Eagle Beach, Alaska - plein air painting!

Yesterday, a group of plein-air painters sailed to Juneau on a big cruise ship and some of our group bundled them in cars and set off for Eagle Beach.

Their group was lead by artist Larry Seiler and it was part of a bigger organized group doing a painting cruise/tour of the inside passage. Here he is telling some painting secrets before beginning his own painting.

 

The name of the painting tour was the Great Alaskan Plein Air Painting Retreat, 

sponsored by The Painted Ladies, a painting group in Willow, AK.

Eagle Beach thumbnail sketch  2x3 inches, pencil

I probably should have sat and listened while he spoke, but felt just a little awkward since I hadn't even introduced myself yet and there were lots of people around, so I 

headed down onto the beach and found a little scene to paint. 

 

I remembered to begin with a thumbnail!

Here is my scene:

and my set-up and partially done painting:

And I forgot to take a photo when I finished, and here it is finished, but I took photo today:

Eagle River      8x10 inches     oil on archival canvas panel

 Yep, an eagle (a brown young one) flew right over me ... also lots of Canada Geese 

honking away as they flew over the river.

I saw whales spouting and lots of people hiking on the Boyscout Trail 

over there on the other side of the river...a beautiful trail, btw - you should go hike it.

Rainy Day! Plover day!

Plein Rein painters did not go out today, 

although I went to our Saturday meeting place and was totally ready to go! 

I decided not to go by myself. 

It was quite nasty with wind AND rain this morning, but I was ready to go!

 So I painted on this little guy. Inside. Dry and warm.

I have never done anything like this before and it was very interesting challenging.

Looking at the real thing, my paint job is rather stylized, but not simplistic.

It is almost like the transition between the non-breeding to the breeding plumage.

I enjoyed it. Maybe Matt (my husband) will let me paint another bird one day!

Pluvialis squatarola = Black-bellied Plover

Today a lady wrote to Matt and said she wanted to buy a decoy carving! 

She lives in Massachusetts!! 

She found more of his work at WorkingBirdsDecoys and you also can check it out. He will be working on his website - or at least his "associate" 

will be working to develop his website in the near future.

Thanks for viewing this little blog.

K River - 3D (no, not that 3D)

Still sweating and working ... working and sweating ...

not too ladylike, but ... it is what it is ...

Worked a teensy bit on the plover, too.

 Maybe more photos tomorrow. 

It is raining like crazy, hope tomorrow is ok for painting en plein-air!

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

K River - 3C

Yesterday I guess I was having fun ...

today I am working ...

Urrrgh ... painting is hard.

K River - 3B AND notes on another art blogger!

I wasn't able to paint much yesterday, and not very much today 

but I will show you what I have so far.

What the heck, here are photos of my mark-making beginnings

with oil paint (mostly palette knife).

Starting with the mountains and the sky....

There is tons of difference taking the photo when you change the "focus" point. 

Here (the photo above) the camera focused on the fore and mid-ground, 

and you can't really see the sky paint.

This photo shows more sky and a blacker fore-mid ground. Both are interesting.

Just getting going with paint. SO - MUCH - FUN!

Here is an aside that I just have to post today: 

I follow lots of art blogs.

One of them is by woman in England named Sheila Vaughan. Her blog post from yesterday rang my bell so perfectly that I just had to refer you to it. (ya gotta click on that link)

She doesn't write a TON and she has such a fun, exploratory attitude about painting that I am always happy to see what she posts ... uh, yeah I signed up to receive her blog posts ...

She has a short but sweet post for June 10 and one of her points is:

"I love people to see my work and my working process, but I paint primarily for me."

 Ding-ding-ding! That is how I feel as well.

Thank you for viewing my art process ...

and (hopefully) my progress!

K River - 3A ... and progress on the plover

Here you can see the little painting that I will reference to paint the big one 

- I will try not to use the photo.

It takes awhile, getting this all drawn and set on the board.

I'd rather be painting.

 Tomorrow!

I will also be working on the plover. Remember, it is 3D!

Here is a look at what happened to it today:

 left side

right side

It's coming along.

Thanks so much for viewing my art.

Plein Rein at the Juneau Arboretum

Wet Flowers     6x6 inch    Water miscible oils on panel

It was kind of buggy, but not too bad out there.
This was about an hour and a half effort.
Decided to go small today.

The Rhododendron and Peony will be at their peak in a week or two.
Hummingbirds were dashing all around.
One of our group saw a Merganser with her babies.

Plover - day 2

Ok, I haven't put too much paint on yet, but here it is so far.

 Right side

Left side

While painting I have been noticing how beautiful Matt's carving lines are!

I have been studying some of the other decoy painters. (Matt has several books.) 

I am intrigued. 

It will be an adventure to paint this bird!

Oh ... here is the underneath.

and the top ...

Matt's website, Workingbirdsdecoys, while still under construction, will give you a hint of some of the work that he does.

Going out with the Plein Rein painters tomorrow and 

I will report here on how my painting(s) turn out. 

Also, if given permission, will post a few other plein-air painters with their work as well!

Cross your fingers for no rain!

Plover - day 1

Embarking on a new thing. 

On my May 22 post I said I was going to paint one of my husband's decoy carvings.

So I have begun.

This is the beginning...laying in the darks. 

He paints in acrylics and I am painting in oils.

I am going fairly slowly because I don't know what I am doing!!!

I am gessoing the third birch panel for my K River series.

Stay tuned, I really appreciate it!

K River - Storm - fin

Done!  ...  for now ...

Storm at the Divide     23.5 x 23.5 inches   oil on cradled birch panel

Really wanted to capture the magnitude of that storm 

and how the clouds would break and let the light and rain come down. 

 

I have been looking at it too long, so I will put away for awhile. (It went quicker than I figured it would, however.)

 

I am happy the way the b&w with the values turned out.

Thank you so much for viewing my art.

K River - 2B

“You can dance in the storm. 

Don't wait for the rain to be over before because it might take too long. 

You can can do it now. 

Wherever you are, 

 right now, 

you can start, 

right now; 

this very moment.”

― Israelmore Ayivor

K River - 2A

Here is the start to my second large format painting (~ 24" x 24").

I am using the small painting (6"x6") to paint from.

I didn't have quite as much alcohol to set the pastel on this one
 and a double layer of black gesso,
so we will see what happens with the underlayment.

So far, so good with the paint appl. No lines like the last one.

 I love this stormy scene!