I have been working on my landscapes and rain paintings since 2019, including a lot of thinking about how to represent rain and the feeling of wetness, and taking tons of photos around me. I spent months taking outdoor photos of landscapes of Palo Alto, as I went for daily walks, or on trails, or on a short ride to the Duck Pond and the Palo Alto Baylands.

I love monotypes. I recently took a printmaking Monotype refresher workshop (on October 27th) at the Paula Kirkeby Press with Susanne Smith at the Palo Alto Art Center. I took a shot at the bay landscapes of Palo Alto and my focus was on getting the feel of the ocean and the light right. Here are two of the efforts (I made two more, but have not photographed it yet). I think the prints brought out the sense of the place pretty well in terms of the ocean wind, water and light.

With these monotypes I am depicting the Palo Alto Baylands Nature preserve along the cold, windy Bay water of the Pacific Ocean, with a view of the East Bay hills in the distance. If these were photographs, then at the photographer’s back would be the Duck Pond, which is my next subject for a monotype.

Image on top:
Mitun, The bay shore on a windy day at the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, Oil-based printmaking ink on Rives paper, sheet 22.5″x15″, Oct-27-2021.