Grandson's first Christmas . . .

We got to enjoy Keaton's first Christmas. Amazing how much he had changed since Halloween . . .

Plein Air pastel included in Huffington Post reader's photos slide show!

I submitted a j-peg of a pastel I did plein air on Mount Rainier to Huffington Post's National Parks Reader's Photos . . . and there I am -- slide #35! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/25/huffpost-readers-favorite_n_263246.html?slidenumber=34#slide_image I just had to share my internet news website debut! :) I know it is not technically a photo of the park . . . but they published it along with 87 photos anyway!

Why I paint

Where Mountain Meets Sky: Muir Snowfield

pastel 12" x 18" on Fabriano Roma

This is one of my very favorite pastels, done from a photo one of the first trips to Mt. Rainier after I bought my first digital camera. I had also just recently discovered Fabriano Roma, a beautiful handmade paper with a slight laid finish and great tooth . . . a paper much like that used by Michelangelo. Muir Snowfield is a trudge of a hike, the first leg of any climb that follows the Camp Muir/Ingraham Glacier route to the summit. The Moon Rocks are to the lower right . . . a place where at the end of June 1995 I almost got blown off the mountain after my summit attempt.

The snowfield is vast, and later in the summer, treacherous. Every hundred feet of elevation gain was chore. But it also a place of stark, barren beauty. Ants, spiders, and even lady bugs crawled along with us up there. The immense summit stares down on long snaking lines of climbers hosted by Rainier Mountaineering, as well as those few of us in smaller groups, as if to dare us to continue. For many it is an oft repeated day hike . . . for me it was a feat never before attempted . . .

It was the sky, and below the serpentine spine of the ridge that falls below Camp Muir, that made this the scene that captured the spirit of climbing Rainier. Below is a colored pencil self-portrait, done from a photo taken by my guide, Steve Teufert, of Olympic Mountaineering, at the point where he and I turned around to decend . . . at Disappointment Cleaver:

My First Descent

21" x 17" colored pencil

He is growing faster than we can visit . . .

The kid is growing, cooing and laughing now . . . we must go to see him soon!

Outdoors again . . .

My latest plein air painting . . . pastel, about 6"x9" on Wallis mounted on museum board.

Away from the easel . . .

Stepping away from colorfully dusted fingertips and the world of creating art, on April 13, 2009 my first grandchild was born into our lives.  Welcome Keaton Lukas McKinley!  

It may be possible that an occasional baby portrait will be seen among the landscapes from here on out . . . 

Back to the easel . . .

This year the state is considering closing some of our state parks as the budget has been terribly impacted by the economy. Flaming Geyser is one of them. This is where we have wonderful access to the Green River . . . and where this image was inspired.

Shady Green

pastel 7" x 11" on Multimedia artboard