China Camp Village

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on May 3, 2014 at 14:31

Silvana, it's a California State Beach Park. It is an original Chinese fishing village started sometime in the 1800s. There were plenty of shrimp, clams and oysters plus Salmon and Sea Bass in the bay then. No one lives there now and there is no overnight use permitted. Because of the old shacks and boats and a nice beach, it is a favorite for painters and art instructors. I have painted there quite a few times because I live close by. Stu

Comment by Silvana M Albano on May 3, 2014 at 14:14

This is just great Stu! Wow, Day 2? Is it a paint camp or sth of the sort?

Comment by Laura Xu on May 1, 2014 at 16:28

Stu, great!  Thank you for the detailed explanation!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on May 1, 2014 at 15:28

Thanks Laura.  Expanded primary palette is cool and warm of the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue plus white; a primary palette is just one red, one yellow, one blue and one white.   A good example of a commonly used expanded primary palette would be cad yellow light (coolish yellow), cad yellow dark (warm yellow), cad red light (warm red), alizarin crimson (cool red), ultramarine blue (warm blue) and thalo blue (cool blue).   Since it is hard to find a true primary red, yellow and blue in paints, these six colors let you mix everything else without desaturating them (making mud).   When I put plus, it was to indicate some other clors were used, mainly to avoid taking the time to mix them.  When many artists use a primary or expanded primary palette, they usually take the time before starting to paint to mix their secondary colors (orange, green and violet), mainly to use in desaturating their primary colors (primary + complementary seconday makes gray).  Good discussions of this are in Wet Canvas and also a discussion of different palettes on the Gamblin website.   Stu

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on May 1, 2014 at 14:55

Ann, thanks; this one was the most fun to do.  I love painting with grays and making color pop.  They don't serve any food in these shacks.  China Camp is a state beach park and has a bunch of old fishing boats  and shacks from when it was an actual Chinese immigrant fishing village.  I am sure they used to serve food, but now it is just a historical park with rangers lecturing, etc.  It is a favorite of local artists teaching workshops.   Also, if you are on Richard's list for next year, take his workshop; I give him an "A+" for his incredible organization of the course and his easel to easel teaching ability.  It was really a good workshop.   Stu

Comment by Ann Turner on May 1, 2014 at 14:46

This is my favorite also of the paintings. You are a wizard at doing grey on grey buildings with just a touch of clean color to pop. Did you eat here ? How was the food ? I beat it is fresh

Comment by Laura Xu on May 1, 2014 at 4:26

Stu, This is nice one! How you can write so well in Canvas? Just curious, what is expanded primary plus?