Summer Cabins

 

Summer Cabins

9” x 12” watercolor

Julie Pryne sent me this wonderful photo of some summer cabins from her trip to Sweden. I loved the log structures with the metal roofs. I used several different techniques in getting the textures of the logs, decreasing the details as the cabins moved into the distance. The biggest problem here is my difficulty with trees.

I am trying to move away from painting tree symbols to painting realistic looking trees. I need to find more tree painting tutorials. I looked at a few today on YouTube, and one was very helpful for painting pine trees. That would have been good for this painting. I think I will start using the backs of older paintings, that I don’t like, to practice trees for awhile. Since most of my paintings have trees, they could only improve if I practiced trees more.

Hand Made

 

Hand Made

12” x 9” watercolor

Yesterday, I painted another still life. This time, I included several things from my studio that have been hand made. The straw doll is something I got at an art and craft fair in Redmond, WA, many years ago. The stand holding the brushes was hand made from a length of bamboo. It is from Japan. The brushes in the stand are handmade hake brushes. They are great for water washes. The wood block stamps are handmade in Indonesia, I think. I got them at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria, VA. The books are hand made. The two on the bottom are still empty. I made those. The standing book, that does not close because I have been filling it with small art, was a gift from the maker, Sally-Jo. It was fun to do a painting highlighting these special pieces.

I am feeling a need to clean out my studio space. The floor is dusty, as is every other flat surface. That is a Spokane condition. I also need to start weeding out all the stuff I don’t use anymore. Of course, the minute I get rid of it, I will need it. At least I can start with the dust. I don’t foresee a need for it.

Painting Clouds

 

Cloud Study I

9” x 12” watercolor

Photo for study

Taken in May, 2023

Five Mile Prairie

I love beautiful cloudy skies. We have been having wonderful formations lately, so I decided to learn to paint them. The trick, I was told, was to get soft and hard edges. Of course, you have to know where to place both. Next time, I will work on getting better grays. 

Today is Sisters, and I will be working on another still life. Stay tuned.

 Deception Pass Bridge

9” x 12” watercolor

Back in 2008, I painted this in pastels (see the blog post from 6/20/2008). I sold it a few years ago. I realized lately that I missed the painting. When I found a stack of photos I used to do several pastel paintings, I found the original I took on location. I decided to try it again in watercolor.

Deception Pass Bridge connects the mainland to Whidbey Island at the northern end of the island. It is a beautiful structure, and a well known destination in northwest Washington. 

There are many differences in my pastel and watercolor paintings. There is more detail in the trees in the pastel. The bridge is very similar, except that in the watercolor, I used a liquid mask to keep the color away from the structure. With pastels, I was able to put the lighter elements on top of the darker background. Learning to keep lighter places in a dark background is much more of a challenge with watercolor.

Painting memories

Still Life with Quilt

9”  x 12” watercolor

 In Sisters, my painting group, we are doing still lives for two weeks. I did this one last Friday. We were supposed to use items that had meaning to us. I chose the quilt background because it is one my sister made a gave to me. We bought the fabric at Uwajimia, and took classes at the In The Beginning quilting store near where I lived at the time. It brings back a good memory.

The vase in front is from Korea. It reminds me of living there when I was in my early twenties. It was a great adventure. I have also made collage pieces based on my time there.

The carved wooden statue of the fisherman is one of my treasured pieces from Japan. My mother brought me up to appreciate, and love, Asian art. She was able to visit Japan many years ago, and this was a piece from that trip.

The red vase looks like a red lacquered carved cinnabar piece. I am pretty sure it is plastic, but it looks real enough, and makes a very nice candle holder. It was a gift from a friend, from when we lived in Hawaii.

This was great fun, so I will do another one this week. I’m already auditioning pieces to be included.

This last painting was also done last week. It is based on a photo by Julie Pryne.

Richmond, England - the home of Ted Lasso

9” x 12” watercolor 

Switching to Watercolor

 

Diamond Head Light

2023

9” x 12” watercolor

I have flirted with watercolor for the past 30 years, but I only got serious about it a couple of years ago. Every Friday, for the past two plus years, I have been painting with a zoom group we call Sisters. We are two pairs of sisters, plus one, who live on both sides of the US. We started out exploring acrylic painting, but ended up going with watercolor. I love it.

My favorite things to paint are buildings, especially barns. I hope to stay current in my posts, with older ones thrown in for fun.

Since I have not posted for many years, I am including a few older paintings in this post, then try to start posting more regularly. I’m happy to be back.

Barn

2023

Based on photo by Carroll with permission

The Med

2023

North Shore

2023

Based on photo by Tom

Kansas City with Mary Buek

On May 18, I had the joy and privilege of touring the best parts of Kansas City with online art friend, Mary Buek. I have admired her photographs of the interesting places she goes on her photo walks, and when I learned I was going to be in Kansas City, I asked her if she would mind letting me tag along. She was very gracious and even picked me up at my hotel. At first, she gave me a driving tour of the Plaza area where we were staying. We drove by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and saw some very interesting statues of heads coming out of the ground. No photos, but I don't think I will soon forget them.

The first stop we made was in River Market. We stumbled on a great old brick storage building that was being torn down, brick by brick. The photo ops were fantastic. We scrambled over bricks and skirted mud puddles to take photos of rusty equipment, chain link fence in a pile, empty doorways, and much more. There was even a wrecking ball just waiting to have its photo taken

Our next stop was West Bottoms. Where we stopped was filled with old brick buildings. Some looked occupied, most not. There was wonderful graffiti everywhere. We didn't wander too far, but the small area where we wandered was filled with incredible eye-candy of my liking. I discovered a large drain pipe on the side of a building that had broken in a few places. It created a very cool waterfall. There were several puddles of water where the buildings and the graffiti reflected hopefully. Here is another photo from that area.

After leaving West Bottoms, I was hungry, so Mary took me to a great Mexican restaurant where I had avocado enchiladas. They were really great. I am going to make them at home, if I can. After lunch, we walked across some train tracks under a freeway to an old brewery. I fell in love with what I saw there. If it hadn't been getting late, I would have wanted to stay there longer, in spite of the drizzle. Here are a couple of photos from there.

Our last stop was a grain elevator. So cool. I had a fantastic day with Mary exploring the parts of Kansas City I wanted to see. One day, I hope she will come here and I can show her where I found the rusty car in the woods. I leave you with one final photo from the grain elevator. I have many more to process, but these are some of my favorites.