"San Juan Island View" Moran state park, plein air painting by Robin Weiss

"San Juan Island View"  8x8 oil on panel     sold

After finishing my painting at Mountain Lake and cooling off with a refreshing dip (see my last post) I continued up the road that leads to the top of Mt. Constitution.

Map of Moran state Park

Mt Constitution is the highest point on the Island and features sweeping vistas of the surrounding Islands and The Straights of Juan De Fuca

 The original land for Moran State Park was donated to the state in 1921 by Seattle mayor and shipbuilder Robert Moran. Due to poor health, Moran moved to Orcas Island and between 1906 and 1909 built his estate, naming it Rosario. Today, the former Moran estate is Rosario Resort and Spa . It is the largest resort in the San Juan Islands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
 

Island View in progress

Before getting to the top a stunning view of the distant Islands across some beautiful meadows stopped me. I hopped out to take a few pictures.... and had to pull out my gear and do a painting!  This painting sold rather quickly at the Moran exhibition held by Crow Valley Pottery at the end of our trip.

"Morning Breaks on Mountain Lake" 8x10 ,plein air , oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Morning Breaks on Mountain Lake" 8x10 oil on panel            Sold

The second day of the San Juan Island painting trip found me back up at Mountain Lake to catch the morning sun.

BTW, this trip was part of a Plein Air Washington Painters collaboration with Crow Valley Pottery to celebrate and support Moran State Park  on Orcas Island . At the end of the week a gallery show was held at Crow Valley and a portion of the sales were donated to the park. The show included studio paintings and the wet plein air work done during the week, of Moran and other state parks.

What I am doing now...is a job for me....and ...it's a lot of hard work!!  But I have to admit,...it's the best job I have ever had!!  See attached videos below....=]

And here is the perks of the job!   =]    Cheers till next time!..=]

"Mt. Baker from Anacortes" plein air , oil , landscape painting by Robin Weiss

Mt. Baker from Anacortes   8x8 oil on panel        Sold

Living in Kitsap county in the Pacific Northwest means that your travel off the peninsula is bound by the ferry schedule. To get to the paintout in the San Juan Islands required taking two ferries , I chose to take the Kingston Ferry to Edmonds and then drive up to Anacortes taking another ferry to Orcas Island. Knowing that I would be in line way early for the 3:50 pm sailing, I decided to pre-funk the party and do a painting at the ferry landing in Anacortes.

Mt Baker , easel failure

 Everything was great! I had a beautiful view of Mt Baker and about two hours to do a painting...but....it was windy!  About three quarters of the way through the painting a gust of wind started to blow over my easel....
I reached out automatically and grabbed it causing a big splash of turpentine to wash over the wet work!  Sheesh! If it's not one thing it's another in this plein air business!....But ,

I'm not complaining!.. and I got over it quickly ..after all , I had four days of painting in the San Juan Islands to look forward too and it turned out to be an amazing and fun trip! This one got packed away to dry and I finished it up when I got home ....none the worse for wear....=]

Ferry to Orcas Island

 The adventure was now really under way, with a painting already under my belt.. We had gorgeous weather the whole time and the ferry ride itself is a treat worth the time!

"Night Ferry" marinescape , oil on linen panel by Robin Weiss

"Night Ferry"   14x23 approx   oil on linen panel , framed        Sold

This is one of those paintings that got lost in the shuffle...Here's the story...I painted it awhile back and was never really satisfied but let it go to the gallery anyway because I needed to fill a show..(bad idea, but it happens to all of us)  It sat in the gallery for a month and didn't sell....finally the gallery owner, a sweetie, fessed up that she didn't think the ferry boat was painted with the same quality as the rest of the painting .....So, took er back and repainted the ferry boat .....I think it's better?

Night Ferry  inferior

I got up at 5am this morning to work on organizing my photos so I can design and  order my calendars ....and get Derek some photos to upload to my new website  (Derek the Awsome is doing it for me..=])
I came across this painting and forgot the size , noticed I didn't post it yet (which is how I find sizes when I forget....unless I forget to post.....!!)  so.....now it is posted!  with an approximate size (the original is at The Bluewater Gallery).....and now you know.....

p.s ..It is now 5pm and I am STILL on this %$#$%^& computer!

Prichard Park Beach, plein air landscape painting by Robin Weiss

Prichard Park Beach  6x12 oil on panel  sold

Just a quick one today to post the other two paintings I did with my artist friends Darrell Anderson and Tim Deibler.  As you can see it was a beautiful, sunny, summer day in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle is visible in the distance across Elliott Bay.

"Power Boat"   8x10 oil on panel  Sold

I simplified this scene way down and just concentrated on one boat and it's reflection in the water...

Thanks for visiting!   I will be moving on to my trip to the San Juan Islands in coming posts.....with more videos!!....=]   Cheers!

Prichard Park Boat House, plein air landscape painting by Robin Weiss

Prichard  Park Boat House 8x8 oil on panel  Sold

Friend and painting buddy Darrell Anderson called me to go painting with him at Prichard Park on Bainbridge Island with fellow painter Tim Deibler.  Tim was in town from Colorado teaching a workshop and wanted to do a warm up at the location. Darrell was nice enough to invite me along!  Tim is a great painter and a fun guy to paint with!

Tim Deibler at Prichard Park

Check out Tims amazing landscapes HERE

Darrell Anderson at Prichard Park

                                                           
                               Check out Darrell's  colorful landscapes HERE    

      

One of the things I love about this business is meeting like-minded folks who love what they do and have a lot of fun doing it!                                                    

"Dosewallips River and The Brothers" landscape , plein air painting by Robin Weiss

Dosewallips River and The Brothers  8x8 oil on panel  sold

The last plein air painting I did at Dosewallips State Park shows the Olympic Mountain Peaks known as The Brothers. A good wrap up to a great weekend!

Skipping a few segments of the video series, (where I work on an 18x18 plein air piece down on the river), I will get to the last one and then post a picture of the final result of the whole process ......A  totally different subject being painted over the work which I was never satisfied with..

I spent three days on location with this painting and then took it back to the studio and worked on it some more...I was never able to bring it to a level I thought was frameable. ...so I waited until it was dry , sanded it lightly and used it for an interesting under-painting for another work...Some of the older painting peaks through and adds some sparkle.

original PA painting

"Yellow House" in progress

I turned it upside down before painting over it so as not to be distracted by the original image.

"Path to the River" Dosewallips State Park, plein air , oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Path to the River" 6x10 oil on panel  Sold

Second day , everyone showed up!...They all wanted to paint the river but since I already did, several times,  I turned my easel around and painted the path coming down from the camp sites.

Kathryn Townsend and Jane Wallis were among the many PAWA painters who showed up to enjoy the beautiful river views.





At the end of the day I returned to my spot on the river and continued on with my 18x18 plein air painting.

"Forest Trees" Dosewallips State Park paint out , plein air , landscape painting by Robin Weiss

Forest Trees  10x6 oil on panel   sold

I facilitated my first paint out with the Plein Air Washington painters in June (I'm that far behind in posting!)      We had a great time and the weather was perfect! I reserved the group camp at the Dosewallips State Park and there was plenty of room for everyone but only a few of us actually camped.

The camp spot was in a nice spot right next to the river and covered in shade by huge Big Leafed Maples. I highly recommend this spot for a group, especially if it is a hot summer weekend!

We had fun around the campfire at night and I got better aquainted with several new painter friends.

I even tried painting our camp spot while I was waiting to greet the members of the group who were coming in to paint




Every evening I went out to the same spot on the river and worked on a larger plein air painting. I used my french easel and prepared an 18x18 canvas. I video taped each progression of the painting. Interestingly this painting, even after I got back and worked on it in the studio, never worked out in my view and I ended up painting "Yellow House" (back a few posts) over it!  I will post these videos for your viewing pleasure...=]   In retrospect I wish there was more  of my actual brush painting of the piece but at least you can see how it progressed and get a sense of location.

I'm hoping to improve my videography skills in the future and I have four more of these progressions to post in the next few days so let me know if you just can't stand it!....Till next time.=]

"Market Day in Edmonds" urban plein air painting by Robin Weiss

"Market Day in Edmonds"  8x12 oil on panel   Sold

I'm a little out of sequence in time line but thought I would post this painting because the Gallery North , Beauty of the Northwest art show is approaching and thought some of you would like to go see the  exhibition. I entered this show last year and had a lot of fun doing it.

Edmonds is just a ferry hop across the sound from us and is a great place to go painting! I joined up with the other fun painters from Gallery North for this event and painted with them in two locations, the first one right in town for the farmers market day.
 The artists reception is Sunday, August 11th from 1pm till 4pm. Hope to see you there!

"Hipster House" LaConner , plein air oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Hipster House" 8x12 oil on panel   Sold

I'll end this LaConner series with this plein air painting that I did on the porch of the business across the street. They were very kind to let me camp out there for awhile with my easel..I asked one of the secretaries "who owns the house across the street"  and she said " a couple of hipsters moved in."  I'm not sure what defines a hipster but the word has a nice ring to it.... so,  I'll snatch it for a title....

We will be moving on in the posts ahead...Lot's going on this summer and I find myself running from one painting event to the next.....as usual...I'm way behind!!   See ya down the road!....=]

"Yellow House" LaConner , oil , landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Yellow House"  18x18 oil on canvas    Sold

I have a couple more LaConner paintings to post before we move on.....This one was done in the studio from a photo I took on location. 

"Evening Glow" Skagit County, plein air, oil , landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Evening Glow" 8x10 plein air, oil on panel   Sold

 It was dark, cloudy and felt like rain when I left Poulsbo a week later for the workshop back in the LaConner area...The crew voted to soldier on no matter the conditions so I said a prayer and headed out. By the time I got there things were looking a little brighter and by noon the skies were clear! I really enjoyed sharing all my plein air tips with this group of happy painters and they took it all in and applied the lessons well!

 Me with the Posse, from left to right , Mark Bistranin,( with Jazz)  Christine Troyer, Pat Young, Sharon Dennis and Sharon Curran.

Skagit workshop group 2013

We set up to work at the location where I painted the church in Conway. There were a couple  different views to work from without moving far.
 I did my demo painting of the Skagit river so everyone decided to apply what I showed them to their own rendition of the same view.

Robs demo

The whole group did some amazing paintings and we all felt pretty good about the days work  I went in to LaConner to visit the Seaside Gallery and get some dinner. FYI , The Brewery in town on main street makes the best pizza! 
  The weather just kept getting better as the day went on. The light as I walked to my car was amazing! I decided to try for one more fast, evening painting and found a spot on a dead end road by a salt marsh that I never saw before.

Evening Glow setup

The mosquitoes and no-see-um nats were horrendous but the scene and the light was so spectacular I had to try and capture it. I spent about an hour getting the scene down as fast as I could with the light traveling very quickly.

 Just as I was packing up the "Super Moon" started rising over the fields!  What a sight! No time for another painting and I was beat!  I called Mark and he ran out in his pickup with all his gear,  racing to paint the moon .

"Super Moon" over the Skagit fields  2013

"LaConner Dike" plein air , oil, landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"LaConner Dike" 8x8 oil on panel        Sold

After I finished the Irrigation Ditch there was still time and the light was getting better so I just turned the easel around and painted in the opposite direction. This was the last Skagit County painting I did on this trip...but....I headed back a week later to do a workshop requested by some of the PAWA painters who live in that area!  So I still have some Skagit paintings and adventures to share.

 BTW, If you live in The Pacific Northwest and are interested in taking a workshop from me , it just takes five brave souls to make it happen!. If you can get five passionate painters together (beginners welcome!) I will come to your area and share all my tips on plein air painting!..=]
Email me at    robinweiss@earthlink.net    for more info.

Happy painting!

"Irrigation Ditch" LaConner series, plein air, oil landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Irrigation Ditch" 12x16 oil on canvas       Sold

I'm still on my LaConner series and having trouble finding time to post consistently because I am off on other plein air painting adventures! But will try again to get current!  This is a spot Mark showed me and we both set up to paint in different directions. I chose this irrigation ditch as a nice lead in to the scene. I also punched up the color in the field to make it a little more juicy....I had my french easel too and tried a larger canvas. In fact, I used an old painting and worked this scene over it. You can do that if you lightly sand the old surface so the new paint adheres.........One thing I hate to do is store old paintings that don't sell and I have moved on from..

"Evening Grace" Church in Conway, plein air, oil painting by Robin Weiss.

"Evening Grace" Conway Lutheran Church  10x10  $425

Mark Bistranin painting the church in Conway

After the group show at the Seaside Gallery, I got to spend some time with Mark Bistranin. Turns out we have a lot in common besides painting.  One of the great bonuses of participating in PAWA events and traveling around painting in new places is the potential of meeting people and making new friends. Mark liked the Conway Church painting and we decided to go out and paint it again together .....Another great bonus of making new friends in new places....they often know the best locations and the folks that live in the area.  Mark knew the folks who own the field behind the church and they gave us permission to paint the view from that direction!  

"Skagit River View"  8x10 oil on panel         SOLD

As I have said before, I love the Skagit valley! There are paintings in every direction!  After I finished the painting of the Conway Church, all I did was turn 180 degrees and start this piece of the Skagit river right behind me. I was drawn to the atmospheric distance of the far hills, the reflection in the water and the vertical element of the cottonwood trees in the middle ground.
 I'm starting to get a little routine going after these painting trips, one of which is to set the paintings up when I get home and study where I can improve each piece ..or not...In the case of the Conway Church, I did very little.  In the Skagit River painting,  I worked it over adjusting value and hue problems pretty extensively with the photos I took on location.
 I also thought at the time that this would make a good location for a workshop with parking and different subjects to paint ...As it turned out I was able to come back a week later and teach five eager students at this spot!!  I'll post about that adventure a bit later.  BTW, postings on my blog are currently running about three weeks late..my facebook postings are more recent...=]
  Suns out!   I better get painting!

"Conway Lutheran Church" LaConner plein air oil painting by Robin Weiss

"Conway Lutheran Church" 12x12 plein air, oil on panel  $525

I headed back up to LaConner after the group show to connect with Mark Bistranin and to do some painting on my own.  This church in Conway was my first stop. I had been passing it frequently and knew it would make a great painting in the morning light.

underpainting

  There was a perfect spot for me to pull off the road and set up on the dike for a good view of the church.  In this picture you see my underpainting to sketch in the composition and set value transitions.

Step two

In this pic I am filling in the color. Starting with the darkest values of the roof and shadow areas and along the entire horizon line. Then I come in with the lightest sky values and paint around the darks paying close attention to my edges and keeping the color clean. After that I will move down the painting , modeling the grasses and using the drive into the parking lot as a lead into the painting.

"Rosario Beach" Deception Pass State Park, plein air oil painting by Robin Weiss

Rosario Beach 8x12 oil on panel    Sold

One of the state parks we went to was Deception Pass, which has several areas that you can enjoy. We ended up at Rosario Beach. I have never been to this area before and was taken by the beautiful views of the strait.

I attempted two other paintings at the park this day and ended up scraping them both!..One was this boat setting at a little dock which I thought was a good idea at the time..Oh well . Not every painting is a masterpiece..

I tried one more at the end of the day and just didn't have the gas to get er done.... Too much hiking  and eating and having fun talking to everyone .

Sometimes , when paintings are not working for you it's best to stop and redirect. Just enjoy the awesome beauty of Gods creation. Take a few deep breaths , give yourself some space and trust that the inspiration will come back to you the next day.

After all you have some well "toned" canvases to start with!..=]

"View of Cultus Mountain" LaConner , plein air painting by Robin Wiess

"View of Cultus Mountain" LaConner  8x12 oil on panel  Sold

The LaConner area is a plein air painters paradise!  Not only are there paintable views in every direction , there are also lots of places to pull off the road and set up.  I found this spot just past the round-about at the end of Morris Street.

I came back here twice, once at the end of the day when the late afternoon sun was setting the landscape a-glow....I'll have to try that one from the photo......but the more I paint outside the less I want to use photos!...=]

"LaConner Boats" plein air, marine scape, oil painting by Robin Weiss

"LaConner Boats"  9x12 oil on linen panel    Sold

When we first arrived in LaConner, Ann,  Paula Ensign and I did a quick scout of the town. I decided on this spot. A great view of the boats and the orange bridge from the deck of a building that is not in use.

I used a canvas that was re-purposed from a former failed attempt at plein air painting.....Feel like I redeemed myself a bit with this painting!

"Indian Slough" LaConner, plein air, oil , landscape painting by Robin Weiss

"Indian Slough"  6x8 oil on panel. Sold

Since my last post a lot of plein air painting has been happening!! First of all the Plein Air Washington Painters had a group show at the Seaside Gallery in LaConner Washington.

PAWA group show at the Seaside Gallery

The show was hosted by the good folks at the Seaside Gallery.
Mark Bistranin, Mark Conley and Dave Nichols. Each fine artists and great guys!

We all brought a few studio paintings and some plein air work for the show on Saturday night. My painting "Tulip Time" sold among others that night!



The plan for this PAWA event was to have the group show on Saturday, then paint all the next week and have a wet painting show the following Saturday.

 A quick demo for Christine at Bayview State Park

We visited two state parks as a group and then I did some more painting in and around Laconner on my own... I have a lot of paintings and photos to post from this trip so stay tuned!...All in all it was a great week.

By the way,  Ann and I stayed at The Wild Iris  bed and breakfast , which I highly recommend if you want a romantic get-away  in a great little town!...=]