Dana Passage Cloud Studies

5/8/10 "Dana Passage Clouds 5", 8" x 10", Oil

5/8/10 "Dana Passage Clouds 4", 9" x 9", Oil
This is the view off my back deck.  I can see a lot more water than this, but my subjects today were the clouds, again.  Everything here is so blue--the sky, the water, the distant islands, the atmosphere--so it is a big challenge to paint, at least during mid-day.  I'm trying to fix the different characters of clouds in my mind.  Today the clouds started small near the horizon, but oddly, they came toward me, which is unusual--they usually go west to east. This is a view looking north and finally the breeze from the north is starting to become warmer, rather than icy cold.  I'm posting two of the cloud paintings today so you can see my observations.

Dry Falls Shadows

5/7/10 "Dry Falls Shadows", 8" x 10", Oil
One of the days I was in Walla Walla was rainy, so I actually painted this from a Dry Falls photo on my computer in my motel room--a first for me!  I was so paranoid I laid plastic everywhere.  The main things I like about this painting are that its not tortured--its just a lot of big paint strokes, and I like the colors.

Dry Falls Basalt

5/6/10 "Dry Falls Basalt", 8" x 10", Oil
Imagine a waterfall three and a half miles wide and 400 feet high, with flood waters from the massive Lake Missoula plunging every 50 years across an area that had been repeatedly covered with successive lava flows, in some places two miles thick, the second biggest lava field in the world now known as the Columbia Plateau.  What you see now beneath the dry head walls of the falls are big chunks of oxidized black basalt.  It is spring there now and there have been a lot of rains (it rained the day we were there after which the wind blew with substantial gusto).  So the desert floor is a dusky green.  A really beautiful area and a challenge to paint.

Lake Lenore

5/5/10 "Lake Lenore", 8" x 10", Oil
Painting out of doors after being in the studio for most of the winter is a humbling experience.  Dealing with all the gear and nature's elements as part of the outdoor painting experience is both exhilarating and sometimes a great challenge.  This was the first painting I did on the trip to Dry Falls.  Lake Lenore is part of a long string of lakes and coulee's that were created by the Missoula Floods during the ice ages.  It is a dry, rocky, windy and deserty area with a lot of sage and usually a lot of sun.  I rushed off to SE Washington at the end of the trip because my daughter had broken her foot, so I'm not sure this photo I took of the painting is very accurate.  I can see some small areas I probably would have "fixed up" and I still might when I get back, but in the spirit of posting a daily painting--here it is!

Dry Falls Cliffs - Sold

5/4/10 "Dry Falls Cliffs", 9" x 9", Oil - SOLD

This is one of the paintings from Dry Falls this past weekend.  Dry Falls is the remnant of the largest known waterfall in the world that occurred as a result of the Missoula Flood.  Click here for a complete description of this incredible geologic event.  I've actually seen the wave patterns on the land of Eastern Washington from 30,000 feet above in an airplane.  The rock is a kind of blackish basalt and hard to paint as it is not luminous, but the land is beautiful and the winds over the weekend were fierce.

Farm Near Joseph

5/3/10 "Farm Near Joseph", 10" x 12", Oil
This is of the sky near Joseph, Oregon, a beautiful area beneath the Wallowa Mountains.  On this painting day I set the timer and quit when it went off.  Just like being outside when the light changes, the time element focuses the mind.  Its a little rough, but I like the general feeling of it.

Idaho Sundown - SOLD

5/2/10 "Idaho Sundown", 8" x 10", Oil
Eastern Idaho also has big skies that are beautiful at sundown.  I'm still in Eastern Washington, so this is another "extra" painting I did last week.

Escalante Hillside

5/1/10 "Escalante Hillside", 9" x 9", Oil
This is one of the Escalante cloud painting I did last week in my studio from a photo taken on an October day when clouds covered the big sky of Southeastern Utah.  I was interested in the cool tones of the hillside in the subdued light against the sky.  Right now I'm in Eastern Washington with friends painting in the scab lands of Washington State.  For those of you not from this area, these lands were formed by the massive Missoula Flood that occurred over and over during the ice age as the ice dam holding back a monstrous lake in Montana burst and flooded nearly all of Eastern Washington.  Hopefully I'll get a couple of good paintings and tell you more about the geology of this beautiful area.