Trumpet Vine and Shed in Vineyard

I've had stuff going on the past couple of weeks and just haven't seemed to be able to get out and paint like I would like to. I painted this Plein Aire this morning. I loved the rambunctious tumble of the vine over the roof of the shed.

Pit River

We spent one night camping on the Pit River in Northern California. The campground was small, 8 - 10 sites and primitive, no water available but one of the most picturesque campgrounds that I've been in.
I did a 2 page spread, the page on the left is an eddy that the main river creates where it divides off and runs down in 3 small waterfalls before it joins back up with the main flow; shown on the right page. Again my river appears to tip off toward the edge of the page; it doesn't in the actual painting, it has to do with the curl of the page and the crop.

I saw a River Otter pop his head up out in the eddy while I was sitting there painting.

I am going to try to get a little more consistent with my painting and posting in the future. But we'll see how that goes. I thought with traveling, I'd have all kinds of time to paint but I'm not finding that to be the case. Some of the best views that I see to paint are going by, out the window, at 55mph! May have to start practicing painting from memory more often.

His Majesty and a couple of the Girls

Don't know what it is about chickens that I find so cool but if they are around, I've got to spend time with them.

My friend, Dee has a flock and I gotten to spend some time getting acquainted with them. I loved the way the he came out, the Girls, well not so much...But a good time was had by all, so there ya go.

a sketch of Dee's garden

I helped my friend in her garden planting and mulching with straw. After we were finished working, I pulled out my paints and painted the scene. The rows all looked so neat and clean and I loved all the different colors and textures. I did run into a bit of a problem drawing the wheelbarrow but pressed on regardless LOL.

Old barn in Kettle Falls, WA

The sunlight bathing this old barn in soft colors drew me in. My perspective painting is getting a little better but after a short time, I can see where my lines are still off, although this barn was starting to bend just a little at the knees. There are so many barns and farm houses up here, just a delight for photographers and painters!

I'll be in a spot the has wifi for the next few days so hopefully can catch up on some of your blogs!

Lake Roosevelt

I did this sketch of Lake Roosevelt the other morning. My daughter and her family live up on the side of the hill above the third cove. An easy drive for a swim but not close enough to walk.

Rim Rock

Spent a few days in the high plains desert in Washington not too far from the Grand Coulee Dam. I find this area, although so totally different from the coastal range, incredibly beautiful. The horizon seems to be endless miles away. The skies were grey and cloudy while I was there so there wasn't a time when the light on the rocks was at the "OMG, how beautiful" stage, that I know it can be.

Again, I lost all the delicate greens and greys in the foreground. It's an ongoing frustration using my camera instead of a scanner. If I'd remember it at the time I'm painting, I could adjust for it but the painting came out pretty close to what I had in mind. I must admit, I tossed it off into the corner as a "no go" several times so it did come out a tad over worked.

Stuart Range

I painted this yesterday morning from the rest stop we were in. I couldn't get the balance in blue and greens in photoshop to balance the same as the real painting. The band of greenish "fog" is a soft blend of light blues and greens that reads much nicer in real life. The lighting on the mountains is nicer IRL too.

This range is the largest outcropping of granite in the U.S.

River by Copalis Beach, OR

ARRGH! My river slopes downhill! I think part of the problem is with using my camera instead of a scanner; the crop is never straight with the edges of the paper. It didn't look that sloped in the actual drawing. Anyway, I did enjoy painting it and will watch those bank lines closer in the future. That funny looking dark object over the water was a Blue Heron that flew by while I was painting.

Copalis Beach, OR

We've been traveling so I haven't had consistent Internet access to post or comment on posts lately. I painted this yesterday in the early morning. Painted quickly just trying to capture the essence of what I was seeing.

Memory's Home

I spent the last week in San Francisco with my Mom; when I got back my neighbors Rhododendron's and Lilac bush were all in full bloom. Yesterday morning I sat down to record the beauty. I did run into a bit of a problem with the shadow under the eve, I probably should have left out the vent but I liked the way it looked.

a couple of quick Plein Aire sketches

These were just a couple of quick paintings that I did Plein Aire a few days ago. The bear is one of a set of two that stand at the entrance to the old Highway 101 bridge across the Klamath river; the original bridge was washed out in a major flood in 1964, it's been closed off and left as a historical land mark. The flood not only washed out the bridge but the old town of Klamath which had been flooded and rebuilt in the 50's. After the '64 flood the town site was abandoned and since then a newer, smaller and much less interesting town has been built farther inland.

The painting of the cliffs I painted the same day, sitting on a high bluff overlooking the sea. I had started painting it and had gotten so frustrated with the greens and blues being the only colors that I just started slopping the purple around; I liked the result. The brown smudges in the ocean area are dog prints...as soon as I sit down they have to find out what I'm doing!

Lost World

I've been browsing around on wet canvas quite a bit of late and found an old link on pouring. It sparked an interest. We did a bit of pouring and using of salt and saran wrap, last year when I took a painting class from Jana. At the time, I was trying to learn more techniques for photo realistic painting. Of late, I've been trying to get away from such controlled and detailed painting, so the pouring on WC grabbed my interest.

In reality, I started out way too dark for a first pour but my "images" popped out and for me, were in the right places anyway, so it worked out fine. Looking at it last night I was going to paint on it to bring out what I see, but decided it would be more fun for the viewer to fine their own things...It was fun and did take me off in a different direction. I may try another one soon and see if I can "control" the out come a little more. Gawd! I get away from control, just to try and recapture it! LOL

Rock and Gulls

I liked the way the gull in front of the rock turned out, the one over the water, not so much. I'm not pleaded with the composition, was going to add another couple of rocks in the back ground but it had turned windy and cold so I finished the water and left... I have found that trying to add things later, even if the pigment is dark enough to cover, muddies up the painting, so here it stands.

The horizon line is straight in the painting, during the shooting and cropping things go askew...

More Practice Sketches

Here's more practice sketches; I'm going to try adding the url's for them but not entirely sure what order they will load in. I'd like some feed back on what I've done right, what I can improve and how. Thanks in advance.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=59366&cat=57

http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=24593&cat=55

http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=78777&cat=55

Practice people sketches 2

Here are another couple of practice sketches I did, again, using photos from the Image Reference Library on Wet Canvas. If I keep at it maybe one of these days I'll be able to "read" the important defining lines and get them down quickly enough to do "live" sketches and get at least fairly accurate representations of the people that I see around me. That's the plan anyway.

Great Blue

On a hike with the dogs the other morning, I looked across the water and spotted this Heron looking for something to eat...He stayed in the same position for long enough for me to quickly grab a sketch of him...

forgot to leave enough white of the paper to suggest waves...I need someone to follow me around and remind me of all these little details...LOL

practice people sketches 1

One of the things I want to learn to do is quick sketches of people. Today I spent a few minutes practicing sketching from some of the photos in the Image Reference Library at Wet Canvas. Was trying to work quickly, pull predominant lines and capture some of the shadows. I had a difficult time working with a pen. The gentleman in the lower left corner had dark skin but was closer in age to the other gentleman sitting with him than my sketch shows. Some of them came out better than others. Pushing out of the comfort zone, it's what's it's all about...

Just playin' with color

The idea here was to just stay as loose. I wanted to do something colorful but I didn't want a lot of detail. This didn't come out quite like the picture that I had in my mind but I did manage to stay fairly loose. I painted and I had fun, that's the important part, right?

Crooked Little House

We spent a couple of days at Harris Beach, Oregon. I went for a walk early one morning and did a this sketch. I took a lot of artistic liberties with this one, at least as far as the house is concerned...I am sure the owner would love to be the only one on the bluff and with his own private stairs to the beach. Instead his neighbor has the stairs and his house is in the second row back, it is also much larger than it is here, though. The landscape is pretty accurate and I enjoyed painting it, that's the important part.

Oregos at Requa

I want to paint this on a 1/2 sheet of WC paper. This morning, I thought I'd try it first on my small 10"x7" WC pad. Boy, am I glad I did! I think I'll eliminate the forward most rock. The yellow is a bit bright and the tilt of her head is a bit too far forward. For the most part, I really like it.

This rock formation fascinates me. It is at the mouth of the Klamath River. If you scroll down to the previous post, you can read the legend. I couldn't put them in the same post because you can only enlarge 1 image...

Oregos Legend

Sorry, I cut off the bottom right corner...

Mouth of the Smith River

This is the Mouth of the Smith River where it meets the sea. There is a cluster of seals on the tip there and while I was painting this, one of them got out of the water to climb up.

I can see now that I have this posted, that my water line on the river side, slopes down toward the bottom left. Sigh, details, details, details; part of why I hold stuff to post over night, I tend to catch these things. Although this I painted the same day that I painted the rest of the plein aire stuff, just hadn't looked at it closely enough.

How-On-Quet Cemetery

I ran across this Tolowa Indian Cemetery in How-On-Quet the other day, when I was out sketching. The Tolowa Indians had their tribal grounds at the basin of the Smith River in Northwestern California and Southwestern Oregon. Entry into the cemetery seemed to be private as there was a "No Trespassing" sign posted and a chain on the gate. It is one of the loveliest "resting places" that I have seen.

I started this and then tossed it aside because I was frustrated with the way it was coming out. This morning I pulled it back out and decided to finish it. The graves weren't as uniform as they are in my picture. The ovals are raised mounds, there were several of those, the one in the bottom right corner had Abalone shells all the way around it and flowers on top. I had painted just the plain graves all the way across then realized that the mounds weren't "prepared for a burial" they were the finished grave... so I changed them, makes it difficult to see the flowers on top. This whole thing was painted tighter than I would have liked but I guess this is better than tossing it...

Black Ribbons in the Sky

Yup, I realize my barn has a serious slope. I wanted to paint quickly and not get caught up in the details. I was afraid if I started fiddling with the lines I'd lose the looseness of the painting and I liked that. This was across the street from the cows (from my last post). While I was painting the cows, I looked over at one point and it looked like a black, lacey quilt blowing over the field, there were so many birds, a minute later they were all gone...

Nap Time

I wanted to do some plein aire sketching today, so I headed for an area where there are farms scattered along the sea. When I do plein aire sketching, most of the time I do it from inside my car just because I have a place to put my paint and water. Today, I pulled off to the side of the road to paint these cows; during the time that I was parked, 3 people stopped to ask if I was ok. I finally figured out that part of the reason they were stopping was because my lights were on. If I open the door, the buzzer sounds but not if I am just parked. I guess between the angle that I was holding my head and the lights folks thought I might be in trouble. Kind of them none the less.

These cows made me laugh because I'd start to sketch one and look back up at it and it would be laying flat. After I was all done then some of them decided to stand up and eat.

The grass is a more of a spring green , this whole scan ended up with too much pink as I was trying to get the green right. Sigh..one of these days I'll get Photo Shop to always work the way I want it too...until then, I'll do the best I can.

Snags at Lake Earl

Our local art gallery has demonstrations once a month by various oil or watercolor artists from around the area. The folks at the gallery video tapethe demos and have them available for checkout by the gallery members. Since I am now a member, I checked out a demo done by Deborah Dawson http://www.deborahadawson.com/. She had taken some photographs at one of the local wild life preserves and did her painting from those photos. I love the way she did the sky and since I had been thinking of trying to paint some of the Alders in the area that were going to require masking, I thought I'd give her techniques a try. This is the result.

I went out to the same area yesterday and took some of my own pictures so that I could get my trees drawn correctly. From there, I pretty much followed along with the colors she was using and the way she was laying down her paints. I'm pleased with the outcome even if I can't really claim it as "my own". I learned a lot about not judging too quickly when something "isn't working out" as there were several times last night , I thought that, looked at her painting and realized that hers was in about the same state. Using the masking fluid was fun for this and now I'm looking forward to trying a painting with the Alders in it.

Cloud studies

I've been frustrated with my skies lately, they are blah and uninteresting. So last night I sat down after getting some good advise from Karen @ http://www.karensblog.com/ and did some quick studies. These are the two that I liked the best as I achieved more or less, the look I was after. I am sure I will be posting more in the future as I can tell, this is going to take some practice. If any of you have found any cool techniques you'd like to share or just want to join in with the practices, I'd love it...

Forest Bridge

A cool thing about hiking in the woods up here is all the wooden bridges laid out along the trails. Sometimes they cross creeks, or as in this case, they may just cross a difficult gully. That is a small set of stairs in the lower right corner, another one of the simple pleasures to be found. They weren't that steep in reality but I wanted to get them in the picture so I changed them : ) I love the rustic feeling they lend and am glad that the forestry department doesn't use metal despite the fact that it would be much more impervious to the rains and fog. All of the forest wild flowers are springing up, in another couple of weeks all kinds of blooms will be popping.

This path meanders along a small lagoon. The water lilies are turning from winter brown to a nice green, buds are already starting to form on them too. It is a scene that I want to try painting but it started getting to chilly to sit and paint this afternoon as a storm was moving in.

2 pager of beach combers

It was beautiful up here today, lots of folks out enjoying the sun. I started with the left page painting of the Dad and his two boys. They seemed to be having lots of fun. The older boy looked about 5 and the younger one (in front) was about 3. The little one kept doing everything the older one did like carrying the staff. I had actually left and then decided to go back and paint the other page which is why the sea isn't fully consistent. The horizon is actually straight but I had a rough time with the photo so it looks like it slants up. On the first one, I painted the horizon water all the way across then put in the rocks, consequently, the shadowing on the rocks isn't correct. While I was painting I was listening to the barking of the sea lions and the sound of the fog horn mixed with the cry of the ever present seagulls. This week has just been one of those where I can't seem to hold the brush the right way to paint. Painted LOTS nothing would come out the way that I wanted it too. Hopefully things will be better from here on out...