June 20 Workshop Demo

Great day out painting with my students today. The workshop went well and the weather actually improved, hour by hour. There was a plethora of subject matter from which to choose.

I did two more mini-demonstrations, but gave them to the students who said they needed them the most.

Summer Studio Roses

We have been having the BEST weather the past two weeks! Great for catching up on gardening and for outdoor painting, of course.

These are the roses that students may remember from our trip to Giverny at the end of our workshop in France. We stayed at a B&B which was a house and property formerly owned by Claude Monet. He gave it to his stepdaughter as a wedding present. The path in his painting "Advance of the Wedding Party" is now the road in front where we parked. The landscape architect who lived there during our visit had planted a beautiful rose to climb over the main gate. He gave me the name and I ordered these to plant here at the corner of my studio.

Whether you were there, or just want to share some photos of our painting adventures, click here, for a walk down memory lane.

See the summer workshops we have planned this year in the column to the right. Note the one at Lavender Hills Farm, where participants are invited to the studio afterwards.

Glass & Lilacs

15"x22"
Original Watercolor

Here is a section from one of my paintings of the lilacs that grow all along the edge of our deck. They're all "white" (I have a blue and white garden in the back.)

This combines our last few classes, painting lilacs and painting glass.

Lilacs Print

Lilacs from my print

The original is sold and all I have left is a print, but I trust this will give my students an example of painting these white flowers in watercolor.

It's all about the light.

A Slice of the Artist's Life

Study of lemon slice

Most of my painting time is taken up with teaching composition the last few weeks. Working out the compositions, shopping for fresh replacements of eggs, fruit, etc. ....and hauling everything to and from class....exhausting! Well worth the personal discoveries I see my students making, though.

This still-wet study is approximately life size of the actual lemon slice. I think, to explore the subtle color variations, you need enough room for your brush to make a color statement.

Fingernail sized fruit, flowers, vegetables, etc. fail to entertain.

PaWa Saturday

Well, today I went to the tulip fields to paint with my colleagues in Plein Air Painters of Washington. I saw some other painters out there, and I know we were supposed to meet at noon at Roozengarde, but the light was just what I wanted here at 11:00 am and I had to stay. I actually finished in about an hour.

So many bystanders stopped to chat, take photos and ask directions to Tulip Town that I didn't make it into Roozengarde until 12:45. There were so many tourists there, swarming the parking lot and grounds, that my $4 entry fee was wasted. I didn't recognize anyone in the dining tent so I just went home. Next time, I'll follow my own advice and wait to go on a week day to avoid the crowds.

The good thing is: I went sketch hunting and I caught a good one!

Through the storm

Went to the tulip (or should I say daffodil?) fields after class in Kirkland today......through two major squalls and quite a strong wind out on the flats. Got there about 2:48 pm.

I was looking forward to painting with my friends from PaWa, but I could barely keep my car door open in the wind. So I just went photo sketching and will use this for future studio painting. I'll try again tomorrow.

That's what happens sometimes when you go "sketch hunting".....sometimes you miss!

Grape Hyacinths

From the sketchbook

Looking out the studio window on a (finally!) sunny morning, I can see spring bulbs producing their blooms.

In the middle of the dirt, surrounded by cold air and weak sunshine, my plantings of 4 years ago persevere.

Here's the haiku I wrote to inspire the sketch:

Spring quotes the painter,
"When in doubt, paint purple."
Up come hyacinths!

Painting and Poetry

Music and poetry inspire my work. I write haiku poetry in my sketchbook while working out the ideas of my paintings. I lay no claim to producing anything notable in my poems, especially when you read the words of a master. Here is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it.

Spring is like a perhaps hand
by E. E. Cummings
III Spring is like a perhaps hand (which comes carefully out of Nowhere)arranging a window,into which people look(while people stare arranging and changing placing carefully there a strange thing and a known thing here)and changing everything carefully spring is like a perhaps Hand in a window (carefully to and fro moving New and Old things,while people stare carefully moving a perhaps fraction of flower here placing an inch of air there) and without breaking anything. (from the website Poets.Org)

Edward Estlin Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 14, 1894. He began writing poems as early as 1904 and studied Latin and Greek at the Cambridge Latin High School.
At the time of his death, September 3, 1962, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States, after Robert Frost.

Watercolor Demonstration

8x10 Watercolor Demonstration
$100

This is the demonstration of painting a watercolor from your own original plein air oil. (See previous posts for watercolor step by step process of painting still life and landscape on location.)

It was truly a pleasure to present my program to the members of NWWS. If you were there, thank you for coming. Comments are welcome.