Late Winter at Amalga - fini

Egads! It is soooooo nice and sunny and warm! 

Hard to imagine that chilly March day

 when I sketched at Amalga Harbor for this painting.

Late Winter at Amalga  oil on canvas panel  8" x 10"

I really love the way this turned out ... I believe

this will be one of the paintings I will submit for the Plein Rein Annual Calendar.

and below, the b&w.

Thanks for viewing my art!

Amalga -continued

Wow! Another gorgeous day here!

I actually went out and painted Fireweed!

I will post that at a later date.

Here is the continuation of my Amalga painting.

Will post the finished painting tomorrow.

Amalga Harbor plein air/studio painting

It is still July for a couple more days 

and we have had some resplendent days here in Juneau lately. 

June was pretty darn nice too!

Weekend activities included biking out to the

 Juneau Arboretum 

with our good friends Rick and Dayna.

Then today Matt and I hiked to Granite Creek Basin 

with more good friends Julia, Liesl and sweet dogs Chelsea and Ayla.

This next little series of photos show the progression of a little painting from the Plein Rein Painters annual retreat (March), which I wrote about about earlier in the year.

This painting began on our last day of the painting retreat and we were only out about an hour when it began to snow, so we booked it out of there. 

But I had enough paint down and had some reference photos 

to finish the painting in the studio just a few days ago.

I will begin with the sketch, previously posted on 3/13/13:

Next is the rough-in, which I had not previously posted.

Tomorrow I will post again with another progression and the finished photo of the painting. 

Getting a little tired after hiking 7-8 miles today!

Thanks for viewing!

Finished Virtual Paintout - July

It was fun to do this little painting for the VPO.

Toodling around Charleston, 6" x 8", oil on paper

... and in b&w.

I guess toodling isn't in the dictionary yet ... 

but most everyone will know what it means. Yes?

VPO - Charleston, Day 3

Ok, back to my painting in Charleston, S Carolina. 

Today work was on the greens and the first bicyclist.

If you haven't checked out the Virtual Paintout website, you should!

There are many very nice pieces posted.

The Yellow Raincoat - plein air

Today I went with the Juneau Plein Rein painters up Basin Road to a Gold Creek gravelbar. 

This spot is where lots of tourists go to pan for gold. 

The foot bridge in the picture leads over to the mining museum.

The day began with low clouds threatening rain, but as the morning progressed, the clouds thinned and blue sky appeared! I painted for about two hours on this little 6x6 panel. Forgot my palette knife so I was forced to use brushes!

We saw a Harlequin female duck with her ducklings in the fast flowing stream. They literally ran across the swift current to cross the river, seeming fearless!

The Yellow Raincoat    oil    6" x 6"

(I will get back to my Charleston painting in a bit.)

Thanks for looking and making a comment!

Virtual Paintout, Charleston - Day 2

Virtual Paintout/Charleston, SC

Thumbnail sketch of the street view I found 

on Google Maps for the July 2013 Virtual Paintout.

Working on Arches-for-oil paper - got my darks in.

Before the Rain

Southeast Alaska weather turned in the night - from real summer with sunshine and everything - to hard wet rain today! Maybe it has to get it out of its system.

After pulling lots of alder from our side yard, before it got too big, I set up my pochade box there in the yard and had about an hour's worth of painting before it was time to help prepare dinner.

I thought I may have ruined this painting but then I put a couple of finishing touches on at about midnight last night in the studio and now I like it!

This was painted with water soluble paints and a palette knife (mostly). There is nothing to judge scale, but from the bottom of that old scrap of a tree at the bottom of the painting to the top of the tallest Indian Rhubarb is 5 or 6 feet.

I broke the centering rule (do not center things in your painting) but I like how it turned out.

Before the Rain   10" x 8"   oil on prepared board

This does not look like it does in real life, unfortunately.

Here is the value shot.

Wishing everyone a very happy Independence Day! ...coming up on Thursday!!!

Thank you for taking a peek at my blog.

Virtual Paintout, June 2013 - The Azores

 Begin

 Street View - a lake in the Azores    oil on prepared panel    5" x 7"

The June 2013 Virtual Paintout

is on one of nine Azore islands in the North Atlantic west of Lisbon, Portugal. 

My favorite part of this painting is the lady with her arm outstretched like Lewis and Clark.

I haven't submitted this to the virtual paintout, yet. 

This painting is on a panel that had some acrylic base paint of test colors. 

I just painted over the top with white gesso and that is the ground for this little painting.

Not quite sure it works, 

but I can tell you that it looks much better in person than in a photo.

Happy Summer!

2.25" x 3.75"

We arrived home last week and jumped back into the fray. 

Lots of Wyoming stuff to find again (!) and put away. 

I have some paintings I made along the way 

... will post them later, some are ok ... 

[some not - may show you the "not" ... we'll see]

Yesterday a bunch of plein air painters (The Plein Rein Painters of Juneau) 

met artist Susi Havens-Bezaire to paint! (the link goes to her blog/website)

 

Susi is travelling in a big RV with her husband up the west coast of the USA 

beginning from Tucson, Arizona (their trip began on January 1, 2013)

 - finding plein air painting groups and painting every place they go!

I am very happy to report that the weather has been grrrreat in Juneau these past several days -  and we met at Foodland choosing the Thane Ore House beach to paint.

I made a preliminary thumbnail sketch (above) and began sketching in the scene on my prepared gessoed and orange-acrylic-ed board (below):

The reason I put orange acrylic on the board was that I wanted to make the greens stand out. I began to get worried when I wasn't covering up the orange very well out there.

Spring at the Thane Ore House beach      8" x 10"    oil on board

Don't know if I will keep this title...anyone have a suggestion?

Worked on this a little more this morning and, well, there you have it.

I like to look to see how the values turned out so below is the b&w.

Oh! Matt, me and a few friends of ours hiked Mt. Juneau (3,576 feet high) after I finished painting on the beach! It was a gorgeous gorgeous vew from the tippy top. 

The hike was great

(also a little scary) and the first time Matt or I had ever done it! 

We saw Mountain Goats, heard Whistlepigs (Marmots), saw masses of teensy-tiny tundra spring flowers, ate some Twisted Stalk, spruce tips and fiddleheads and

got really tired, but a sip of some good Okanagan vino helped revive.

Thank you for checking out my art blog!

Painting Nan - Fini

Nan           oil on gessoed panel    18" x 12"

I enjoyed trying this figure. I like that she does look like she is singing.

The photo didn't turn out very well. Colors are off.

Here is a b&w and below that, a detail...or a "zoom-in" so to speak.

Painting Nan - Day 3

Painting Nan - day 2

Also, Happy Mother's Day to all mothers. 

It is not an easy job.

Painting Nan - sketches

Vine charcoal sketch on prepared board

This is a woman I met one day and then surreptitiously snapped a photo of her. 

I didn't realize what a funny pose she got into as my phone captured her image.

Anyway, I put the photo away for awhile, but first I did a quick sketch. 

Today I sketched her again from the photo and then started a painting. 

She tickles me....I am so curious how it will turn out!

Pastel study

From Blueberry Hill II  pastel  9" x 12"

It is good to try to render again a scene you have already painted, I have read.

 So I dug out my pastels and sat my other painting 

(Up the channel from Blueberry Hills) 

nearby and did a quick study.

Below is the oil study...

after Sisley, fini

After Alfred Sisley's painting from 1873. The Seine at Bougival. 12" x 18"

This was very enjoyable to paint. 

I felt I wanted more practice painting landscapes to hopefully help 

when I do my own, 

either en plein air or from photos.

 The original lives at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris and is 18" x 25.75". 

Now I want to see it.

Below is a b&w. 

I do not think I got the values like AS did...and my sky is more turquois-ey.

After Sisley - Day 3

...progress.

After Sisley - Day 2

Beginning to add some color.

New practice work - Day 1

 On my easel right now is a prepared board on which I am doing 

a "cover" of one of Alfred Sisley's paintings.

This one has water, sky and distant trees - 

good for me to try to render in a similar way. 

Of course the photo I am using is in a book and 

very small, so really hard to copy exactly ...

I don't want to copy it exactly anyway. 

I am taking my time, but not trying to mimic -

 just getting a similar feeling, I hope.

 

These two shots were of my trying to get the values started,

and I did add a little color.

Happy eARTh Day!

Well, Mother Earth is giving some rainy day love to Southeast Alaska today,

but that is ok because it is a good time to make some

Zentangles!

These three are the first zentangles I have ever made. We were introduced to them by Cristine Crooks (a wonderful artist and one of Juneau's Plein Rein painters) 

while at the retreat in March.

Of course

I love the Zentangle, it is doodling!

When you read about them at their website,

you will find that you need a 3.5" square piece of paper 

and something to draw with ... that's it!

Let me know if you try it!

Up The Channel From Blueberry Hill

Up The Channel - from Blueberry Hill, oil on board, 13" x 15.75"

This painting was fun, using both palette knife and brushes.