Switch to local scenes

Continuing my daily painting. Now at number 31 (in 33 days). I'm doing local scenes from the past summer, to relieve the cold cloudy weather lately in Seattle. Was sunny today though so cool crisp day, with a full moon tonight. These works are 5x7 and 6x8. The top two are views from the Seattle Horticultural Center at Univ. of Washington. Next is a willow tree looking north toward Lake Union. Last two are about 30 miles north of Seattle. They are a tree orchard and mountains as seen from the I-5 highway, looking east.

Christmas Eve post

Moving into the holidays with two more 6x8 daily paintings. First one is sunset at Fort Lauderdale as we cruised out to sea and had a great view of the skyline just as darkness hit. There is a cruise boat heading away from us in the right hand distance. Now have 27 paintings in past 29 days. Gives me the chance to try out various images and scenes without worrying about success at each one. Pulling together a weaker scene I learn more in the long run.     

Other work is another beach scene at Grand Turk. White sand and turquoise water. Can't beat it for swimming and sunning. No surf, just lapping waves. 

   

Daily Paintings

The topmost daily painting from the last post, Half Moon Cay, tied for first place in a monthly contest held at the EAFA, (formerly Eastside Assoc. of Fine Arts, now to be called Evergreen Assoc.) meetings. About 8-12 works are brought in each month and the meeting attendees vote on their favorites, so it's kind of a quality and popularity contest. Always nice to get honors, however small. 

Here are a few more daily paintings. I did a larger version, 12x16 of the Half Moon Cay painting before the meeting mentioned above as I thought it was a nice work, deserving of more work. 

Below are:
San Juan Harbor, 5x7. The harbor was too windy, as seen in the water and misty atmosphere, for the cruise ship to dock, so this is as close as I came to San Juan.
The square picture is 7x7 and is from a park in Arizona.
The flower filled field, 5x7, is from a visit to California.
The last work, also 5x7, is Washington's mountains and forests. 

As you can see, this was a geographical variety week. 

Caribbean Trip Daily Paintings

Spent a week cruising the Caribbean on Holland America for an anniversary celebration. Tight quarters but managed to paint every day except the two cross country flight days. It's a long way from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Took my 5x7 paint box and painted after a day of beach fun and sightseeing. Here are the results.

The first one is a 6x8 completed after returning home. It's a view of Half Moon Cay from the cruise ship. Others are from St. Thomas and Grand Turk and are 5x7. The two similar ones are the barrier island sheltering the cruise terminals at Ft. Lauderdale. I tried in these to capture the various blues and greens of the ocean and sky, which varied greatly. I usually carry both ultramarine blue and thalo and needed both to create the variations. The derelict ship, a residue from damage caused by Hurricane Sandy on Grand Turk island, especially let me use a wide range of blues in the sun dappled water and sky. 

Two more daily paintings

These are local Seattle scenes, a 6x8 view from Gas Works Park, looking toward the west and highway 99. The other is the path in Magnuson Park, near the beach, and it's 5x5. 

Daily Paintings going well

Continuing to do a small painting every day as an exercise in discipline and to take advantage of all the extra images captured during outdoor painting this summer. Here is another batch of work.These are, in order:
6x8, Eastlake View
5x7, Seattle Skyline
6x8, Skagit River Scene
4x4, Skagit River 
8x15, Interstate-5
6x15, Horticultural Center View    

Daily Painting

Have been working on some show entries for Puget Sound Group and also Eastside Association so not much new painting going on. To get back into the swing, and due to a long time fascination with the daily painting concept started a few years ago, I decided to try it. I have hundreds of landscape references from photos I took over the so decided to work on these, especially ones I hadn't done before. The works range from 4x6 to 6x8 inches and let me work on color and style. Here are some early samples. Views are Washington and Oregon scenes. The top is a 5x7 scene from the Oregon coast with driftwood in the foreground that I've always put aside but I feel I finally did a decent version of it. 
Next is one of a series of Oregon Haystack Rocks I've painted over the years, 4x6.
Third down is the dead end of my street, Sunnyside Ave. N. Once a car crashed through the trees at the center and ended up down on the street shown. This one is 6x8.
Last is a scene near Mt. Vernon Washington that I had done in a large version but I put more color in this small 5x7, and now need to rethink the larger version. It seems some paintings are never done.

New Plein Air work

This is an 8x10 oil from a scene in the Seattle Horticultural Garden, facing west, over a pond. I believe that's the Intramural Athletics building in the background. I tried a more pointillist, or broken color style, with some of the red-orange underpainting showing through. 

More Plein Air Work

Here are several more paintings done from my outdoor sessions this fall. Top one is an 11x14 version of a painting I've done a few variations of. It's an idyllic summer evening with a lone canoe near the water lilies on the west side of  Green Lake, near my home in  Seattle.

Below that is an 8x16 view southwest toward Lake Washington and the 520 Bridge from the Seattle Horticultural Center grounds.

At bottom, is an 8x10 version of the beached boats at Lake Sammamish  State Park east of Seattle. 

Weather continues great in this area however outdoor painting season is probably over as it cools down. Rains come back this weekend, finally, as we need the water now after over two months with only a sprinkling of rain. Grass has turned mainly yellow and nights are turning cool at 40's.    

Outdoor work

Seattle weather has held up during our mini-drought. Now about 60 days with only one rainy day. Plein Air Group from Eastside Association of Fine Arts visited Lake Sammamish Park for yesterday's outdoor painting session. ($10 to park). Here are two small 6x8 works I almost completed while there. Both show the beach with the second one showing some of the kayaks stored on the beach.  One more organized session this year.

Other recent work

Catching up on the blogging after a busy period painting outdoors and reworking my style. Here are some other recent works. The top one is an 8x10 of a Hawaii scene I've liked and had done a small version in 5x7 so wanted to enlarge it. 

Second scene is from a Park in Cottonwood, Arizona, and is also 8x10.

Third down is a view of downtown Seattle from Gasworks Park. It was a cloudy day but I wanted to brighten the colors and work on my brushstroke style. It's 8x10 done on a canvas pad sheet. 

Fourth and fifth at bottom are from a Plein Air (outdoor) session at the Edmonds, Washington waterfront, near the ferry dock. I find outdoors I don't get enough value contrast at times, ie., light and dark, so have to rework these a little indoors afterward. These are my preferred outdoor size, 6x8. With this size, I can block in and underlying design in a neutral color, and get a pretty well finished work in an hour plus. Also, the 6x8 paintbox I built is a good compromise of size and weight. I have now made paintboxes in 9x12, 8x10, 6x8, and 5x7 sizes. Yes, I go overboard on the woodworking, but I enjoy making these. Now use the 6x8 the most of all and save the 5x7 for packing in a suitcase when I travel. 8x10 is designed to screw onto my tripod but I find it difficult to get the paint coverage for that size in a session outdoors. In any case I take photo references of whatever I paint outdoors for later details and rework as needed. 

Paper Towel Paintings retouched

Back in the studio I reworked my two paper towel paintings toward the style I've been working on, with firmer more evident brush strokes. 

Paper Towel Paintings

Painted outdoors last week and as set up my gear, realized I forgot to pack my brushes. I tried my palette knife but it was too difficult to fill in the canvas texture and on a small palette I couldn't mix enough volume of paint so...my solution was to wrap a paper towel around my index finger and paint that way. Here are the two works I began that way at the Seattle Horticultural Center. This is a park next to the University of Washington campus in Seattle and contains nice paths and several ponds as well as having views of Lake Washington and Mount Rainier. A nice place to paint. These two 6x8 works are at one of the ponds. There is a looseness in the work I like.

Outdoor painting season

I have been outdoors every other week or so this summer with the EAFA group. Here is the latest small work,6x8,  finished indoors because I forgot my brushes and had to start several works with my gloved fingertip and a paper towel. Sometimes you must improvise! Here I am finally getting some of the brushstroke characteristics I've been working toward, especially in the foreground. Will post more recent work soon, including the paper towel versions. 

New Arizona landscape painting

A new landscape of the Verde River in Cottonwood, Arizona. It's done in oils and is 14x18 in size. I tried to capture the Arizona light using a limited color palette. This work will be for sale at the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters Auction on Sept. 29th in  the Seattle Design Center.  

Three works on exhibit

I have had 3 works selected for the Eastside Association of Fine Arts "Anything Goes Show" that begins next week at the Seattle Design Center, in south Seattle. These are from my "Swirls" series that begin with many lines and then I color in and add more lines until I develop a rich surface. I first did these in small pencil and marker works, then expanded them until now these are 52x42 inches in size. It's my first chance to exhibit several of them together. They are titled "Infinity", Black, Red X, and Blue, as looking at the works is like staring into the universe. 

New small landscapes

Had trouble again with the software but found a workaround.
Here are 3 small landscapes. Bottom two are painted using a limited palette, just blue, ochre, and white. Top one is an outdoor work completed indoors due to rain washing out the rest of the session. The two limited palette works are 5x7 and 6x8 while the  more colorful work is 6x8 and shows a view from Seattle's arboretum area, with a highway overpass in the distance.