What is the Beenznrice Art Tour you say? With a fair amount of traveling done last year (well, more than previous years, hopefully it's an ongoing trend), I noticed that we did have much to show for it, art-wise, even photo-wise. I thought, well that's a shame, considering that we are illustrators and that art should be right at the forefront, but truth be told, last year was more about the 9-5 keeping the money flow steady and even, which is fine for a while, but we are ready to reach new heights in our passions and career. We are starting a tour, inspired by music tours, or rock tours, all across the country, where they go and perform, essentially perfecting their craft. I thought, well why can't we have the same mentality? When we travel, honestly, it's usually because there's a boxing match, or a band's playing or we're taking a family trip, etc. I started asking myself, what would happen if we started taking trips (this is not a family trip btw, that is too hectic for what we are trying to do) specifically to create art? The places that we would be traveling to would have been specifically chosen to inspire and have great landscapes, or historical still lifes, etc. An example that's been frustrating me lately is that we take a good amount of trips to Vegas to go see fights (go Pacquiao!) and I've always wanted to visit Calico, the old mining ghostown in Yermo, CA. The bad thing is, whenever we get to that point, we are too tired from partying the weekend before! I want to have sketches of a famed ghost town when we come back and not just a headache from dehydration and sleep deprivation.So this is what we are proposing, and we will be posting our travels and sketches, paintings, photos from them. We will be touring the state of California this year (and hopefully some other states, Vegas will definitely be one of them), with the goal of art and honing our craft in mind. First stop, and actually any weekend we are unable to go very far, it will be local, this weekend, is Camarillo! Because of course, the best place to start is where you are. I've already done some sketches last year at the Adolfo Camarillo Ranch House, and I kind of stopped because of the cold weather and other factors, but I'm starting up again. Here is a sketch I did behind my day job, just another corporate business park on Flynn Rd. Quite a nice pathway though:
And tomorrow, we are going to the Farmer's Market, where I'll be taking reference photos and getting some sketching done. The Camarillo Farmer's Market is probably one of the best ones I've been to; because the farms are all in Camarillo (and some in nearby places like Somis and Oxnard), the produce is so fresh and fairly inexpensive. You can also find some specialty produce like Blood Oranges and Japanese cucumbers, for cheaper than you'd find at the grocery store, and much tastier. It's a great place to sketch and just to visit if you ever get the time.The information for the Camarillo Farmer's Market can be found here: www.camarillohospice.org/farmersmarket.html
More posts of sketches and photos from our first stop on the tour!
Naomi
