June as a month of mini gouaches

June was the month of 30x30directwatercolor challenge which was hosted this year by Marc Holmes (who created this challenge a couple of years ago) and Uma Kelkar. A whole bunch of people worked through 30 days of June without using lines with the watercolors (visit the FB page!), and I did the same with gouache.

You can view all of these here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/albums/72157709417718421

Things that were helpful:
1. Having a mini gouache kit (se photo below) ready in my pocket most of the time so that even 5 minutes while running errands might give me a change to make a tiny sketch.
2. Not having either pencil or pen in that kit to avoid temptation.
3. Separating painting these little gouaches from all other stuff (after a few days the idea of doing something else in my sketchbook was too inviting)
4. Organizing some time to paint something in a completely different technique or with different materials.
5. Setting my expectations low enough so that even a couple of strawberries would work as a subjects or a very fast and wet in wet sketch of the flowers would still count. Ultra small size paintings (1.5" x 1" literally). Some days are like that and I have to be OK with it in order to survive.

Things I wish I did differently:
1. I think having more people and pets as subjects would be a lot of fun.
2. I think I would enjoy working on larger pieces next time.
3. I think next year I will try and do it with watercolors actually. Gouache allows for corrections through it's opaque nature and it took some edge of the challenge for me.

See how I did this challenge last year:
https://blog.apple-pine.com/2018/07/30x30-direct-watercolor-challenge-at.html
https://blog.apple-pine.com/search?q=30+mini+gouaches

here is my very portable gouache kit:

Why palm trees get a haircut?

I love unkempt palm trees and never understood why people insist on this intrusion into the life of a tree. Recently I found out that the reason is that rats and raccoons live in those crazy trees and I loved it. Though now I think twice before I park myself to sketch under one of them :)

I saw a group of people singing while trimming palm trees once. They were working in harnesses, using large machete knives and were laughing and keeping the rhythm of the song with their work. I hope all of the palm trees are getting a haircut with songs and laughter.

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A post shared by Nina Khashchina (@ninaapplepine) on May 6, 2019 at 9:29am PDT

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Baylands Park, Sunnyvale, California

I've finished my 100 views in June but with all the traveling stopped posting. Since then I found that many of the mini paintings I would like to re-paint or add/adjust - so this is a new stage of the project - and I will continue sharing it as it nears the conclusion of gathering all the images in one place.
This is a wonderfully spacious Baylands Park in Sunnyvale - place for runners, birdwatchers and people who enjoy looking at the hills at all seasons.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Cupertino, California

I like the top two way better than the bottom two paintings and might go there again to paint other views of Cupertino. After that painting session I started carrying earplugs - too many cars rushing by!

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Downtown San Jose State - University Campus and Art Museum

San Jose is a lovely city - constantly changing and evolving - at least that's how I feel. Every time I visit it I am a little lost and frustrated about something not being "as it was last time" but by the end of the visit there is usually something new I love. This time I was painting with Suhita and we saw that city was flooded with scooters to ease traffic in the downtown and people were really having fun riding them :)

100 Views of Silicon Valley: San Jose / Mustard Fields

Mustard Fields in spring are all over the valley and San Jose has an amazing contrast of the urban and developing landscaped with these bright yellow flowers all over the place!

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Altos and San Francisco

Top: Chamber os Commerce, Los Altos.
I've learned about this super cool corner of Los Altos through instagram's comments and went to paint it as soon as I could - it's a really neat park tucked between two roads and a standalone mostly-glass building looks very cozy between large trees.

Bottom: San Francisco.
I did not paint enough of San Francisco for this project - but I will! This is a very colorful part close to the Bernal Heights Library.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Redwood City

Redwood City has a sign at its entrance "climate best by government test" - and I just had to paint that as it was one of the first things I saw when I visited the city for the first time.
Downtown is filled with people at all times of the year and I loved painting it in early spring as I was able to see more of the buildings against the signature color of the sky in California. 
  

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Gatos

This is probably the South-most part of the Silicon Valley I painted. I love Los Gatos - with the mountains always in the picture and lovely streets lined with crooked trees and amazing colors of houses!

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Apple Park Visitor Center

I wanted to paint Apple Park for quite some time, looked into different options of approaching the building and even tried to talk security into letting me in so that I can have a good view at the new Apple Inc. headquarters a famous spaceship building from up close. But it did not work :) They were very nice though and pointed that there is a great view from the top of the visitor center - which is where I ended up.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Mountain View Public Library and Little Free Library in Palo Alto.

I painted Mountain View Public Library and one of the "take a book - leave a book" - little free library houses that sprung in the valley during the last few years. It's a great system for book exchange - supported by neighborhoods and you can learn a lot about the people who live next to it if you look closely :)

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Altos

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Stanford University and Downtown Mountain View

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Baylands / Shoreline Park

The Baylands Nature Preserve and adjucent to it Shoreline Park are an amazing part of Silicon Valley and home to many birds, amphibians, mammals (some of those are running, biking, flying kites and kayaking on she lake).

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Mountain View - Google

Google occupies a wide range of different buildings in Mountain View and around the area but they all have some things in common: colorful umbrellas, chairs, and google bikes. And googlers everywhere :) Soon there will be a whole set of specifically google buildings - I sketched the construction site at the beginning of this project. Based on what's in the proposal it will be a grand building - but I am sure my way of recognizing a place by a bright set of yellow, red, blue and green will work there too :)


Here is a couple of process shots:

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Los Altos

I've been in love with some streets lined with blooming trees in Los Altos for a while now. But when I tried to find a good angle to draw I saw that the best view is from the car actually - while driving. So I ended up setting my little stool on the divider and painted top two paintings very quickly - while cars zoomed by loudly. And the bottom two are Los Altos Libary and a historical oak tree behind it.

100 Views of Silicon Valley: Palo Alto

Top two images are of the Stanford construction next to the Bol Park. And the bottom two images are a quick glance at the Cubberley Community Center.