Friday, December 30, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 9 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 9", 4 x 6, Oil on Museum Board
This is my last small Grand Canyon sketch for now. Doing this series in the early part of December got me through the holiday postings, a time I never find easy. I've done many more paintings since, and they've been all over the map. It has been two years since I started the "daily" blog. I do paint almost every day but a few months ago decided to post only every two days so I'd have paintings to post during trips and so I could be more experimental, which sometimes means failure! But if failure is success in trying something new, it is well worth it. I wish you all a wonderful New Year!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 8 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 8", 4 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board
In my 20's I hiked down the Bright Angel trail and across the Tonto Platform to Hermit. The feeling of being alone with the immensity of the rock walls was almost overwhelming.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 7 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 7", 4 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board
Downstream from the Inner Gorge, the canyon becomes more open again.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Reds and Greens

"Reds and Greens", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Panel
Happy Holidays to all! I hope the visual world provided you with great bounty over the past year and will continue to do so in the next! It is always there for us--

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 5 - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sketch 5", 4 x 6 In, Oil on Museum Board SOLD
Between the rapids on the Colorado, the water is like glass. The first indication of the coming rapids is the inimitable sound coming from ahead.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 4 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 4", 5 x 7 In, Oil on Museum Board
It can be cold on the river, and there's another thing--you have to be careful where you pitch your tent because they release more or less water from the dam.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 3 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 3", 5 x 7 In, Oil on Museum Board SOLD
To see the canyon from the rim is amazing enough, but to travel down the river is another world. The uplift that peaks around the Inner Gorge means that as you travel down stream from Lee's Ferry, the age of the rock at the river's edge is older and older until you reach the black schist that is 1.7 billion years old. And then from the Inner Gorge to Diamond Creek where we left the river, we came back up through geologic time.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 2 - NFS

"Grand Canyon Sketch 2", 4 x 6, Oil on Museum Board

This painting was given in the painting gift exchange of our local plein air painters group, Plein Air Washington--a wonderful and talented group of people. All the small paintings in this series were painted in 30 minutes. I find doing timed paintings one of the best ways to reconnect with inspiration and motivation.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Grand Canyon Sketch 1 - SOLD

"Grand Canyon Sketch 1", 5 x 7 In, Oil on Museum Board
A couple of weeks ago when I was in the painting doldrums, I decided to do timed quick sketches of one of my favorite subjects--the Grand Canyon. Twice I have been on the Sedona Art Center painter's trip down the Colorado--200 miles through the Inner Gorge. These were some of the most memorable experiences of my life. We painted at every stop, but also, sitting on the raft (sometimes hanging on), there was time to take hundreds of photos of every bend in the river. So during the holidays I am going to post these small sketches and you can relive the journey with me.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Desert Bush

"Desert Bush", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This time of year is both dark and distracting. The sun goes down about 4 pm. There are too many things to do. It is easier to do fast painting and that suits me. This is a fast painting from a simple photo of a desert bush.

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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Zangle Fall Mid-Morning - SOLD

"Zangle Fall Mid-Morning", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Panel - SOLD
Sometimes I go back to the scene outside my window. I don't really know what to say about it--its always there, always changing, and somehow always a challenge to paint.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Quinault River - SOLD

"Quinault River North", 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
These were painted at another quick stop on the road up the west side of the Quinault River. It was a gloriously cold and sunny day, in between some very rainy days that are typical for Olympic National Park.


"Quinault River South" 6 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board

Monday, December 5, 2011

Quinault Back Road

12/5/11 "Quinault Back Road" 5 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
We painted up the Quinault River in the Olympic National Park, jumping out of the cars for quick sketches. These were painted at the first 30 minute stop. I love doing sketches like this--no time for thought or reconsideration--just the hand and the eye, and then letting it be what it is.
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12/6/11 "Quinault Color" 5 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Green Vase and Pumpkin

"Green Vase and Pumpkin", 10 x 12 In, Oil on Museum Board
A pumpkin, round and big and orange, seems a difficult item for a still life, but I enjoyed painting the contrast of colors. I tried to place the objects not exactly the way they were in the setup so that the pumpkin wouldn't overwhelm.

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Thursday, December 1, 2011

Green Glass Vase


"Green Glass Vase", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
I love landscape painting so much that my choice would rarely be to do still life. But sometimes there is just too much rain around here and that means you need to be inside. A still life is a wonderful challenge.

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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Still Life with Apple - SOLD

"Still Life with Apple", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
A group of gals painting at a beautiful cabin up the Quinault in the Olympic National Park. This was paradise. But unlike the Tetons where there were stormy days but little rain, this particular National Park is a rain forest. So two of our days were inside with still life setups.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Mt. Moran - SOLD

"Mt. Moran", 14 x 14 In, Oil on Panel
This is the same spot where the mama grizzly and cubs came through. It was strange painting in the cold and partly overcast, stormy skies. Much too windy for an umbrella, I didn't always gauge the light correctly and some of the paintings, when I brought them inside, seemed pretty dark. But I hope you can see something of how beautiful it was. You can probably tell I like to travel--I especially love to drive across the west. Here is a driving song from my daughter, Liz Townsend.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Sunset Near Jackson - NFS

"Sunset Near Jackson", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Panel
We painted every day from morning until after the sun went down. This last painting was a fast one because the light changed so quickly. The evening of this painting a mama grizzly and three cubs ran about 40 feet from us down to the river. It was an amazingly beautiful sight as the bears crossed the river right in front of us in the low but iridescent light and disappeared into the bush. I am awed at the number of mama grizzlies with cubs I've seen in the past couple of years on painting trips--Denali, Glacier and the Tetons. Guess I'm just hanging out in the right places!

My niece, who lives in Jackson, questioned whether the bears I saw there were actually grizzlies. First, in the case of the two Denali mama grizzlies and cubs and the Glacier National Park mama grizzly and cubs on the north shore of Lake Josephine, there were expert witnesses--the guides. In the case of the Tetons I have no doubt it was a mama grizzly because she crossed the river no more than 150 feet from our painting group and I could see clearly the typical hump back shape of a grizzly as compared to a black bear. There are many grizzlies in the Tetons I later found out and it is possible that the mama grizzly we saw down on the river was the same one reported crossing the main Teton highway in June--the famous Bear "399" otherwise known as the Angelina Jolie of grizzlies in the Grand Tetons. I can't be sure about this, because the cubs we saw were a lot bigger and I don't know how much they grow in four months.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Grand Teton - NFS

"Grand Teton", 9 x 12 In, Oil on Panel
All bundled up with multiple layers and wind pants, I painted this at a turn out in the Teton National Park in mid-October. It was really cold and windy with stormy clouds and a few sun breaks, but an incredibly glorious place. I'm not selling any of these paintings--I'm still pondering the lessons learned. 

Monday, November 21, 2011

Sky Study

"Sky Study", 5 x 9 In, Oil on Museum Board
Often when I am in between things I turn to the ever changing view from my studio. There is always something to study, always an experiment in front of me.

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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Morning Light

"Morning Light", 8 x 10 In, Oil
This is the last of the images from Glacier National Park for now. The mountains had such a powerful impact on me that my feeling memories are vivid. These places are important for our souls.

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Above Lake Josephine

"Above Lake Josephine", Oil on Panel, 8 x 10
Another vista of Glacier National Park late in the afternoon.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Medicine Lake - SOLD

"Medicine Lake", Oil on Panel, 9 x 12
Some subjects just call out to be painted, even though they are a challenge. This subject, with its nuances, was one of those for me.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Trail to Grinnell Glacier

"Trail to Grinnell Glacier", Oil on Panel, 12 x 16
What I didn't put into the painting were all the mountain sheep in this spot on the way to the Grinnell Glacier. They were on the trail and in the meadows and some hikers were using dubious means to get them off the trail because they had very big horns and seemed very curious.

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Falls at Many Glacier - SOLD

"Falls at Many Glacier", Oil on Panel, 11 x 14  SOLD
Back behind the lodge at Many Glacier the lake empties into a stream. They told us that if we kept hiking down the trail here, we would likely encounter bears.

Congratulations to my amazing niece, Erica, who summited Ama-Dablam in Nepal on 11/11/11--22,525 feet elevation!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Distance

"Distance", Oil on Panel, 9 x 12
Its always interesting to play with color to create distance. This is another scene from our painting trip along the east side of Glacier National Park. The Rockies are so grand compared to the intimate wildness of the Cascades, with the exception of Mt. Rainier and the other volcanos, of course. I often wonder what the Puget Sound area would be like without Mr. Rainier standing as a huge sentinel over the region, yet I have met people who have lived here for years who have never gone up to Paradise.

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Monday, November 7, 2011

Daybreak - SOLD

"Daybreak", Oil on Panel, 9 x 12
This is Mt. Wilber, directly across the lake from the lodge. Its difficult to really portray the grandeur of these mountains.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Early Morning Mt. Gould

"Early Morning Mt. Gould", Oil on Panel, 9 x 12

This is mainly a color study of the early morning light on the lake and Mt. Gould at Many Glacier.

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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Lake Josephine - SOLD

"Lake Josephine", Oil on Panel, 8 x 10

The colors of the lake and the hillside shadows are deep and so study was about color saturation.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Mt. Grinnell

"Mt. Grinnell", Oil on Panel, 9 x 12

This mountain stand across the lake from the Many Glacier Lodge. This view is from behind the lodge a short ways down into the canyon where the lake empties to a series of falls. There is a horse trail down to a valley and another lake, apparently a popular spot for bears.

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Garden Wall - SOLD

"The Garden Wall", Oil on Panel, 11 x 14

Sometimes when I get home from a trip like our painting trip to Glacier National Park, I can paint from my photos and feel that I'm still there. So this painting is from memory and my feelings about the place.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Falls from Grinnell Glacier - NFS

"Falls from Grinnell Glacier", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was my favorite painting from the trip and I'm hoping sometime to do a larger version. On the last day, my friend Mary Bee Kaufman and I hiked up the 4 miles from the end of Lake Josephine, 1600 feet elevation gain, to the Grinnell Glacier, the source of the falls in the painting. It was absolutely glorious. There were many mountain sheep on the way up near the top.

NFS

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Angel Wing

"Angel Wing", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
Another of my four paintings at Grinnell Lake, I think this is "Angel Wing", but I'm not positive. I tried to identify the peaks on the map, but the views change so dramatically from different vantage points. To get up to Grinnell Lake we scheduled on the early morning boat to the end of Swiftcurrent Lake, hiked the isthmus and took the second boat to the end of Lake Josephine. From there we hiked a mile up to Grinnell Lake. There was a family of grizzlies--a mom and probably two year old cubs--on the northern side of Lake Josephine and the second afternoon we came back from there, the cubs were running on the trail on the lakeside. We were glad we had taken the boat!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Up the Valley - NFS

"Up the Valley Many Glacier", 5 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
When we first got to the Many Glacier Lodge in the morning we had to wait to get into our rooms, so we set up on the lakeside in front of the lodge. This are two quick studies just to get my bearings. I turned the panel upside down to do the second one.
"Mt. Gould", 5 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board



Friday, October 21, 2011

Lake Grinnell Hillside - SOLD

"Lake Grinnell Hillside", 10 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
When I look around at the landscape in a particular spot and find I've already painted the obvious scenes, then I look for something more challenging. This was one of those paintings--a hillside mostly in shadow with a splash of light. It was a good lesson because as I started it I had no idea where I was going with it.

SOLD

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Above Grinnell Lake - SOLD

"Above Grinnell Lake", 8 x 8 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was actually my last painting of the trip on the day we hiked the mile up to Grinnell Lake, after the first three paintings. I wasn't sure I had another painting in me, but this view looking up from the lake toward the basin of the Grinnell Glacier was worth it.

SOLD

Monday, October 17, 2011

Mt. Wilber

"Mt. Wilber", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This is one of the views from the Many Glacier Lodge across Swiftcurrent Lake.  On the day we painted by the shore, there was a moose bathing, drinking, eating--whatever moose do--on the other side of the lake.

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Saturday, October 15, 2011

St. Mary Lake - SOLD

"St Mary Lake", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
When I travel, I frequently use all cotton museum board to paint on, something I learned from the late William Reese.  All of these Glacier National Park paintings are on 4-ply Risings museum board.

SOLD

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Hillside St. Mary

"Hillside St Mary", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
The sun setting put brilliant colors on the hillside behind St. Mary Lodge, partly because it is a burn area. There have been many burns in Glacier National Park and also to the east on the Indian reservation.

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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Haze at St. Mary Lake - SOLD

"Haze at St. Mary Lake", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
Its sometimes hard to make anything of mountains that are blue in the distance, so this was an experiment in painting close values. This is the valley where the Going to the Sun Road starts--a journey we could only take by Red Bus Tour because we came on the train.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Mt. Ellsworth

"Mt. Ellsworth", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was another painting done on the hike up from Medicine Lake. I'm not certain of the name of the peak, so if anybody is familiar with the mountains of Glacier, let me know.

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Friday, October 7, 2011

Tower Above St. Mary Lake

"Tower Above St. Mary Lake", 8 x 10, Oil on Museum Board
The second day at St. Mary Lake was hazy because of forest fires. We hiked about a mile and a half to a spot on the lake where there was a view up the valley.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Medicine Lake

"Medicine Lake", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
This was actually the first painting I did on the trip, having arrived at Glacier Park Lodge in the morning after an overnight train ride from Seattle. I met my friends at Medicine Lake and pulled out my paint gear. But this was the only painting I managed that day.

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Monday, October 3, 2011

Above Medicine Lake

"Above Medicine Lake", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
We took a shuttle from our lodge to Medicine Lake for the first three days of painting. On the third day, we hiked about a mile into the valley and a half mile up a ridge to get some different views for painting. I have a small Open M box that fits flat in the bottom of my very old and paint worthy backpack--so I can squeeze most of the paint I need out onto the palette ahead of time and get rid of the tube weight for the uphill climb.

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Saturday, October 1, 2011

Rising Wolf Mountain - SOLD

"Rising Wolf Mountain", 8 x 10 In, Oil on Museum Board
The next series of paintings are from my trip with nine other artists to Glacier National Park in September. This was an amazing journey with sunny weather the entire time. This painting is from a hike up the valley from Medicine Lake in the southeastern part of the park.

SOLD

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Zangle with Clouds - SOLD

"Zangle with Clouds", 12 x 14, Oil on Museum Board
This was done fast and loose with a big brush--an impression without the angst of re-doing a single part of it.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

By the Window - SOLD

"By the Window", 12 x 9 In, Oil on Panel
Another painting I experimented with, scraping and repainting--I was going to keep going but we went up to Mt. Rainier for the day and by the next day, too much of it was beginning to dry. So I left it as is.