Yosemite - part three - plein air

Yosemite is one of the most inspiring places to be, and I just love doing lots of art in my little travel journal while there. Here's a little sampling of this year's sketchings.

This year we attended one of the free art classes that are offered in the valley. This time it was a watercolor class (last time we did a class we did drawing). The instructor had us paint over by the Ahwahnee Hotel. Here's my little rendition. It's always interesting to get critiques, and the instructor gave one for my painting.

Some things I agreed with, some not ;) But since I don't paint a whole lot of landscapes I think it was pretty helpful.


This was painted from our camp looking at the little cliff below North Dome.

Yes, I do have a tendency to use "pure" colors. Maybe it's the palette I bring on vacation.


Or more likely, it's just my style. I can't seem to paint a landscape to exactly match it's subject. The instructor wanted us to use "fun" colors. And I did just that, maybe just a bit too much.

Here's Half Dome from the bridge near the campgrounds. It's a long tradition of ours to paint Half Dome at sunset. I'm not sure if I improve each time, or not.


Here's Yosemite Falls from the meadow just across from the falls. Well I actually had to imagine the falls, since they were pretty dry. This one looks a little incomplete because it started raining. We had to quickly pack up and ride our bikes to shelter. It was very beautiful!


Another quick pen drawing of Yosemite Falls.


Here's another view of Yosemite Falls as seen lounging on the river by the Swinging Bridge.


And my last painting. Yet another view of the famous Falls from the river right by our camp in North Pines. I've also done many paintings of this view, because we've camped many times in North Pines.

So what do you think? Is my landscape style just a little too colorful? Should I cut back on my vibrant colors? Do you have a favorite? I'd love to hear!