blast from the past

Here is a very very old prismacolor portrait of my late beloved kitty. About 18 x 12, prismacolor on illustration board

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:

community space!

Friday my friend-the-longest (43 years!) Teresa and I went to Third Place Books to look and paint and drink iced tea.
Here is Teresa's painting of the table where the poems are made.

There was a gentleman working in this area, whom I sketched as if closer up.











Lots of people using the Commons there as their third place -- just as intended!

Then we moved on to the windows facing south. Teresa captured the tree-lined path along Bothell Way:

Here is her photo of me sketching the scene.












Thank you, Teresa! I'm so lucky you're my friend!

22nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl

What a great day in the cold and grey! Here are a few images from our crawl.

beautiful Tacoma

Wonderful trip yesterday, painting on the Ruston Point waterway with Frances. Wish every day could be like this: meditation time, grand companionship, sunshine, lost in painting!

Here's my first little (5 x 7) oil sketch of the day, from under the bridge!

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!

third place books

Here are my sketches from today's Seattle Plein Air meetup at Third Place Books. What a great place to watch people unobtrusively!

duck island

Hey, here's a little (9 x 12) plein air oil sketch from last summer!

shrub of flame

Okay, so here's today's daily effort! If you are reading this you must be my friends, so you can see this progression. You have to start at the bottom of today's post.
Here's the current permutation. I like it to look at, but we'll see if it stops there.

Next, the first stage in today's transformation of this painting in the studio:
First, the 6 x 8 plein air oil sketch from a couple months ago that never had quite enough value differentiation to make me happy. This is how it really looked though, a red bush and yellow trees in my neighborhood on a grey day:

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!

parking lot trees!

Here's a little (6 x 8) oil sketch I did sitting in the front seat of my car in a parking lot at Green Lake last fall, when the trees were still full of paint, I mean leaves.

waiting at the allegro

This is my favorite tiny sketch from waiting for others to arrive for the last worldwide sketchcrawl, January 10, 2009. Hapless stranger didn't know he'd end up here. Sort of like me!
So then I started playing around with it with colors. Fun!

higher and lighter

Pastel in wet on paper, about 26 x 18? It has been on loan for a while so I haven't seen it lately, revisiting it here!

winslow ferry

So yesterday I took the day to go see the Hopper show at SAM and check out the ferry to Bainbridge and the beach there. Here is my favorite sketch from the ferry.

freeway park

back to Freeway Park Monday for Seattle Plein Air meetup, but Suzanne and I missed each other. Here is my favorite sketch from the park. I began a little oil sketch but didn't get far before it began raining.

the life of wine

Painted this 8 x 6 oil sketch today for Monday Artday's movie quote challenge.

From Sideways:

Maya: No, I- I like to think about the life of wine.

Miles Raymond: Yeah.

Maya: How it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing; how the sun was shining; if it rained. I like to think about all the people who tended and picked the grapes. And if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I like how wine continues to evolve, like if I opened a bottle of wine today it would taste different than if I'd opened it on any other day, because a bottle of wine is actually alive. And it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks, like your '61. And then it begins its steady, inevitable decline.

spoon before breakfast

Here's today's small painting. Painted it this morning. Maybe I was hungry. 6 x 8, oil on canvas panel.

friday morning at green lake

Plein air sketch for today, oil, 8 x 10. What a way to start the day! It was cold but warmed up as the shadows receded.

visiting freeway park

My favorite couple sketches from today: a man on the bus to downtown, and a view of freeway park.