Balboa

9"X12" Watercolour on paper

This has been a rather unproductive week so I am going back to the archives.

A few years ago I attended a conference in San Diego and was able to sneak off for an afternoon to visit the lovely Balboa Park. It is a truly wonderful place, full of museums, galleries. conservatories and of course the famous San Diego Zoo (which I missed). I took lots of photographs and painted this on my return.

Sometimes when I am suffering from artists block I set myself a task of painting something that I think will be very hard. I then approach it like a military campaign, making careful plans and detailed studies. This was one of those. I was never entirely satisfied with it but there were parts that I enjoyed a great deal. The tunnel under the arches with it's various shades of grey gave me a lot of satisfaction, the sky and some of the molding above the arch became so overworked that they were unrecoverable. Still, for all that, every time I look at it I remember a very enjoyable afternoon.