MIRROR LAKE AT CHRISTMAS 

Mirror Lake Yosemite 

This is my last post for 2012 - I will begin again in January! -- I wanted to share with you a very special place we always visit in December in Yosemite - Mirror Lake! --- We have hiked to this magical place either at Christmas or Easter. - In December we always start our hike from the Ahwahnee Hotel parking lot. Basically if you stand on the red carpet of the entrance and head for the furthest right hand corner of the parking lot you will hit a trail that takes you all along the bottom of the granite cliffs to Mirror Lake. It is quiet in winter,  icy and snowy with plenty of deer! - The reason we always walk from the Ahwahnee is so that we can get some refreshment in the hotel bar after the walk back. The Ahwahnee Hotel is beautiful at Christmas time - decorated with multiple trees and pine cones. A great place to end up after a walk in the snow.... This will take you a couple of hours round trip, so be sure to give yourself enough time to get back before darkness falls. I have supplied another route below if you decide to hike the trail another way.....

Yosemite Valley Winter

Mirror Lake

Yosemite Valley Overlook.

Ahwahnee Hotel

On the Trail

Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake is a small, seasonal lake located on Tenaya Creek in Yosemite National Park. Situated in Tenaya Canyon directly between North Dome and Half Dome, it is the last remnant of a large glacial lake that once filled most of Yosemite Valley at the end of the last Ice Age, and is close to disappearing due to sediment accumulation!

View of Half  Dome from the Lake.

Maple Leaf

END OF THE YEAR...

As we come to the end of 2012 I am finishing up another Moleskin with another              

35 watercolor sketches in. All of the work ends up on this blog. Next year I am hoping to 

get another website up and running - a place where I can hopefully start to sell my work. I 

have enjoyed posting my work on this site. It is truly inspiring to get my Twitter followers 

feedback! - Thanks to you all for being so supportive....

I will be posting one last blog for this year. 

~

The watercolor and ink drawing below is by my 16 year old daughter 

Caroline for the Twitter Art Exhibit. I am proud that we both can take part 

in this wonderful charity exhibition. Caroline will be off to Art College in a

year or so. We have been creating together since she was old enough

to hold a crayon in her tiny hand - may there be many more hours of 

happy creative collaboration to come! - I am truly blessed to be able 

to share the gift of art with my daughter....

Mingo and Frog- By Caroline Millicent
pen and ink with collage

WINTER SILENCE

Dusk Manhattan Beach Pier

A certain kind of quiet always falls over the beach at this time of year - 

especially at Christmas! 

The summer crowds have gone - 

the Seagulls and Sandpipers sit on the sand watching the sunsets. 

We enjoy the silence and light... 

Winter Light

16th Street

9th of December Christmas Fireworks over the Pier

DECEMBER RAIN

Wet Morning 23rd Place

Its been a wet start to December this year - which I don't mind as it always reminds me of home! - The temperatures are mild around 65 degrees - and the rain has been fine and showery - perfect.... This is winter weather in California the kind of weather you'd experience around September or even June in England.We are so lucky - and the sunsets are beautiful by the beach!

Soggy morning

Santa Monica Incline

Valley Floor Autumn Morning

Maple Leaf

THE TWITTER ART EXHIBIT

These are my two submissions for the Twitter art Exhibit

Down Hill to the Beach

Patterns - Ragged Point - Big Sur

Twitter Art Exhibit: Los Angeles

Exhale Unlimited (E.U.) Gallery is proud to present Twitter Art Exhibit: Los Angeles, an international exhibition of original postcard art, benefiting Art Division, a nonprofit program for underserved youth (ages 18 – 25) showing commitment and passion for the visual arts. An opening reception will be held from 7-10 PM on Saturday, January 12, 2013 at E.U. Gallery, in Chinatown’s Arts District.

Twitter Art Exhibit: Los Angeles is the third installment of an open international exhibition of handmade postcard art donated by hundreds of artists from around the globe.

Read more: http://www.finearttips.com/2012/10/twitter-art-exhibit-worldwide-call-for-artists/#ixzz2E90emt6f

PAINTINGS FOR FRIENDS

A couple of paintings  recently commissioned for friends. 

Lake District House

Different View

Downtown Alley

 NOVEMBER NIGHTS

16th Street

Sketching the beach and streets in Manhattan Beach. The light is beautiful at dusk and twilight. 

FALL 
Your body is a keyhole in the night sky. Gold-thinned November dusk, refulgent dogwood, red blushing yellow, It drinks: slow-savouring, deep-slouching autumn - citrine leaves,
red-rust, smeared with charcoal.

~ Luke Cumberland~

Manhattan Beach Pier Sunset

Manhattan Beach Pier Twilight

It is Remembrance Sunday in the UK and Veterans Day on Monday in the USA ~ we will remember....


They shall not grow old, as we that are left:Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningWe shall remember them.

~For The Fallen~ by Laurence Binyon

Manhattan Beach Pier  Dusk

OCTOBER ROAD

October Road

Keep me walking , October road.

Keep me walking in the sunshine, Yeah A little friend of mine October road.

~James Taylor~

And ~ To the Lighthouse

The two sketches below are of the same spot up on Palos Verdes Peninsula ~ I decided to play around with the colors a little and take out some of the detail in the second sketch ~ I am not really sure which is more successful? 

Pointe Vicente - Palos Verdes

sketch

EVENING GLOW

I am trying to capture the Fall light in these paintings. We have been experiencing some very hot temperatures in Los Angeles this past week. I honestly keep forgetting what time of year it is.... I know we are lucky but even my kids long for the cool days of autumn.... The grass is always greener....

The Strand  - Sunday Evening

A quote I recently read on Twitter and really liked.

"The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any consideration"
~Frida Kahlo~

Evening Glow - 15th and Highland

Capistrano Vista

Capistrano Eucalyptus

OCTOBER

Paintings/sketches that have taken from 10 minutes to an hour. 

Big Sur

Autumn Lane

Foothills

Conker

FALL SKETCHING

Maple Leaves

Wawona Covered Bridge Autumn

Our Garden Gate

The light is changing in California. Subtle changes are taking place as we head into Fall.  Cool mornings and the spiders are back - we continually walk into the web above our front gate! The sunsets are becoming pink and mauve with traces of clouds. Pumpkins are arriving in the local markets and slowly all my special Halloween ornaments are coming out of storage! - A favorite time of year for sure..... 

Convict Lake

WAWONA - Sketching in the Sierras

Old cabin in the Forest

Wawona - the place we always stay at in the summer when we go to Yosemite. It is so much quieter than the Valley in August - and Yosemite was particularly busy this year!
The swimming hole below is a special place for my family - we have spent many hours of solitude and fun at this special spot on the Merced! - It truly is a magical place to have a swim especially around 5:30/6pm as the sun starts to dip below the Wawona Dome.
We come and swim here every summer and I never want to leave this particular spot on the river. Many of the rocks still show the grinding holes where the local Indians sat to grind their acorns. You can almost feel their spirits watching.....

                     

Wawona swimming hole

The Merced