Painting Laguna Beach 2009

Painting Laguna Beach. My fellow painter Pat Ford and I arrived around 9:30 in the morning at Heisler Park. A very well know park adjacent to the beautiful beaches around Laguna. We unfortunately got to talking on the drive down and I turned off too quickly so it took us a little longer to get there than what we had anticipated. The big problem with painting in Laguna is the darn parking meters. $2.00 an hour to park which can really add up by the end of the day. Luckily both Pat and I had robbed our quarter banks the night before and had plenty of quarters for the day. We walked around the park and low and behold they had a painting class going on in our spot, so we had to find an alternative. This particular spot overlooks a nice bluff and beach below, the other spot is looking in the same direction but there is this beautiful bougainvillea that is rich in color and really adds to the painting. I will go back and paint that scene next time. I chose the scene I painted as I liked the deep rich shadows on the bluff and the distant mountains that surround the ocean and make up Laguna Beach.

"Morning at Laguna"

After painting a couple hours in the morning we packed up our gear and headed to the Laguna Art's Festival. Festival of Arts - Pageant of the Masters Home The OFFICIAL Place To Purchase Pageant of the Masters Tickets Be sure to go to this website and see all the festivities going on.

We had a wonderful lunch with Margarita's and looked through both the Art Affair and the Festival of Arts. The Art Affair is for any artist and the Festival of Arts is for only Laguna Beach resident artists. Both have some really beautiful art and a must see for anyone in the area. The festival is up until August 31. One treat we had while visiting the Festival of Arts was we ran into Michael Obermeyer who is one of the artist displaying some of his lovely plein air works. As always he was very gracious and talked with us about art and Laguna. Michael is in one of my previous blog posts. He came and gave a workshop for PAAR this past spring. He is such a delight and a wonderful plein air artist.

We then headed back to the beach for a late afternoon painting.
I loved this scene once we found it. The beautiful bluff and the sun was starting to go down behind it so it made for a beautiful back lit scene. When I started the painting there were a few beach loungers on the beach below, but by the time I ended they had gone away. I would have loved to have put some of them in. Oh well, maybe next time. The water was so bright at this time that my eyes were watering trying to paint the scene. I was quite surprised this morning when I got my painting out to take a look that I had really captured the glisten on the water, even though I was painting through teary eyes. It was around 7 pm when we finished up. Still a bit early to head back home because of the traffic so we went out for a wonderful Italian dinner, talked about the wonderful day we had experienced and then headed home.

I hope you have enjoyed my painting day in Laguna and are enjoying the paintings. All paintings are for sale either through me or in an upcoming exhibit. Giclee prints and note cards are also available. They make wonderful presents.

Please share my blog with your friends and family.

Until next time, ENJOY THE ART! Terry d. Chacon

Gail Wright-

"Terry, I just got your blog. I had your pictures from today up on my computer screen. I walked away and back, they looked magical, just really mesmerizing. These are beautiful."

Lee Ann Smith-Trafzer-

"I can't believe how your plein aire has progressed, Terry. These are just beautiful! And a style all your own! Bravo!"