New still life in progress

This still life is inspired by memories of my Grandpa Ken. He had a shed on his property that housed all of his tools. I loved the smell of gas, oil and lumber as you walked in. There is a feeling of possibilities when you're surrounded by the tools and materials needed to fix and build things.

Small summer paintings

These are some studies and plein air paintings from August. It's amazing how spending time really looking at what happens to light and atmospheric changes the way you see the landscape. I took a workshop from Jim Lamb and really appreciated the ideas he discussed about simplifying and editing.

Inspiration from August Trips

We just arrived home a couple of days ago from camping. The weather was gorgeous and we were surrounded by breathtaking vistas.
Some so beautiful they were almost surreal. There is enough from this trip to keep me busy in the studio all winter.

Just a note: notice the people standing on the large rocks on the right hand side of the photo of the gorgeous swimming hole. The scale is amazing!

New works in progress

As you can see, I've been getting outside to paint. The four small paintings were the result of a workshop taught by Jim Lamb on plein air painting. We spent five days painting in Kittatas (sp) area, which was absolutely gorgeous. It's so helpful to paint on location, all of the nuances that are lost in photos are there for us to see. The atmospheric perspective is especially interesting.

The rest of the paintings are from my studio. They are all in progress. I hope to start on some new still life and landscape this week, as I'll be finishing up these paintings.

It's Finished!

I'm very happy! I finished the house commission and feel satisfied with the results. There's a moment at the end of a project when I hope to feel a sense of well being and pride. It doesn't always happen but with this project it definitely happened.

There's a plein air week-long event coming up that I'll attend in Cle Elum beginning Aug 2. I'm excited and nervous, haven't been painting outside yet this summer so I'm rusty.

quick update

House commission almost done,
my garden in bloom,
kids in my art classes,
and my guys.

progress updates and some new work

I hope to finish up the house commission with about 10 more studio hours!

The overall painting needs warmed up and details added.

The rest of the images are more studio still lifes. I have to admit my direction is a little scattered, there needs to be more thought put into where I want to go with these paintings. One of the goals still is to work the backgrounds with more transparent darks and have had some success with the apricots.

Bothell Art Fairs Kid Corner

My family and I ran the kids corner at our local art fair. We offered free activities for the kids visiting the fair. The weather and setting were gorgeous and the kids seemed to really enjoy themselves.

a couple of new paintings I have at the Kaewyn gallery.

Here are some sketches from our Friday figure drawing session. For whatever reason, no matter how I rotate or resize one of the images refuses to turn right side up. But I like the sketch so well I included it anyway.

The painting with the globe is another of my fun toy still lifes just started the other day. Another three or for passes and this one will be done.

The house commission is progressing nicely.

2nd pass...

Plugging along and enjoying the evolution of this project. Little by little it's getting to look more like it should. It's about half way there. I'm hoping to finish this up in a week or so. My family from out of town is heading out this morning so I will have a lot more time in the studio.

Progress on commission...

All of the major forms are blocked in and light and shadow for the most part mapped out. Now it's time to slow down a bit and work in all of the subtle variations of color and light throughout. This is the fun part, frosting the cake so to speak. On Saturday I will visit the family and take photos of the pets to add to the compositions.

Loving this weather!

I've been spending time shooting landscapes on my new digital camera. The old one is now useless as the zoom button is busted and stuck permanantly at one distance.

The weather here as been absolutely amazing. Sunny skies for a couple of weeks in a row, unheard of in May and June! My son's graduation is coming up next week and I'm hoping the weather is equally beautiful for family visiting from out of town.

More work in progress

Alice

I've been playing with some paintings based on my favorite stories growing up. One of them was Alice in Wonderland. First the movie and later the books. Here is the finished Alice.

paintings in progress

The teacups are a fun little painting but all of the reflective surfaces are quite challenging. This one is taking a lot of patience!

The house commission is coming along. Just started the first pass and will be spending most of my studio time on it to get it finished.

Friday figure drawing and House commission

Here is the color study for the house commission. Today I will take more photos of the landscappe and get started on drawing the image on the larger canvas.

Another couple of sketches from our Friday figure session. I found that after about four years of painting I am no longer a line person. Forms are now much easier to identify and use and reference in building a 2-D image. In addition, it has been my practice to mess around with a very overdone gesture to find the form. On Friday I made myself slow down and make more deliberate lines, what a difference! Much less wasted energy and more accuracy from the beginning. Thank goodness we improve with effort!!!

a step closer

a detail from the same image.

This is getting closer. The nice thing about posting these thumbnail size images is that the problems really stand out. Such as the light area behind the coffee pot handle, its distracting, needs to be softened.

Scout lake

Not sure if this is finished yet. Something is not quite right, I'll have to look at it for a few days to figure it out. Maybe some warm tones in the shadow...

Friday figure studio

Three Fridays a month there's a drop in figure studio at the Arts Umbrella where I teach. This was our model and it was long pose so I got a fairly decent sketch out of it. It's fantastic having the session so close to home.

Photo reference

Yesterday morning was beautiful so I decided to head out to get some new landscape shots for inspiration. There is something particularly appealing in layered space, the idea of looking through obstacles to see what is beyond. Growing up in the pacific nw, I am used to lots of trees, hills, bends in roads and paths.

The next step with this image is to play around with some composition thumbnails. Get the essentials in and edit out the superfluous.