"Artist colony- Balboa Park", 20x16, San Diego painting palette knife painting, Balboa Park street scene

"Artist Colony- Balboa Park", 20x16, oil on wrapped canvas

This painting seemed to be screaming out for a focal point, so today I made a couple subtle changes to the painting- most importantly, I changed the balding guy's shirt color from green to red and softened the tree in the distance. You can compare it with the photo of the painting below to see the changes.

"Artist Colony- Balboa Park", 20x16, oil on wrapped canvas-$550

Can you believe that I started this painting last summer while I was visiting my son in San Diego? I had brought my new Mabef French easel on the plane and I was determined to do some plein air painting while I was in beautiful southern California. So while my hubby visited the space museum, I sat down and started to paint this colorful scene in the little artist's community in Balboa Park.

The place is so colorful that it's hard to explain. Bougainvillea greets you at every corner,and there are colorful umbrellas and potted plants that adorn each of the brightly painted buildings. I chose this scene because I loved the perspective looking up the street (and all the colored umbrellas, of course).

Well, since it was a large canvas, I had promised myself I would go back every day that we were there to continue to paint the scene. (Hmmmmm... guess what didn't happen?)

Anyhow, this painting has been sitting in my closet for months, and truth be known I think I was unable to finish it because I was pretty intimidated by those colored tiles in the sidewalk. I had read that when you are painting even roof tiles and sidewalk tiles that you need to maintain the perspective in the scene. Well, as if it isn't hard enough to figure out how to paint the tiles without overwhelming the viewer, I was pretty intimidated about trying to keep the danged things in perspective as well!

This week, I said, "What the heck. Just do it and get it done with!" So I worked on it a couple nights this week and finally finished it! Yay! I even put my hubby in the scene! (Psst! He's the one with the bald head!) Here's my reference photo:

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