"Cloud Space" Seattle city, oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Cloud Space" 16x20 oil on canvas  SOLD

We can have pretty dramatic cloud patterns here in the Pacific Northwest.  I did my best to capture this scene from the ferry, with the new space age orange paint job on the Space Needle set off by the banks of clouds marching away in the distance.

"Sailing off Alki Point" marine landscape, oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Sailing off Alki Point"   8x12 oil on panel sold

Sometimes a painting will flow right off the brush onto the canvas..happened that way with this one.....all you can do is thank the Lord and try not to drop the panel face down on the floor when you take it off the easel....(which has happened to me more than once)....

This is a studio painting from a photo I shot the last time I was plein air painting in Alki.  If you are interested in viewing this work you can treat yourself to a day-cation on Alki beach,  have lunch at The Cactus and then go visit Diane at Alki Arts!!  She will be glad to show you around the gallery.....=]

"Dosewalips Day Park" day of plein air painting with Robin And Maury Weiss

"Dose Day Park"plein air landscape painting by Robin Weiss  8x12 oil on panel

Still way behind so I will post all the paintings I did with my son Maury, when we went painting together last week.  We headed for our favorite spot, The Dosewalips river, with innertubes , fishing poles and easels. On the way we stopped at Falls View Canyon to get the first painting of the day on the books...

Falls View Canyon 8x12 oil on panel

I had been painting down in Falls View Canyon before and was excited to take Maury there! You can see my studio painting from this spot in 2010,  here. 


On the left is my painting and on the right is Maury hiking into Fall s View. It is not a long hike but pretty steep getting in there.

Maury hiking into Falls View

Maury set up and slinging paint at Falls View

We set up right on the river with a beautiful view of the cascade. The morning light was casting great shadows on the water. 

Maurys painting of Falls View

After painting the Big Quil.,  we headed for the Dosewalips........It being a beautiful, sunny, summer day ....and a Saturday,.. the camp spot at the Dose was packed! We tried parking along the side of the road in the camping area and found a good spot to paint....but as we were unpacking our gear a Ranger asked us not to park there....Drat!!...We ended up in the day park area and set up to do a painting there ....Needless to say there would not be any tubeing or fishing this day.....which was okay....we really wanted to paint!

Robs set up at the day park

Maurys painting at the day park

Our last stop at the end of the day was at a little park along Linger Longer road in Quilcene. We had to paint fast to keep up with the quickly moving light at this time of day..and it was a challenge!

Maury painting at Linger Longer Rd.

Robs painting from Linger Longer Rd.  6x8 oil on panel

"U-Pick Raspberries" Suyematsu farm, plein air painting by Robin Weiss

"U-Pick Raspberries"  Suyematsu Farm   8x10 oil on panel

Upper nineties predicted for the next few days......okay I'm outta here!...Someplace near water will work for a few days of extended painting...

I'm still way behind in posting all the plein air work I have been doing ....but I ran into the lovely gal in this painting and her two children while working at the light house yesterday.....She asked me how the painting turned out from Suyematsu Farm....Here it is! 

I learned that Akio Suyematsu , who owned and operated this farm has died...There will be a memorial for him at the farm sometime this month.

Akio Suyematsu

Suyematsu farm has a rich history on Bainbridge Island, Washington state. you can learn more about it from this article.  Also the book Snow Falling on Cedars, which was made into a movie tells a lot about what happened to the Japanese farmers on Bainbridge during WWII..

Robin Weiss painting the raspberries at Suyematsu farm

I took the time to do one more small painting of the raspberries in honor of Akio...May he rest in peace...

"Point No Point Light House" plein air, light house painting by Robin Weiss

Point No Point Light House  8x10 oil on panel

  For this composition I got up close and personal with the light house. I tried to capture the warm reflected light in the shadows. You couldn't ask for a better location to spend a few days painting!!

"Point no Point Light House from the Wetland Trail" plein air , landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Point no Point Light House from the Wetland Trail   8x10 oil on panel sold

The second painting on the cloudy day......It was nice not having to worry about the umbrella or finding shade to paint in....but the light house is lacking the nice cast shadows......Still a great day and a great place to paint!

"Wetland Trail" Point no point, plein air, landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Wetland Trail" Point no Point, plein air,  8x8 oil on panel sold

Second day, first painting.  It was cloudy this day but still lots of color.  A large and exuberant group of Chinese exchange students came through and delayed painting for awhile as I had my picture taken many times and answered all the questions...They were very polite and it was fun sharing!....Maybe I will get a lot of Facebook posts in China!?

"Point No Point, Looking North" light house, landscape , oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Point No Point Looking North" 8x10 oil on panel   sold 

I'm still way behind posting my plein air work so I will not take too much time writing about these paintings.  I spent a few days out on Point no Point, a favorite spot for me and one many people from this area are familiar with. I have painted here a lot and still love it!.....This is the first of five plein air paintings coming up....=]

"Teanaway Ranch Creek" landscape, oil painting, by Robin Weiss

"Teanaway Ranch Creek" 8x10 oil on panel

I found a spot in the bed of a little creek meandering its way through the valley. It was a little cooler there.  I worked on laying down the shapes and color notes that I was seeing, using a thicker, richer mix of paint. 

This is the second of the three studies I completed that day. My plein air rig, made out of an old aluminum clip board is still holding up pretty good!  Don't know how I will act with a new Easy L!!  Maybe I will get one for Christmas...The idea for using an aluminum clip board came from Tom Browns tips on plein air painting.....I made several modifications to his design and will post more pictures in a future post

"Teanaway Valley Ranch" plein air, landscape, oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Teanaway Valley Ranch" 8x12 oil on panel

Skip to the first painting of the day.  After finding a good location we hopped over some barbed wire fencing and made our way down into this valley. The property was obviously a cattle ranch but there were not any no- trespassing signs posted so we decided to give it a go....nothing ventured, nothing gained!

cattle in the road

Our first clue of trouble should have been the cattle in the road on the way to our location.

Cattle drive

After hiking down into the valley and scouting a good location to set up we noticed a large herd of cattle heading right at us!.."I guess we will find out if it is okay to be down here now"...

"Hey Jim, that's not a cowboy!.....The nice cow GIRL waved good morning to us and thanked us for getting out of the way....(no problem!)....and then went on their way....."Guess it's okay to paint here!"

Jim, Betsy and Pam taking in the amazing view. The Teanaway Valley is full of these beautiful ranches and vistas.

Jim helps Betsy up the trail . She was having trouble with a bum knee and needed a little extra pull..

"Gold Creek" Snoqualmie Pass, plein air ,oil landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Gold Creek" 6x8 oil on panel

Jim Lamb painting Gold Creek

When I got the chance to attend another workshop with Jim Lamb, I jumped on it. We headed for the Snoqualmie river area around North Bend. The weather was so bad up there the decision was made to continue over the pass and we ended up in the Teanaway Valley. The weather there was high summer!..Beautiful sun, almost a different world and we had a great day painting.  I'm posting the last painting first.....of Gold Creek, .....which me and Jim stopped at after the workshop for a last shot at the light. Then we had dinner at Fat Burger!....a delicious end to a great day!

Jim's painting

It was getting towards evening and the bugs were pretty bad. 

Our amazing view of Gold Creek