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.

"Seans Rental"

It will be interesting to get the feedback on this painting.... Another disaster that got saved .........at least its not a frisby. Heres the process of how NOT to paint

Started the painting late after work , and tired.

Used an image I was uninspired by but thought had potential

Used a palette of old paint left over from two days ago.

Put the paint on quickly without a plan and cursed, cryed, tore my robes and put on sack cloth and ashes because the painting was CRAP.

Went to bed, read " The Hope " by Herman Wouk till I calmed down and fell asleep.

Got up at 5:30 stumbled into the kitchen and got coffee stumbled into the studio to see the painting..............still CRAP

Decided I was not going to waste a panel so I grabed a drywall knife and scraped the paint horizontally with allot of pressure (still mad)

Amazingly the image of the shed remained. even the detail on the windows , scraped it again, .. still there......Wow ... looks allot better! Went back in with some more old paint and touched it up a bit......

I'm sure I learned something useful during this whole thing. I don't recommend this process for any serious artist , especially the crying and cursing part , but hey... whatever works... SOLD

Peonies in a hard to paint vase, watercolor ,floral

Heres the setup out on the back deck.
Heres the painting..... I had a tough time with that vase,think I'll give it a go with oil and see what happens.

Rosie , watercolor, cat

First time I painted my cat. Shes a good studio buddy. I did this one plein air ,and she didn't budge the whole time.

The look says " Your not gonna do that stupid hokey pokey again ?"

Red Fence, oil landscape, poppies

Another one of my backyard. Its also another one that got too complicated so in a last ditch effort we pull out the over size chunking brush and smoosh it all around and then you do the hokey pokey and throw it on the ground, say a little prayer, close your eyes , shoot some paint from the hip and .........Voila ..... post that sucker. 6x9 oil on masonite, $95.00 SOLD

Feeder with Peonies oil landscape,birdfeeders,flowers

For some reason I don't paint in my backyard much. I always want to go someplace more "interesting". but yesterday pulling my hair out because there is no time to paint I grabbed the easel and plunked er down in the old backyard. I did one more I'll post later. 6x6, oil on masonite, $75.00

Misty Field, oil, landscape,5x7

Even though they are developing like crazy around here we still have lots of open fields to paint. It's one of the great things about being an artist, to be able to preserve natural beauty for future generations at least on canvas. So I better get painting because these fields are going fast.
oil on masonite, SOLD

Down by Holly, oil landscape,6x6

Where the salmon run up the creek at Anderson cove in Holly, which is on the Kitsap penninsula,Washington state. I used to drive up here allot when I was delivering home heating fuel oil. You could see the seals coming way up the creek hunting the salmon in the fall.

View from Whidby Island, oil landscape

Ok I'm going to try and post more paintings for the month of July. Us folks at Daily Painters will try and post 2000 original paintings collectively this month. That means the paintings will be smaller and faster which may be a good disipline for me. This one is 5"x 7" oil on masonite panel, you can pick it up for $75.00. Email me at robinweiss@earthlink.net

Jims Shed, watercolor landscape

This is the view from the patio at the Knowles Studio in Poulsbo where I am giving lessons in watercolor painting. There is a workshop coming up in July and you can check the specifics by clicking on the Knowles studio link in my link section.

I'll be doing more smaller impressionistic painings this month to try and keep up with the effort at Daily Painters to post 2000 original paintings in July.

I went into Seattle to do a photo shoot at Trinity Parish Church up on First Hill for a commision painting. My photographs usually aren't to good as I'm just looking for reference shots. But occasionally I get a surprise shot thats pretty good. I was taking pictures of this cross with the red door thinking it was a nice composition with the door as a focal point when this homeless guy walked by feeding the pidgeons and I just happened to snap this one at the right moment.

I've since found out that in the Episcopal faith the red door signifies the Holy Spirit and the pidgeon looks like a dove to me in this shot which also represents the Holy Spirit, which gives this image allot of meaning for me.

In my experiance the best photos don't always make the best paintings but never the less I will give this one my best effort and hope you like it Sarah.

Seattle Storefront, urban landscape, oil

I'm glad to be done with this painting, Seems like I am spending more and more time on each piece , painting tighter when I really want to get looser. And now that I see this painting on the site I see some further work to do. 9"x12" oil on masonite panel $195.00

Cat, graphite on mat board

Meet Yowwy , the cat.

Painting in progress

I'm working on this painting. Its based on a picture I took downtown Seattle. The imagery is a little strange and I'm not sure the message I am trying to get across yet , I'm just kinda going with it and we'll see how it shakes out. The first title that came to my head was " Back to the Future" as it seems sort of futuristic sci-fi to me. I da know , what do you think?

red boat

I went down to the Poulsbo marina to paint on a nice Saturday afternoon. It was very peaceful and relaxing. Breakfast at Sheilas was yummy. My first attempt at painting the boats was a disaster. I got way too complicated with masts and reflections and other boats and just junk in the composition. It was very frustrating. So I just grabbed my biggest chunking brush and smeared it all into three major shapes and then modeled the boat a bit and called it good. Can't win em all.

Scotch Broom, plein air, landscape

Every year about this time the scotch broom blooms. the species is non native, invasive and a curse for many who suffer from allergys. You see so much of it that most people consider it a nuisance and an eyesore, kinda like dandylions. But like dandylions it can be quite beautiful in many ways. Quite a challenge to paint as the actual color of the stuff is difficult to render accurately. .... And don't even think about trying to pull it out without a chain and a pickup. SOLD

The artist in the process of receiving an awful sunburn on the back of the legs

This is where my mom lives, surrounded by scotch broom.

Metro Bus, Seattle, urban landscape, oil

For my Seattle city series, 12"x 9" oil on masonite, $175.00
Email me at robinweiss@earthlink.net for more info. SOLD

Volunteers plein air,floral

California poppies by the studio door.

Peonies#3 watercolor, still life, floral

Here they are again.

peonies#2 , watercolor. stilllife, floral

The second painting I did on Saturday. These peonies are the dinner plate sized variety and they are spectacular right now. you only have a limited time as they fade quickly. 10x10 watercolor on arches cold press paper $75.00