"Evening Train" Trans Canadian Highway

Ever since I was a little kid I have loved trains!  My dad helped me build an "N" gauge railroad layout with an engine similar to this Canadian Pacific engine.  That was our project to work on together for a few years. I am still fascinated by them. This painting depicts the trains we saw rumbling across Canada's great plains while driving the Trans Canadian highway.
12x8 oil on panel

"On the Road" Trans Canadian Highway

We are back on the road again.....headed for the Canadian Rockies...Stay tuned, we have miles yet to travel but the destination is spectacular!...=]

12x8 oil on panel

"View from Kerry Hill Park" Seattle city skyline

I took a break from the Canada images to paint this view of Seattle from Kerry Hill Park in Queen Ann. My solo show at the Directors Gallery on Bainbridge Island has been very successful but has left Alki Arts in the lurch for work....so this painting will go to them along with a few other recent paintings.
20x16 oil on canvas   sold

"Cut Field" along the Trans Canadian highway.

"Cut Field"  8x10 oil on panel    SOLD

We spent two days driving across seemingly endless prairie. Huge vistas of big skies and distant horizons.Cattle were scattered across the landscape and the Canadian Pacific Railroad followed along most of the highway. I love the stark beauty of those scenes and now it's my job to try and take my memories, some sketches and some flat lifeless photos and create the mood and feeling I had while traveling through Canada.

"Close of Day" on the Trans Canadian Highway.

I'm working my way slowly back into my normal routine at the studio. Yesterday I did three small paintings as studies for larger work......This was a quick sketch in oil of some images taken while traveling along the Trans Canadian Highway ....somewhere between Calgary and Banff.
10x8 oil on panel

"From the Sketchbook" Amish family, Holmes county, Ohio

Every time we get the chance to visit Ann's parents in Ohio there is always a trip to Amish country..This time we visited the town of Berlin and stopped for some ice cream. This young mother and her daughter were selling baskets along the road and took the opportunity to cool off under a large fir tree.

"Sketches from the Canadian Rockies"

Sometimes you can finish a sketch and sometimes you just have to get back on the road. The top sketch is the highway coming into Banff. We stayed at at a camp site with a great view of HooDoo mountain..From there we were able to trek to Sulpher mountain and the hot springs, Lake Louise, Moraine lake and the Columbian Icefields.

The picture (above) is the view from about two miles up Sulpher mountain. It encompasses the town of Banff and the Bow river valley. We didn't want to pay the exorbitant fees for taking the tram so decided to hike the four miles (vertical) to the top!  That was the first day in Banff and got me broke in for the rest of the trip! Fortunately they allowed us to ride the tram down for free!

This tram cost about $30.00 canadian per person and takes about 15 minuets to get to the top(as opposed to the two hours it takes to hike) but you miss a lot of great mountain scenery on the way. Before we started, the sign at the bottom stated that you need to buy a ticket to ride the tram down. At the top we really didn't want to hike back down so I asked the operator if we could ride and she said "Sure"!  If you don't ask you don't receive....I'm just sayin....

"Lake Agnes" Canadian Rockies , from the sketchbook

I did this sketch after hiking 3.7 km up the mountain from lake Louise to lake Agnes. They had a beautiful tea house built at the lake fully staffed with tea and light lunch options....It was very refreshing after the long hike, but the best pay off was the spectacular mountains surrounding Lake Agnes.

"Approaching Alki" sketches from 2011

It's never a good idea to post on your blog or Facebook page when you are leaving for an extended vacation....That's the reason why it has been so long between posts! We flew to Ohio and picked up the vehicle that will replace my old red van....A nice new..(Well....new for us)....custom camper van, graciously donated by my in-laws and drove it across Canada and back home....We had a short break and then off for Camp High Rock 2011...a yearly summer camp for kids off the Yakima Indian reservation....We had a great time!! ....and I have lots of reference photos and field sketches to work from!  In fact,  I will be posting sketches for awhile until I generate some paintings....I have spent some time stretching large canvases and preparing panels ...so I'm all ready to go!!!..Stay tuned and thanks for following I.P.A.!!

This is a pen and wash sketch from my sketch book. I have been using a soluble marker and india ink mixed with water in one of those water brushes to sketch with and sometimes a little watercolor. 

"Market Lights" Seattle city scenes, urban landscape

Okay, Wow! It's been a busy month!  We took two weeks to go back to Ohio, where we picked up a van that our folks gave us and then drove it back across the Trans Canadian highway, stopping to camp for five days in Banff..The country we traveled through was spectacular and I can't wait to get started on some larger canvases from the pics and sketches that I made there!
  Next week we take off again for camp High Rock, a summer camp for kids off the Yakima reservation in eastern Washington . This will be our fifth year serving as camp counselors along with folks from our church, Liberty Bay Pres., Harrah community church and Sacred Road ministry.
  Finally, please come to my solo show, opening this Friday, 7/1/2011 at the Directors Gallery on Bainbridge Island . I will be there from 6:00pm till 8:00pm and would love to say hi if you are in the area.Winslow Way is still pretty torn up from road construction but there is a really nice outside sitting area right by the gallery and the weather is looking good!! Yea!
 See ya there and thanks for supporting In Plein Air!!  

16x20 oil on canvas  sold

"The Argosy" Seattle waterfront, oil painting

It is getting close to "Show Time" folks!!! If you would like to see this work up close and personal.....and maybe even take it home to hang over your fire place...come on over to the Directors Gallery on Bainbridge Island the first week of July.....I will be at the gallery for the first Friday art walk and would love to meet you!
The gallery will be full of my recent original paintings of Seattle and the surrounding regions of the Pacific Northwest.
16x20 oil on canvas  sold

"Sunset over Elliot Bay" Washington state ferries, marine landscape

Not too many ferry paintings make it to my easel....but I just had to try and capture this dramatic sunset over Elliot bay.....the ferry gave it that sense of interest and location.
12x9 oil on canvas  sold

"Flower Barn" Skagit Co. tulip festival, oil landscape painting

I found one more painting of the Tulip Festival that I forgot to post......Here it is!....I like the way that the mountains were rendered in the back ground ...but when I showed it to my wife, she said "nice clouds honey"...At least they receded into the distance the way I wanted...
14x11 oil on canvas panel   sold

"Apple Blossoms and Garden Chairs" oil landscape painting

This painting was inspired by the view outside my window at the Knowles Studio. I had been watching the apple trees blossoming and wishing to paint them but every time I got the chance, it would cloud up and rain...or hail...or snow...or drizzle..or blow a gale....Sheesh!  What a spring we have had!...Any how, I finally turned my easel around and painted the garden chairs under the apple tree... that no longer had blossoms...... but I remembered them...I painted these same garden chairs last year, en plein air......when we had much nicer spring weather..
12x36 oil on canvas

"Home Pasture" cows in the landscape, oil painting..

One more for the cows!! This time I combined some of the images that I took in LaConnor ...Using an old barn from one pic, the pasture from another and one of my sketches of the cows, I was able to put this composition together.....I think it could go bigger...=]
6x8 oil on panel sold

By the way, if your wondering why I am not offering these little paintings for auction it is because I am saving some work for my solo show at the Directors Gallery in July . I hope you can make it for the opening, First Friday Artwalk in July!.. There will also be larger recent work!....  I will start with the auctions again after the show....

I keep thinking of more things to say....Publish, edit...publish, edit...you know the routine....But....I wanted to add that my friend and fellow plein air painter, Darrell Anderson...(actually he is a much more dedicated PA painter than me!) will be offering a painting give-away on his blog and all you have to do is comment to enter!! The more comments the better your chances....Great idea !
8x6 oil on panel  sold

"LaConnor Cows" cows in the landscape, oil painting

This is the second small painting that I did of the cows in this pasture....trying to capture the spring green of the grass and contrast of the cows grazing.
8x6 oil on panel sold

"Skagit Cows" oil landscape with cows

   

Cows are endlessly fascinating subjects for me to paint...especially the Holsteins with their black and white markings. I jerked the truck over to the side of the road at the end of the day when the light was saturating the colors to capture these guys.

8x6 oil on panel sold

"Tulip Girl" Skagit county tulip festival

"Tulip Girl" 6x8 oil on panel  sold

This is the same little girl that was in Sea of Color..She was having a blast in the fields of flowers and so full of joy!  It was fun trying to capture her Happy Dance..=]
6x8 oil on panel

"Daffodil Farm" Skagit county tulip fields.

I loved the profile of this massive barn with the daffodil fields in the forground and the mountains behind.

10x6 oil on panel.  sold

"Sea of color" La Connor, tulip festival , figurative oil painting

At the Tulip Festival in La Connor the kids were loving the colorful flowers(especially the girls..=]) They seemed to be floating on a Sea of color and the mom's were having a tough time getting them to come out! No one was supposed to walk between the rows.......but how could you resist!!
This painting will be offered on Daily Paintworks auction. Click HERE if you would like to bid on this painting.   10x6 oil on panel

"Tulip Time" figurative,flower oil painting

Thanks to my Main Motivator I was able to scoot over to Skagit county and catch the last of the tulips before the season was over. We have had a very long winter and wet spring so the sunny days have been few....I managed to catch one and spent the whole day loitering around the fields, snapping candid shots of the folks and kids tip- toeing in the tulips....=]  Enjoy!

12x12 oil on canvas

"Brothers" figurative oil painting

Not sure if these guys are brothers....but they are "Brothers"....hence the title of this painting.....I get the sense that the older guy may be a mentor for the younger but I don't know their story ....I just enjoy documenting with paint the faces and places that I encounter on my travels around the Pacific Northwest.
8x6 oil on panel

"Water Jewel" water lilly painting

I painted this little study a few weeks ago as a warm up painting . I am trying to get all the little paintings that I have neglected posting, on to my blog before I start posting a new series of paintings done from a trip to the tulip fields in Skagit county.......It's amazing how much orange, yellow and red  there is in most greens!
 I think I will try the Daily Paintworks Auction with this painting.  If you are interested in bidding on this painting you may do so by clicking..... here .....=]...and Thank you for your support!
8x10 oil on panel

"Port of Seattle" Seattle city scenes, marine scape oil painting

This is the view of the Port of Seattle and Elliot bay that you would get crossing over by ferry from Bainbridge Is. I have entered this painting in the Edmonds juried art exhibition and hopefully it will be accepted. I patiently await notification....okay, maybe not so patiently....
22x29 oil on canvas    sold

"Stand in the Light" Seattle city scenes, urban landscape

I am jazzed to announce that I will be having a solo show at the Directors Gallery on Bainbridge Island in July!  The show will be called Stand in the Light and this is one of my recent paintings that will be in the show. I will be sending out reminders as time gets closer.....If you are in the area come on down to the gallery on the First Friday Art Walk in July and meet me!
18x36 oil on canvas  sold