We’re in Pasadena, Calif. right now. Yesterday our son and wonderful new daughter-in-law had a huge party to celebrate their marriage in May. It was great to meet Jill’s family and so many of Gavin and Jill’s friends. I love visiting here. It’s so different from our little village–the exotic vegetation, the glamorous people, the traffic, the shops. It feels more like a big theme park than a real place to me. The landscape is spectacular. Right now it’s very dry and fairly warm. The range of earth colors on the mountains and the scrubby shrubs is a nice change from the constant summer green in Vermont. This afternoon Ed and I drove to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains where I spent a couple of hours doing a pastel. I haven’t done a lot of work with pastel but it’s so much more portable than oils and not prohibited on a plane. I was quite pleased with the small piece I finished in one go. Yesterday we went to the Pasadena Museum of California Art and saw a wonderful show of Maynard Dixon’s work–lots of paintings of the West and of Native Americans. What a terrific painter–great draftsman and beautiful handling of paint. His clouds were particularly beautiful. It was fun today to be working with the same kind of landscape and palette.
San Gabriel Afternoon 9 x 12 pastel on paper
