GRASS HARVEST

This is a 16x20 oil plein air painting of the corner of Day Road and 305---Bainbridge Island. For people who don't know the island, 305 is the main road connecting the ferry with the Olympic Peninsular and so it is very busy and it runs at the bottom of this painting.  In order to actually see this vista, I had to be on the opposite corner and on a hill and I had to get permission from my vet, because it is on his property. Talking of vets. My wonderful dog Blossom, photographed here back in June, had to be anaesthetised because it turned out that she had bone cancer and was in so much pain I had to put her out of her misery. What a great dog for such a short time.

Marsh on Whidbey

This is a small plein air oil painting from a Whidbey Pleinair Open Paintout.
It will be in my show which opens at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts Gallery in Winslow, Bainbridge Island on October 1-November 1. I will be exhibiting with ceramic artist Nana Kuo and the show is called
INSIDE & OUTSIDE THE LINE. I hope you can come and see it.

Winter Gold

In the summer of 2009 I took a great Monoprint workshop from Wendy Orville. This image came after working with values of black or brown for three days and I needed to let loose and play with more color. Something spontaneous that worked.
I intended to continue monoprinting but circumstances made it too difficult at that time. So the following 3 images are this year's beginnings.

Sound View

This is approximately the view outside our living room window. The background was printed first with transparent colors and then the drawing was done on a clean plate and printed.

Brighton. UK

Another Monoprint experiment

Beach

This is a ghost print of a monoprint I did in a workshop with Wendy Orville this summer. I intend to experiment much more this winter. I think I said that last summer but it took a whole year to get round to it again!

Evening in the rabbit's hangout.

This is oil paint over the oil pastel mentioned 2 images below. Most of the oil pastel marks disappeared but provided a strong structure for this painting.

Second Battle Point Park study

This was the second drawing mentioned below. The intention is to paint with gouache over this, because the oil pastel will reject the water based paint. I haven't done this yet.

Snatch the sun

The late afternoon of a grey day, was suddenly sunny so I made haste to Battle Point Park yet again. This is the first of a very quick study in Oil pastel, on a board that had a pink tinted gesso finish. I followed it with another study using oil pastel, but this time on a white gesso board and an extension of the image looking left. Time involved was mazimum one hour but probably was less. I say this because they were not ponderous drawings but more like spider wanderings in color.

My new companion

Blossom is our new dog. This was her first painting expedition, at least her first with me. Would you say she was perfectly comfortable? This is a dog that likes COMPANY.

Bainbridge Island Fish Farm

Another moody gouache, another gloomy day. Actually the day started off with rain, but by the time we met at the farm it was dry and grey. Then after about 2 hours, when we were ready to leave, the sun came out. Maybe we should start painting in the afternoon!

Rialto Beach again

Back in the studio I made a free pencil and gouache painting of Rialto Beach as I remember it, using color freely and having more than one focal point. Very moody. I like this painting. I need the representational plein air paintings as a back-bone before I can play with a more free idea.

Wooden Boat Regatta

This was an afternoon oil painting. It was windy but still very sunny. For some reason I managed to make it look stormier than it really was and working on it when I got home made it worse. Oh well, we had a good time.

Hotel in Port Townsend

This is the morning gouache on a recent painting trip with a group of Plein Air Washington painters. The day before it poured with rain, the day after ditto. This day was wonderful.

Anti Green tweaked

I mainly made the purple trees less purple and lightened up the tree on the left to create a focal point.

Anti Green

The morning at Battle Point Park started out sunny, but fairly shortly after deciding on a spot to paint, it became gray and an hour later it was raining.
The view was greeeeeeen. Not surprising since it is Spring in the Northwest. Anyway, I was determined to make a warm painting. Maybe the purple in the trees, back right, are too dark and I expect I shall change that.

Rialto Beach

This is a small oil pastel on textured gesso board. Our daughter came to visit for a few days, so we thought it would be fun to take a 2 day trip around the Olympic Peninsular. The first day was continual rain but the second day was dry and windy. We went to one of our favorite beaches on the coast, Rialto Beach, and while the 'young' walked the 'old' sat in the shelter of a huge log. For me, the above painting does give the 'flavor' of the day but the accompanying drawings were too hopeless to print.

Golden Rain

From time to time I like to play with paint and color and that is what I am doing here. It is quite possible I will add and maybe even draw, but for now this is it. If you look at it vertically with the orange at the top, it is reflections in water

Battle Point Park revisited

I have painted the pond at Battle Point Park multiple times and when I came across this painting recently I decided it needed some more work. If I had photographed before changing it, you could have commented on whether you think it is an improvement.
Incidentally, you should be able to make comments without subscribing to Google.

Battle Point Park

I made a quick pencil sketch at Battle Point Park. Quick because dog, Zachary, was anxious to get on. Some time later I painted a gouache from the sketch. And later still, I decided to give it a bit more energy with acrylic. After protecting the paint with a finish I shall frame without glass.

The Chess Players

I went to the local grocery store for a cup of coffee and these men were playing chess. They play every day apparently, but I had not seen them before. This is an oil painted back in the studio. My friend took photographs with my camera and it will be fun to see what she paints later.

The chess Players again.

I had a canvas covered with swirly bright oil colors pinned to a board in my studio, waiting for inspiration. It seemed appropriate to put the chess players in more of a silhouette this time. I ended up framing them as a diptych.

Nisqually in March.

I sometimes paint with Plein Air Painter's of Washington and this was our first outing this year. We went to Nisqually National Wildlife Center south of Tacoma, WA.It was chilly and somewhat windy, but that is not unusual for March.It is known for a refuge for migrating birds and so is a very exciting, beautiful place. I worked in gouache for the first day and in oil the next day.We always have a great time painting together and renewing friendships.

Nisqually Afternoon

It certainly did look like rain when I started this gouache painting, so I had to work even faster than usual. It did rain about the time I had got the paper covered and I ended up working on it back in the studio. The sky needed lightening and the trees needed to be brighter. Gouache is so forgiving and fun to work with.

Nisqually Morning

This is an oil painting where I started out treating oil paint rather like water color. As the shapes progressed I used thicker paint ending using a palette knife.

Migration Magic

At about 3.30 each afternoon the sky became filled with short necked geese circling and eventually landing on the water. Magic in the air.

Summer Dance

Gouache. Thinking 75% light and 25% dark, with figures in a landscape.

Beach in Oregon

This beach is immediately north of Canon Beach, Oregon. Actually it was early in the morning and a very low tide but the gouache painting was done in the studio from my photograph.

Neah Bay, WA

Gouache painting from a gift photograph. I haven't actually been there, so this was something I had not done before. I had to sit in the Women Painter's Gallery where my paintings are hanging so I took my paints with me, and presto I had a wonderful time and a painting I am pleased with.

Foggy Morning in Sussex, UK

Gouache and pastel painting of foggy morning when driving with my sister in England.

Spirited Eleanor

This is our grandaughter who has just started dancing with Pacific Northwest Ballet Company and I portrayed her as a black gouache figure on bright pastel stage dancing through floating leaves. The plan was to have a black silhouette in front of a bright background.