are all quick one hour sketches done with casein on paper.

My small pond has native aquatic grasses and sedges as well as topminnows and leopard frogs. 

I have several species of the Palo Verde tree. This is the Palo Brea.

 

I painted Archangel Michael on the garden wall to protect all within.

 

Its beautiful to see the leaves change. Here is a winter study.

 

Sketches from Tumamoc 2014

I've been going up to Tumamoc Hill regularly to make quick on-location paint sketches. Here are a few painted in 2014. All are painted with Casein on 5" x 7" Strathmore paper.

Tumamoc sketch

A plein-air painting on Tumamoc Hill from mid December 2014. I've been painting in casein on most of my quick sketches, but this one is acrylic on 9" x 12" paper. It took a little over an hour.