bridge to somewhere

Here are my two newest tiny (4 inches square) paintings. I am tempted to just do these tiny little paintings forever, this is really satisfying! They begin as pen/brush drawings on gessoed canvas in airbrush-consistency acrylic (I call it ink); when that is dry, I add tiny bits of color, transparent and opaque, until they are suddenly done!

These are views of the Aurora bridge west of Gas Works Park here in Seattle.

This one, West From Gas Works II, was originally drawn in white acrylic on black gesso:

West From Gas Works III was sketched in anthraquinone blue acrylic "ink" on white gesso:

welcome to the neighborhood!

Friend Frances and I conspired and found studio space in Wallingford, and moved in this week. She has since decided to resume looking further south, thereby avoiding a long, toxic commute, but I hope we will continue to collaborate materially and in spirit despite this distance -- as we have so far!
For me, this is the part of town that has everything -- industry, waterscape, neighborhood! I will try to make the most of it.
This is my first painting done in the new space. Acrylic on canvas, 8 x 8, from a photo taken at fishermen's terminal.

Also spent a little time at Gas Works Park ruminating. Here is yesterday's 4x6 lunchtime sketch of a tiny part of the view across Lake Union, in white ink and gouache:

farther along on the burke-gilman

so here is my best attempt at a photo of the new wet 12 x 16 oil on panel of the same scene sketched a few days ago. This has been an illuminating experience in many ways. First, I don't get tired of painting the same thing, plus it's a different puzzle to solve in different media; second, this process causes me to look at and see the scene again and then again; third, working in black and white helps me work out values. These are no-brainers to visual artists, but I relearn a lot of these every day as I clump towards enlightenment.

I am sure many of my friends on flickr will go on liking one of the sketches better than this painting; but this is a step closer to my own goal -- if only because I addictively struggle to bend this beloved medium to my will.

burke-gilman trail

looking at old photographs from the next-to-last studio days down on Lake Union (1998?) and found myself sketching one of them. Did a series of 3-1/2 sketches (on my flickr site) on black paper, using white ink, gouache, black ink. Here is the colorful one:

view from gas works

Here's a little sketch (4 x 4) of a piece of a photo looking east from Gas Works Park, sgraffito in oil on black-gessoed hardboard. I wanted to see if I could scrape out a line drawing from previously massed-in color. Don't know if it worked as such, but I sort of like it anyway!

ballard locks

Saturday we met up at the Hiram M. Chittenden locks. Fun, windy and cold out on the locks themselves! Here are a couple little sketches:
First, ink and gouache in my little Moleskine watercolor book, 3.25 x 5, looking southeast: Then a 5x7 oil sketch looking west at the railroad bridge, from the west end of the large lock:

blue star cafe

Today we met at the Blue Star Cafe, where some of the Seattle Plein Air painters will be showing work in July! The whole time, it snowed -- April Fools indeed! Frances and I stayed and sketched a while afterward. Here are our little idylls. Frances' wonderful sketch of our fellow diners is at the top -- many thanks to her for letting me share it! Clearly some of us are just not able to wait until 22nd WorldWide Sketchcrawl, coming up Saturday, April 11!

gas works park

Raining, windy, freezing! So naturally, 6 brave artists soldiered forth into the deluge. It was great to meet some new friends and reconnect with old ones! Here is my oil sketch, its progress truncated by the need to get warm and flexible again! Maybe a return trip to refine it will be in order soon. Yet I kind of like it as is, a picture of this day in my life!

launch point

Here is a quiet watercolor from a while back. North Lake Union/Gas Works Park area. My favorite neighborhood, mixed marine/industrial/residential!