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

Afterburn from the Outer Banks

Since the plein air workshop only lasted five days, and since we brought home over 800 digital photos from our trip, I have been working from photos . . .

Time flies at the easel . . .

In October I participated in my first plein air workshop, pastels with Jack Pardue. These are the works I completed during the five day workshop on the Outer Banks of North Carolina . . . and the final painting of a snowy woods was done on the only day it rained, and we worked indoors from photos.  

Final days of summer . . .

 . . . Spent along the Green River in Flaming Geyser State Park, 10 miles southeast of Auburn, WA.    This took me about 2-2.5 hours, is about 7" x 9", on mounted Fabriano Roma.

The Mini-Paint-Out at the Puyallup Fair . . .

Today was the day . . . I prepared my art, my pastels and my ideas and headed for the fairgrounds at 8:30 am.  After a long day of painting, interspersed with quick trips here and yonder for fair food favorites (elephant ears with lots of cinnamon sugar and hawaiian shave ice and onion burgers and fries . . . . taffy. . . . and a new piece of exquisite pottery . . . .

My still life "Ate Nine" sold and I created three more

 miniatures:

Big gains in small packages . . .

I finished my last three miniatures this week.  amazing what can be learned by limiting yourself  . . . in size of work, in selection of colors for palette, in meeting a deadline.

I kind of enjoy this almost-a-painting-a-day thing . . . .

Here they are, yet unnamed. . . .