Queen Anns Lace

I'm pretty sure this will be my last post untill I get back from Yakima , Aug 3rd. I'll be leaving Sat. for a 7 day camp in the Cascade mountains. This will be my first chance to be a" camp counseler" for a kids camp . The camp is being hosted by Liberty Bay Presbyterian Church and Harah Comunity Church for the kids in Harah and White Swan Washington. White Swan is on the Yakima Indian reservation. I'm excited to be part of a team who will be having a positive influence on these young people.

See ya in a couple weeks :)


10 x 15 , oil on masonite panel.....$250.00 Sold

Callas

This watercolor of calla lillys was in a group of other WC paintings I did a while back and just didn't post untill.....ta da.....now...guess I just wasn't that excited about it.....maybe you will be. If so its 10x10 watercolor on Arches 140 lb hot press, $45.00 unframed.
I reworked this painting by putting the forground in shadow hopefully lessening the confusion of the horizontal bands of light competeing for attention..... I took this suggestion from the girl who works at Kinkos. She was very patient and helped me fix the color printer every time I screwed it up. The color printers at Kinkos are like slot machines that keep eating your dollors. You stick in your credit card and before ya know it you have wasted $15 dollors trying to get one decent print. Of course I could ask for help right away......but nooooo.. like Frank I have to do it MY way. 12x9 oil on masonite, $195.00

Another go at the Spirea

Its been awhile since I spent any time at the studio so Monday afternoon I packed up the paints and went over for some plein air painting. The spirea is in bloom again. Its a lovely native bush that has lavender blossoms sort of like a butterfly plant. I remember painting them last year. It's interesting to go back a year on your blog and see what you were doing and how you have improved...... or not. 7x7 oil on panel , $100.00
My plan was to do several paintings but it was nice to hang out with Jim, Leigh and Pete showed up too. I'm adding a couple sketches I did back when we had life drawing classes going. the top ones are Pete who filled in for a model one day and the bottom one is Leigh who filled in another day when a model didn't show. ( The reason we don't have life drawing anymore, can't find reliable models)

By the way if your a reliable model who needs work , email me maybe we can get our drawing class going again.
Note...... The hand gesture at the lower right corner of this drawing was completely unintentional and I didn't realize it looked that way until I stood back and someone brought it to my attention. .........Then the silence was broken by hysterical laughter.

Dosewallips River Trip

I think it got up to like 98 on Thursday here in the Pacific Northwest. As soon as we got off work, me and my son Maury skedadled up to the Dose for some trout fishing and cooling off.
Afterwards we set up for a 20 min quickie sketch in oil of the mouth of the Dosewallips river where it dumps into the Hood Canal. It was absolutely glorious on the river! sold
The set up
What we do every year as soon as it warms up is grab the inertubes head for the river, hike up 3 or 4 miles , fish the good trout holes on the way up and then float back. Its a blast!

View of the Mountain

Sorry I havn't been posting. I've gotten caught up adding to my deck in the back yard. This painting is a view of Mt Ranier fom a vaccant lot up on the hill in Poulsbo where they built the new Walmart. It won't be vaccant for long and the view is incredible. The weather has been clear and hot. Driving around the Puget Sound you get little snatches of the Mountain in certain areas and it is awsome. I don't want to ever take for granted the beauty of the place I live or the hand of Him who made it.

Day Lily

Day lilys are aptly named. Better do your sketches and color notes , because they won't look that way tomorrow. This one was in my back yard. I used my little guide book to color mixing to get the compliments right. Picking a petal to match the color , I took my sketch and a mental picture to the studio.
A page from the sketch book
I'm posting the reworked " Breidablik Chapel " I did scrape this painting. It was drier than the other painting I scraped so the effect was different. I do think this rework is better but not because of the scraping. I used a photo and was able to add a little of the detail that was missing on the first...... I guess there are some parts I like better and some worse.

Breidablik Chapel, plein air paintings

Breidablik Chapel is an old abandoned church on highway 3 here on the Kitsap penninsula. We learned some interesting history on the place when the 90 tear old caretaker drove up and parked right in front of our subject. She was very nice and was interested in what we were doing. When she left happy that we patiently listened to the story of the chapel I took that as permission to keep painting.
I did this painting quickly in brilliant sunshine not to sure of the values and color. I am contemplating scraping it just to see if it is a viable method of adding mood and interest. Let ya know how that comes out. sold

Diana my painting friend/student came along and did a nice watercolor and started another.

Heres our set up for the day. There is allot here to paint and I plan on coming back.
Heres the watercolor I did in the morning. The light reflections on the chapel were stunning and rapidly moving. I'm not to happy with my effort. Unfortunately you can't scrape a watercolor. But.... I have pictures.