Mission Accomplished

There's a lot that is good about painting at Mission San Gabriel. There is the color and texture of old stucco. There are wonderful plants. There is rich local history to ponder as you paint. But here's a curious benefit -- blog hits. Far and away the majority of my blog hits arise from google or bing searches for San Gabriel Mission. Most probably they come from fourth grade children and their parents doing research about California Missions. But in the quest for attention, we'll take whatever we can get. This particular view is of the rebuilt Mission kitchen. I chose the view because of the shadows.

There was a huge group of children at the Mission today, studying not history but photography. I listened to their teacher give them some good hints - that there's some difference between what is nice to look at, and what makes a good photograph. Don't be so discriminating that you end up with no photographs, but don't use your whole disposable camera allotment until you've seen what else there is to photograph. The teacher eventually drew the children's attention to the plein air painter. Apparently the children will be doing plein air painting themselves next week. They have already learned about watercolor. Seems like a wonderful learning experience. I did most of my painting, from start to nearly finish with an audience of nine-year-olds. I and my painting were the subject of many student photographs. I asked to take a picture of them too.

I forgot to bring a pencil with me, so I had to do the painting without a drawing, but I wasn't about to disappoint my crew of photographers, and I think I did all right. The kids said I'm a good artist.

I also saw this flower there. There was a whole tree full of them. I think it's a Brazilian orchid tree.