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.